[PDF] The Human City: Urbanism for the Rest of Us by Joel Kotkin in Arts-Photography

Review

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. City Planning with a Generous HeartBy JaneyVeeI 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. Im very grateful to Joel Kotkin for writing this book.13 of 14 people found the following review helpful. There is nothing wrong with pragmatic housingBy Jim EI 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 Citys 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!8 of 9 people found the following review helpful. ... of this book seems to be that cities are bad and suburbs are goodBy Michael LewynThe general point of this book seems to be that cities are bad and suburbs are good. Kotkins most widely publicized argument is that suburbia will protect us from plunging birthrates. However. Kotkin writes that (a) affluent nations are suburbanizing and (b) birthrates throughout the world (not just in affluent nations but even in not-so-affluent places like Iran and Morocco) have been plunging. If both (a) and (b) are true. obviously suburbanization has not prevented declining birthrates.Kotkin is right about one thing: families are being priced out of our most affluent cities. He therefore argues that children simply dont belong in cities. But it seems to me that one could just as easily argue that we should allow more urban housing to reduce housing costs. and thus make city living more affordable for those who want it.