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A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for an Urban America Hardcover – May 30, 2013
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“Chakrabarti has written a wonderful book about the potential of America’s cities. He argues convincingly how the country would benefit economically and environmentally if the suburbs started to move back to the cities, and he offers specific policy suggestions to accomplish that objective. Read this book, and you’ll want to live in a city.” –Former US Senator Bill Bradley
In A Country of Cities, author Vishaan Chakrabarti argues that well-designed cities are the key to solving America's great national challenges: environmental degradation, unsustainable consumption, economic stagnation, rising public health costs and decreased social mobility. If we develop them wisely in the future, our cities can be the force leading us into a new era of progressive and prosperous stewardship of our nation. In compelling chapters, Chakrabarti brings us a wealth of information about cities, suburbs and exurbs, looking at how they developed across the 50 states and their roles in prosperity and globalization, sustainability and resilience, and heath and joy. Counter to what you might think, American cities today are growing faster than their suburban counterparts for the first time since the 1920s. If we can intelligently increase the density of our cities as they grow and build the transit systems, schools, parks and other infrastructure to support them, Chakrabarti shows us how both job opportunities and an improved, sustainable environment are truly within our means. In this call for an urban America, he illustrates his argument with numerous infographics illustrating provocative statistics on issues as disparate as rising childhood obesity rates, ever-lengthening automobile commutes and government subsidies that favor highways over mass transit. The book closes with an eloquent manifesto that rallies us to build “a Country of Cities,” to turn a country of highways, houses and hedges into a country of trains, towers and trees.Vishaan Chakrabarti is an architect, scholar and founder of PAU. PAU designs architecture that builds the physical, cultural, and economic networks of cities, with an emphasis on beauty, function and user experience. PAU simultaneously advances strategic urbanism projects in the form of master planning, tactical project advice and advocacy.
- Print length252 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherMetropolis Books
- Publication dateMay 30, 2013
- Dimensions6.5 x 1 x 9.5 inches
- ISBN-101935202170
- ISBN-13978-1935202172
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Editorial Reviews
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Architect, planner, and one-time developer Vishaan Chakrabarti asks us to imagine a United States in which government invests in high-speed trains linking high-density cities and does not subsidize suburban sprawl. He admits this sounds a bit naive in an era of political paralysis and at a time when the middle class and wealthy - no matter their political affiliation - enjoy perks like the mortgage- interest deduction that help perpetuate the status quo. But he builds his argument with straightforward prose and lots of easy-to-read charts and graphs. -- Clifford A. Pearson ― Architectural Record
The author, a partner at SHOP Architects in New York, lays out his case for why the entire United States must embrace high-density urbanization (defined as 10 or more dwellings per hectare) as the only feasible way to resuscitate the economy and overall public wellness. He pits his version of the American Dream (living in a city with access to well-designed mixed-income housing, mass transit and an array of services) against what he calls the American Scheme (owning a big suburban house, and driving your gas-guzzling SUV on the highway to get home to it every day). This impassioned manifesto, with a foreword by Norman Foster, is complemented by wondeful drawings from his colleagues at SHOP, including one that shows the entire world population fitting into the state of Texas to illustrate that, yes, we can and should use our land resources more wisely. -- Elizabeth Pagliacolo ― Azure
In the world of urbanism and planning, there’s been a barrage of recent books on similar themes….But Mr. Chakrabarti has written maybe the most useful one, a polemic in favour of city living that makes the stakes clear. -- Alex Bozikovic ― Toronto Globe & Mail
Product details
- Publisher : Metropolis Books; 6.1.2013 edition (May 30, 2013)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 252 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1935202170
- ISBN-13 : 978-1935202172
- Item Weight : 2.16 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.5 x 1 x 9.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #814,737 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #314 in City Planning & Urban Development
- #408 in Urban Planning and Development
- #483 in Public Affairs & Administration (Books)
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Customers find the book fantastic for its infographics and diagrams that distill complex tax structures into easy to grasp issues of sustainability. They also say the author does an excellent job illustrating complex arguments so they're easy to read and grasp.
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Customers find the book fantastic, well-researched, and easy to read. They also say it's helpful in understanding the development of cities, subsidies, and compelling arguments about why Americans should be. Readers also say the book is a great resource and motivational guide for city planning.
"...The authors offers a compelling argument about why we as Americans should be advocating for denser urban development, while outlining his thoughts..." Read more
"This book is easy to read, well written and well researched...." Read more
"This is a fantastic book for it's infographics and diagrams which distill complex tax structures into understandable terms...." Read more
"...makes his point about the larger issues of sustainability and backs it up with science. Academic references abound...." Read more
Customers find the book's visuals excellent, beautifully illustrated, and easy to grasp. They also say the book is easy to read, well-written, and well researched, and a great read for anyone wishing to learn more about the larger issues.
"This is a tremendously thoughtful and well researched book...." Read more
"This book is easy to read, well written and well researched...." Read more
"...Regardless it is a great read for anyone wishing to learn more about the urbanism realm and its possibilities." Read more
"...Beautifully illustrated he makes his point about the larger issues of sustainability and backs it up with science. Academic references abound...." Read more
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Unfortunately, the early chapters of this book include an enormous amount of sloppiness, both as to facts and as to reasoning. To name a few examples:
*Chakrabarti repeats the old chestnut that streetcars were ruined by a conspiracy of corporations who bought up streetcar lines and then substituted buses for streetcars. This theory has been repeatedly debunked; had he bothered to spend a few minutes on Google he would have learned this.
*To support his claim that cities are more productive, he asserts that 3% of United States land is responsible for 85% of gross domestic product. But his own charts show that this 3% includes not only compact cities but car-dependent suburbs of those cities, thus making this fact irrelevant to his argument.
*He claims that "outsourcing" and the decline of the U.S. educational system were responsible for the decline of economic growth in the 1970s. Is he unaware that energy prices exploded in the 1970s? And he is aware that college education actually became far more common in the 1960s and 1970s? At best, he is presenting a highly unorthodox assertion as if it was settled fact.
*He claims that American prosperity has "declined steadily" since the 1970s when one of his own charts showed that median incomes increased between 1970 and 2000 (though not in the last decade) (p. 190).
I cheerfully concede that all of these claims are irrelevant (or nearly so) to his main argument. But if the reader cannot trust Chakrabarti's use of facts on irrelevant issues, how can you trust his use of charts and facts on the issues that really matter to his claim (such as the environmental virtues of more compact development)?
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