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Title details for Happy City by Charles Montgomery - Available

Happy City

Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design

by Charles Montgomery
Patrick Lawlor
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available
After decades of unchecked sprawl, more people than ever are moving back to the city. Dense urban living has been prescribed as a panacea for the environmental and resource crises of our time. But is it better or worse for our happiness? Are subways, sidewalks, and tower dwelling an improvement on the car-dependence of sprawl?
Award-winning journalist Charles Montgomery finds answers to such questions at the intersection between urban design and the emerging science of happiness, and during an exhilarating journey through some of the world's most dynamic cities. He meets the visionary mayor who introduced a "sexy" lipstick-red bus to ease status anxiety in Bogotá; the architect who brought the lessons of medieval Tuscan hill towns to modern-day New York City; the activist who turned Paris's urban freeways into beaches; and an army of American suburbanites who have transformed their lives by hacking the design of their streets and neighborhoods.
Full of rich historical detail and new insights from psychologists and Montgomery's own urban experiments, Happy City is an essential tool for understanding and improving our own communities.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    December 8, 2015

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781494599348
      • File size: 364008 KB
      • Duration: 12:38:20

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Conventional wisdom has it that urban trees and bushes make for danger zones behind which the bad guys can hide. But the reality is that greenery actually reduces crime, increases oxytocin levels (the "bliss hormone"), and adds to a sense of human connectedness. That's just one of the myths dismantled in this informative audiobook, read by Patrick Lawlor with a friendly, transparent delivery. As the author globetrots from Bogota to Copenhagen to Amsterdam, Lawlor adds local color by providing accented voices, and we learn about surprising innovative urban experiments. For example, Paris was once considered too difficult for most citizens to manage by bicycle, but in less than a decade, the city's successful Vélib' bike system has resulted in more than 170 million two-wheeled journeys. Don't be fooled by the title, this isn't a bright-sided manifesto for city planners. It's a Freakonomics-style explanation about why we often make the wrong decisions about living spaces and how we can fix them. R.W.S. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      September 9, 2013
      Can cities make us better people? Is the suburban American Dream really a nightmare? In this lively and accessible book, journalist Montgomery (The Shark God) marshals decades of interdisciplinary research into an effective argument against what he calls the “dispersed city”—the modern city/suburb designed around the automobile. The result is a succession of arguments meant to debunk individualism and show how citizens thrive on contact with others. In Montgomery’s hands, urban design proves not only exciting, but integral to our future. He persuasively demonstrates that designing cities with social beings in mind can make them more pleasant places to live, and shows why suburbs are experiencing higher crime, as well as a significant happiness deficit. Furthermore, this passionate jeremiad argues that urban design often reinforces inequality, and Montgomery includes useful prescriptions for creating what he calls “the fair city,” as well as addressing issues like gentrification. For Montgomery, the city is a “happiness project” that exists in part to corral our conviviality and channel it productively. Though Montgomery’s argument may seem strange at first, the book will likely make you a believer. 68 b&w illus. Agent: Rebecca Gradinger, Fletcher & Co.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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