Toward the Livable City (The World As Home) [Paperback]

Emilie Buchwald (Editor)

Book Description

Series: The World As Home | Publication Date: November 26, 2003

Inspiring and accessible, Toward the Livable City combines firsthand accounts of the attractions –– and distractions –– of urban life to show how to create successful cities. For city dwellers and commuters, urban planners and architects, neighborhood groups and activists, this book outlines specific strategies for change. Fifteen leading thinkers including James Howard Kunstler, Jane Holtz Kay, Tony Hiss, Bill McKibben, and Jay Walljasper explore smart growth, riverfront redevelopment, urban farming, pedestrian rights, traffic, opportunity-based housing, and suburban vs. city living. They tell how the mayor of Curitiba, Brazil, built dedicated busways and closed downtown streets to cars; how urban agriculture in vacant lots and backyards in Boston produces 10,000 pounds of vegetables each season; and how Minneapolis successfully redeveloped its riverfront, among other shining examples. Photographs are featured.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This collection of essays is a must-read for all those interested in civility and cities." -- Spirituality & Health, February 2004

"This is a stimulating and intelligent collection, one that ranges from big policy questions to intensely personal reflections." -- New Urban News, June, 2004

"Toward the Livable City delivers what its title implies... Buchwald's book communicates hope, not despair." -- The Common Review, Spring 2004

"a collection of thoughtful - and thought-provoking - essays." -- City Pages, February 11, 2004

Buchwald's essayists build a livable city of their own with lively, diverse reflections that mix feet-on-the-ground with a little pie-in-the-sky. -- Sojourner's Magazine, Apr-May, 2004

These writers gently nudge us toward compact neighborhoods where kids can play and grown-ups can stroll to the store. -- High Country News, April 12, 2004

This is an engrossing book worth the time of anyone who cares about their environment. -- Netsurfer Books, may 19, 2004

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Milkweed Editions; 1 edition (November 26, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1571312714
• ISBN-13: 978-1571312716
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #379,557 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A better place to live, May 1, 2004

By 

Charles M. Nobles (Tulsa, OK United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Toward the Livable City (The World As Home) (Paperback)

My home town is developing an Arkansas River Master Plan in an effort to merge the river and city into some type of livable arrangement that will be both sensitive to the environment and the needs of residents along the river as well as through out the community. Thus, I was most interested in the theme of this book; that being urban planning.
The book is a series of seventeen essays by a panel of respected contributors that discusses innovative proposals and doable strategies for dealing with such intense urban issues as sustainable growth, traffic management, safe neighborhoods and riverfront redevelopment in a non-technical manner that tends to fill in the gaps between those that study such matters and those that actually live them. For example, in "City Places, Sacred Places," Terrell Dixon urges the reader to consider the notion that an urban nature walk is not an oxymoron and indeed is vital to American cities. The essay titled "The Region, the True City," by Myron Orfield argues the city and suburbs are intertwined and the old fashioned idea of working together is, after all, the best policy. Two essays, "Reinventing A Vibrant Riverfront," by Judith A.Martin and "The Empty Harbor and the Dilemma of Waterfront Development," by Phillip Lopate deal with water development issues in Minneapolis and New York respectively and will be of particular interest to all those remotely interested in planning for any type of River development.
In addition to the thought provoking essays there is a helpful reading list, a listing of Public Interest Organizations complete with websites and a comprehensive index.
This is a must have book for anyone interested in the concept of a truly livable city regardless of their level of expertise or involvement. The contributors manage to seriously discuss the possibilities of a livable city without succumbing to the usual tendency of discussing eye-glazing issues like tax policy, arcane zoning matters and other issues traditionally favored by city builders, planners and other professionals. The book will appeal both to the professional and layman alike and will help bring the readr up to speed on the latest proposals, ideas and suggestions to make our cities and yes, even our rivers, a better place to live.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Respectable Opinion, September 21, 2008

By 

Joshua Clements (Madison, WI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Toward the Livable City (The World As Home) (Paperback)

Toward the Livable City contains short stories and narratives by journalists, planners, and writers describing their experiences in their favorite cities - explaining both simple and subtle details that make each place great. Not the best book on planning, but does describe some qualitative aspects outlined by different writings (such as Portland, Cambridge Mass., etc).

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars good but uneven, October 19, 2007

By 

ChefBum "chefbum" (Fremont,, CA United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Toward the Livable City (The World As Home) (Paperback)

I bought this book because I have been commuting a sizeable distance every day from a major city (San Francisco) to a more suburban city in the east bay area. Over that time, I have been developing a vested interest in urban planning, mass transportation, and a number of quality-of-life issues.

"Toward the Livable City" is an anthology of a number of short essays coming from a variety of perspectives on urban living. There's even a series of comic strips- Roadkill Bill, which is not only entertaining, but rings with a lot of truth in addressing the issues and problems with commuting by that dominant form of transportation, the automobile.

But I give this book only three stars because several of the stories, while heartfelt, seemed very out of place in a compilation that deals with very concrete, objective subject matter. In particular, Lynda Morgenroth's "Divorcing the City" is a depiction of her struggles and move from the urban Cambridge, MA area to a quieter, outlying suburb that takes an awful lot of words to point out the obvious: that many of us are torn between the stimulus of living in the city and the peace, quiet, and comfort of the suburbs. The main feeling I got out of her story is that she may be one of those borderline hypochondriac, high maintenance, hypersensitive individuals with so much time on their hands that they have nothing better to do than to obsess over their surroundings.

Other stories fare better, though they are only small slices of the totality of urban living: Kristin Brennan's "Food for the City, From the City" and Terrell Dixon's "City Places, Sacred Places", which deal with urban vegetable gardens and the community, and observing nature in an urban setting, respectively.

The real meat of this book-- and by far the more interesting parts of the book-- comes from the more dispassionate essays that deal directly with development and planning issues. In particular, Philip Lopate's "The Empty Harbor" and Judith Martin's "Reinventing a Vibrant Waterfront" can describe any number of the waterfronts of major cities across the country. It was enlightening to find out the historical and logistic reasons why the waterfront areas are often the last to be developed and utilized to their full potential.

James Kunstler's "Cities of the Future in the Long Emergency" is also an eye-opening work and is remarkably prescient about the inherent problems with suburban sprawl and commuting by car. In fact, a number of these stories reflect and predate the current issues we as a country are facing in terms of global warming, energy consumption, and dependence on foreign oil.

It is heartening to realize that it is possible to reconcile urban living with smart growth, minimal per-capita environmental impact, and even emotional and physical health. In fact, these two things often go hand in hand. Word of caution: overall, this book has a definite uber-liberal slant on urban planning and lifestyle issues-- I have to CRINGE every time I hear a liberal, white, urban professional refer to a favorite restaurant, cafe, or bookstore as "funky". But a number of the essays are worth reading for their intelligent insights into the issues that affect our way of life in major cities.