How Cities Work : Suburbs, Sprawl, and the Roads Not Taken
by Alex Marshall
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Do cities work anymore? How did they get to be such sprawling conglomerations of lookalike subdivisions, megafreeways, and "big box" superstores surrounded by acres of parking lots? And why, most of all, don't they feel like real communities? These are the questions that Alex Marshall tackles in this hard-hitting, highly readable look at what makes cities work. Marshall argues that urban life has broken down because of our basic ignorance of the real forces that shape cities-transportation show more systems, industry and business, and political decision making. He explores how these forces have built four very different urban environments-the decentralized sprawl of California's Silicon Valley, the crowded streets of New York City's Jackson Heights neighborhood, the controlled growth of Portland, Oregon, and the stage-set facades of Disney's planned community, Celebration, Florida. To build better cities, Marshall asserts, we must understand and intelligently direct the forces that shape them. Without prescribing any one solution, he defines the key issues facing all concerned citizens who are trying to control urban sprawl and build real communities. His timely book will be important reading for a wide public and professional audience. show lessTags
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A great companion to Jane Jacobs' classic The Death and Life of Great American Cities.
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3 Works 286 Members
A journalist, writer, and former Loeb Fellow at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, Alex Marshall is the author of How Cities Work: Suburbs, Sprawl, and the Roads Not Taken and Beneath the Metropolis: The Secret Lives of Cities. He is Senior Fellow at the Regional Plan Association in New York. His work has appeared in the New York show more Times Magazine, Bloomberg News, Metropolis, Planning, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, Slate, Salon, Architecture, Revue Urbanisme, and many other publications. show less
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Classifications
- Genres
- Sociology, Nonfiction, General Nonfiction, Politics and Government
- DDC/MDS
- 307.76 — Society, Government, and Culture Social sciences, sociology & anthropology Communities Specific kinds of communities Urban communities
- LCC
- HT166 .M259 — Social sciences Communities. Classes. Races Communities. Classes. Races Urban groups. The city. Urban sociology City planning
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 124
- Popularity
- 262,172
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.95)
- Languages
- English, French
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 5
- ASINs
- 1
