The Human City: Urbanism for the Rest of Us

I greatly appreciate Joel Kotkin book. I am citizen who volunteers to serve on the El Paso County Planning Commission. The City of Colorado Springs constitutes some 70% of the urbanized population in the County. I have been intuitively ambivalent about efforts to increase urban population densities. Many professional planners treat increased urban density as if it is a modern "Holy Grail". My wife and I live in a suburban setting, in one of 126 detached townhomes inside a gated community. I prefer not to maintain a yard and we enjoy the freedom to travel. Transportation is good and.I can travel to the City's relatively small core in 15 to 20 minutes. All 4 of our adult children all live in a suburban setting with good sized yards and 2-car garages. It is a great place to raise children. Some people want to live in a higher density apartment or townhome. They like this life style. Joel used a heavily data-driven narrative to both validate my residential living choice and to help me to understand why others will choose something different. Joel insists that housing must work for the resident, not some planner or governmental official. Joel also exposes much commonly accepted thinking as being unsupported by the data. This a good read for anyone interested in understanding the urban, suburban, and exurban dynamics. I recommend it very highly!

I live in a small city in the Northern Rockies. Anti-family/ anti-single-family-homes/ anti-middle class/ cars-are-evil urban planners are currently in control. This book is a welcome counter-argument. Joel Kotkin cogently reaffirms the obvious: the purpose of a city (and, I would argue, of a whole society) is to preserve natural resources while constructing a human-built environment that enables individuals to live flourishing lives and promotes healthy family life. Like our generous Founders, we should show intentional concern for "our posterity."He points out that, through a lifetime, each individual and family passes through life stages. As we change, the places we call "home" are likely to change as well....from parental home, to college dorm, to shared apartment, to childless couple condo, to a detached house with a yard, to an empty nest, to an assisted living facility. Truly inclusive city planning needs to be open to all sorts of residential preferences if people are to live and flourish in urban environments. I'm very grateful to Joel Kotkin for writing this book.

A bit long and dry in presentation and long read. However, the discussion / review on the apparent impact cities have on people was interesting as was the identification that trendy city planning is not delivering what people really want in housing. The world wide same trends and same problems highlights the experts are floundering around without acceptable solutions. A good contribution to the cities for families or humans discussion. Thank you.

If you have an interest in how we should manage our growth and development then you should read this book. There are great insights on what makes a city livable for people of all income levels. I have friends and family who are not interested in the detail and I ask them to read the final chapter.

Interesting examination of how and why people live in groups. Reading it reward your time and perhaps change your view of cities, why they exist, and where we're going.

A must-read to understand cities in America.

Awful rant without any connection to real world. I was expecting to read a book that actually cared about producing better understanding of topics around human cities and instead got a crank.

This book surprised me. New Urbanism is well known for its fury and hostility for the suburbs; this book makes a reasoned case for keeping different ways of living available so people can choose. Along the way he addresses the environmental harms caused by suburbs and the dystopian streetscapes of the suburbs and the depressing isolation of the suburbs: disproving all three assertions.Progressives pushing high density living arrangements are working against the preferences of 75% of the market. (155)Urbanism needs to embrace choices for people at every stage of life. (170)GREAT bibliography and index.

Great thong for my wife who has foot problems.