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Walkable City
- How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time
- Narrated by: Jeff Speck
- Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins
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Publisher's summary
Jeff Speck has dedicated his career to determining what makes cities thrive. And he has boiled it down to one key factor: walkability. The very idea of a modern metropolis evokes visions of bustling sidewalks, vital mass transit, and a vibrant, pedestrian-friendly urban core. But in the typical American city, the car is still king, and downtown is a place that’s easy to drive to but often not worth arriving at.
Making walkability happen is relatively easy and cheap; seeing exactly what needs to be done is the trick. In this essential new book, Speck reveals the invisible workings of the city, how simple decisions have cascading effects, and how we can all make the right choices for our communities.
Bursting with sharp observations and real-world examples, giving key insight into what urban planners actually do and how places can and do change, Walkable City lays out a practical, necessary, and eminently achievable vision of how to make our normal American cities great again.
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This first full-scale history of the development of the American suburb examines how "the good life" in America came to be equated with the a home of one's own surrounded by a grassy yard and located far from the urban workplace. Integrating social history with economic and architectural analysis, and taking into account such factors as the availability of cheap land, inexpensive building methods, and rapid transportation, Kenneth Jackson chronicles the phenomenal growth of the American suburb from the middle of the 19th century to the present day.
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There is so much to think about here.
- By Richard McKown on 06-25-23
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How to Kill a City
- Gentrification, Inequality, and the Fight for the Neighborhood
- By: Peter Moskowitz
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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The term gentrification has become a buzzword to describe the changes in urban neighborhoods across the country, but we don't realize just how threatening it is. It means more than the arrival of trendy shops, much-maligned hipsters, and expensive lattes. The very future of American cities as vibrant, equitable spaces hangs in the balance. How to Kill a City takes listeners from the kitchen tables of hurting families who can no longer afford their homes to the corporate boardrooms and political backrooms where destructive housing policies are devised.
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Unproductive criticism.
- By Aaron Rogers on 06-01-18
By: Peter Moskowitz
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Divided Highways
- Building the Interstate Highways, Transforming American Life
- By: Tom Lewis
- Narrated by: Jim D. Johnston
- Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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In Divided Highways, Tom Lewis offers an encompassing account of highway development in the United States. In the early twentieth century Congress created the Bureau of Public Roads to improve roads and the lives of rural Americans. The Bureau was the forerunner of the Interstate Highway System of 1956, which promoted a technocratic approach to modern road building sometimes at the expense of individual lives, regional characteristics, and the landscape.
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Lots of interesting facts. Poor narration
- By Richard Joyce on 06-01-21
By: Tom Lewis
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A Brief History of Motion
- From the Wheel, to the Car, to What Comes Next
- By: Tom Standage
- Narrated by: Liam Gerrard
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Tom Standage's fleet-footed and surprising global histories have delighted fans and sold hundreds of thousands of copies. Now, he returns with a provocative account of an overlooked form of technology - personal transportation - and explores how it has shaped societies and cultures over millennia. Beginning around 3,500 BCE with the wheel - a device that didn't catch on until a couple thousand years after its invention - Standage zips through the eras of horsepower, trains, and bicycles, revealing how each successive mode of transit embedded itself in the world we live in.
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Great listen
- By CKerb on 11-09-21
By: Tom Standage
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Sun, Sin, Suburbia
- The History of Modern Las Vegas Revised and Expanded
- By: Geoff Schumacher
- Narrated by: Douglas R. Pratt
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Las Vegas is gambling's mecca - Sin City the Entertainment Capital of the World with 40 million visitors a year. But that's just part of the story. This carefully documented history tracks the rise of Las Vegas from its vital role in World War II, of the Rat Pack era of the 50s, the explosive growth of the 90s, and it's colossal collapse in the post 2008 real-estate crash. It offers a history of the iconic Strip, but also profiles the neighborhoods where over 2 million people live.
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Good History of Vegas - old, modern and mundane
- By Amazon Customer on 06-13-14
By: Geoff Schumacher
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The 99% Invisible City
- A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design
- By: Kurt Kohlstedt, Roman Mars
- Narrated by: Roman Mars
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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99% Invisible is a big-ideas podcast about small-seeming things, revealing stories baked into the buildings we inhabit, the streets we drive, and the sidewalks we traverse. The show celebrates design and architecture in all of its functional glory and accidental absurdity, with intriguing tales of both designers and the people impacted by their designs.
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The 99% Invisible City
- By Louise Schraa on 01-09-21
By: Kurt Kohlstedt, and others
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Getting Green Done
- Hard Truths From the Frontlines of Sustainability Revolution
- By: Auden Schendler
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Soccer moms drive Priuses. Sport utility vehicles are going hybrid. Families are using hemp shopping bags. More and more companies are developing "green" buildings. What's more, the business consultants say going green is easy and profitable. In reality, though, many green-leaning businesses, families, and governments are still fiddling with the small stuff while the planet burns. Why?
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Green's Dirty Little Secrets
- By Martin on 07-10-09
By: Auden Schendler
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The Great Reset
- How New Ways of Living and Working Drive Post-Crash Prosperity
- By: Richard Florida
- Narrated by: Eric Conger
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
We tend to view prolonged economic downturns, such as the Great Depression of the 1930s and the Long Depression of the late 19th century, in terms of the crisis and pain they cause. But history teaches us that these great crises also represent opportunities to remake our economy and society and to generate whole new eras of economic growth and prosperity.
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glorification of City Life
- By Ryan Riggs on 11-25-20
By: Richard Florida
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Americans Against the City
- Anti-Urbanism in the Twentieth Century
- By: Steven Conn
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 16 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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An aversion to urban density and all that it contributes to urban life, and a perception that the city was the place where "big government" first took root in America fostered what historian Steven Conn terms the "anti-urban impulse." In this provocative and sweeping audiobook, Conn explores the anti-urban impulse across the 20th century, examining how the ideas born of it have shaped both the places in which Americans live and work, and the anti-government politics so strong today.
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Excellent book
- By M. M. Conroy on 09-19-20
By: Steven Conn
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The Well-Tempered City
- What Modern Science, Ancient Civilizations, and Human Nature Teach Us About the Future of Urban Life
- By: Jonathan F. P. Rose
- Narrated by: Barry Abrams
- Length: 14 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Cities are birthplaces of civilization; centers of culture, trade, and progress; cauldrons of opportunity - and the home of 80 percent of the world's population by 2050. As the 21st century progresses, metropolitan areas will bear the brunt of global megatrends such as climate change, natural resource depletion, population growth, income inequality, mass migrations, and education and health disparities, among many others.
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The best way to save the future is to look at the past
- By Kate on 10-01-22
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Excellent compendium for pro and enthusiast alike
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Great book-terrible narrator
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Thirty years after its publication, The Death and Life of Great American Cities was described by The New York Times as "perhaps the most influential single work in the history of town planning....[It] can also be seen in a much larger context. It is first of all a work of literature; the descriptions of street life as a kind of ballet and the bitingly satiric account of traditional planning theory can still be read for pleasure even by those who long ago absorbed and appropriated the book's arguments."
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Fantastic text, dull on audio
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Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Build American Prosperity is a book of forward-thinking ideas that breaks with modern wisdom to present a new vision of urban development in the United States. Presenting the foundational ideas of the Strong Towns movement he cofounded, Charles Marohn explains why cities of all sizes continue to struggle to meet their basic needs, and reveals the new paradigm that can solve this longstanding problem.
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Where are the peer-reviewed sources and studies?
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Arbitrary Lines
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The arbitrary lines of zoning maps across the country have come to dictate where Americans may live and work, forcing cities into a pattern of growth that is segregated and sprawling. The good news is that reform is in the air, with states across the country critically reevaluating zoning. In cities as diverse as Minneapolis, Fayetteville, and Hartford, the key pillars of zoning are under fire, with apartment bans being scrapped, minimum lot sizes dropping, and off-street parking requirements disappearing altogether.
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Everything that wrong with America can be found here
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Excellent compendium for pro and enthusiast alike
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Happy City
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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 improvements on the car dependence of sprawl?
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Great book-terrible narrator
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Streetfight
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Is road design interesting now?
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Thirty years after its publication, The Death and Life of Great American Cities was described by The New York Times as "perhaps the most influential single work in the history of town planning....[It] can also be seen in a much larger context. It is first of all a work of literature; the descriptions of street life as a kind of ballet and the bitingly satiric account of traditional planning theory can still be read for pleasure even by those who long ago absorbed and appropriated the book's arguments."
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Fantastic text, dull on audio
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Strong Towns
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Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Build American Prosperity is a book of forward-thinking ideas that breaks with modern wisdom to present a new vision of urban development in the United States. Presenting the foundational ideas of the Strong Towns movement he cofounded, Charles Marohn explains why cities of all sizes continue to struggle to meet their basic needs, and reveals the new paradigm that can solve this longstanding problem.
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Where are the peer-reviewed sources and studies?
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Everything that wrong with America can be found here
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Confessions of a Recovering Engineer
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In Confessions of a Recovering Engineer, renowned speaker and author of Strong Towns Charles L. Marohn, Jr., delivers an accessible and engaging exploration of America's transportation system, laying bare the reasons why it no longer works as it once did, and how to modernize transportation to better serve local communities.
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Well Worth Your Time To Read or Listen To!
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The 99% Invisible City
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The 99% Invisible City
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In this no-holds-barred treatise, Donald Shoup argues that free parking has contributed to auto dependence, rapid urban sprawl, extravagant energy use, and a host of other problems. Planners mandate free parking to alleviate congestion but end up distorting transportation choices, debasing urban design, damaging the economy, and degrading the environment. Ubiquitous free parking helps explain why our cities sprawl on a scale fit more for cars than for people. But it doesn't have to be this way.
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A Great Listen
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Palaces for the People
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In Palaces for the People, Eric Klinenberg suggests a way forward. He believes that the future of democratic societies rests not simply on shared values but on shared spaces: the libraries, synagogues, and parks where crucial, sometimes life-saving connections, are formed. These are places where people gather, making friends across group lines and strengthening the entire community. Klinenberg calls this the “social infrastructure”: When it is strong, neighborhoods flourish; when it is neglected, as it has been in recent years, families and individuals must fend for themselves.
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Okayyy
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Parking, quite literally, has a death grip on America: each year a handful of Americans are tragically killed by their fellow citizens over parking spots. But even when we don’t resort to violence, we routinely do ridiculous things for parking, contorting our professional, social, and financial lives to get a spot. Indeed, in the century since the advent of the car, we have deformed—and in some cases demolished—our homes and our cities in a Sisyphean quest for cheap and convenient car storage.
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The term gentrification has become a buzzword to describe the changes in urban neighborhoods across the country, but we don't realize just how threatening it is. It means more than the arrival of trendy shops, much-maligned hipsters, and expensive lattes. The very future of American cities as vibrant, equitable spaces hangs in the balance. How to Kill a City takes listeners from the kitchen tables of hurting families who can no longer afford their homes to the corporate boardrooms and political backrooms where destructive housing policies are devised.
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Unproductive criticism.
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Carmageddon
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The automobile was one of the most miraculous inventions of the 20th century. It promised freedom, style, and utility. But sometimes, rather than improving our lives technology just makes everything worse. Over the past century cars have filled the air with toxic pollutants and fueled climate change. Cars have stolen public space and made our cities uglier, dirtier, less useful, and more unequal. Cars have caused tens of millions of deaths and injuries. They have wasted our time and our money.
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Quick Paced, mindful of biases
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As the world's foremost cycling nation, the Netherlands is the only country where the number of bikes exceeds the number of people, primarily because the Dutch have built a cycling culture accessible to everyone, regardless of age, ability, or economic means. Building the Cycling City examines the triumphs and challenges of the Dutch while also presenting stories of North American cities already implementing lessons from across the Atlantic.
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Simply Fantastic!
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A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction
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Overall
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You can use this book to design a house for yourself with your family; you can use it to work with your neighbors to improve your town and neighborhood; you can use it to design an office, a workshop, or a public building. And you can use it to guide you in the actual process of construction.
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Comprehensive overview of building for living.
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In this book, Jane Jacobs, building on the work of her debut, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, investigates the delicate way cities balance the interplay between the domestic production of goods and the ever-changing tide of imports. Using case studies of developing cities in the ancient, pre-agricultural world, and contemporary cities on the decline, like the financially irresponsible New York City of the mid-sixties, Jacobs identifies the main drivers of urban prosperity and growth, often via counterintuitive and revelatory lessons.
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Superb…and prescient!
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Homelessness Is a Housing Problem
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In Homelessness Is a Housing Problem, Gregg Colburn and Clayton Page Aldern seek to explain the substantial regional variation in rates of homelessness in cities across the United States. In a departure from many analytical approaches, Colburn and Aldern shift their focus from the individual experiencing homelessness to the metropolitan area. Using accessible statistical analysis, they test a range of conventional beliefs about what drives the prevalence of homelessness in a given city and find that none explain the regional variation observed across the country.
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NO PDF! NO CHARTS!
- By P. Dean on 06-02-23
By: Gregg Colburn, and others
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Genius of Place
- The Life of Frederick Law Olmsted
- By: Justin Martin
- Narrated by: Richard Ferrone
- Length: 18 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Frederick Law Olmsted is arguably the most important historical figure that the average American knows the least about. Best remembered for his landscape architecture, from New York's Central Park to Boston's Emerald Necklace to Stanford University's campus, Olmsted was also an influential journalist, early voice for the environment, and abolitionist credited with helping dissuade England from joining the South in the Civil War. This momentous career was shadowed by a tragic personal life, also fully portrayed here.
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Ponderous yet incomplete
- By John F. Caffrey on 01-23-19
By: Justin Martin
What listeners say about Walkable City
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Andrew Nicks
- 05-12-18
Interesting topic and thoughtful insight, subpar recording.
I liked this book a lot. The topics discussed were laid out neatly and organized and discussed well. Speck offers ten points for fixing American cities and then goes into more detail for each point. The ideas presented were easy to follow along with and offered insight to the design flaws that plague many American cities.
However, throughout this recording you could occasionally hear Speck turn his pages, often you would hear a different recording that was used for correcting previous recordings (different volume and intonation). I understand corrections need to be made, but I have never listened to an audiobook with more corrected audio than this one.
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28 people found this helpful
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Performance
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Story
- Melissa
- 10-04-16
Biased author?
I enjoyed this book and found the information very interesting. However, many points made by the author, though possible or probable, were defended passionately yet sometimes lacking unmistakable evidence. Many arguments had several variables that could not strongly defend its theories. That said, I believe a handful of the theories were valid and at least should be considered for city planners.
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17 people found this helpful
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Performance
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- Steve
- 04-18-17
Good information
What did you like best about Walkable City? What did you like least?
There is a lot of good information about how to make cities more walkable. The recommendations are more than can be done by a given city in most cases, and the author explains this well in the final chapter of the book.
What three words best describe Jeff Speck’s performance?
a bit dull
Any additional comments?
I learned about this book via a Jeff Speck talk on TED. He is a much, much better live speaker than a book reader. I was disappointed in his reading, compared to what I saw in his TED talks.
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16 people found this helpful
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Story
- L
- 07-11-17
Change the way you think about your environment
Between SUBURBAN NATION and this book, your eyes will be opened and then you'll find yourself thinking, "of course, it makes sense!"
how we can reimagine our urban and suburban landscapes to be more pleasing, reduce crime, lower stress, reduce obesity, increase interactions and community, and help local business.
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12 people found this helpful
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Kurtis
- 01-03-16
Horrible...
What would have made Walkable City better?
Mr. Speck opens the book with the statement that is will not be the book of the year, and he did not fail to live up to this promise. This book, and Speck's philosophies, are plainly only for the benefit of college educated, wealthy people. From his mocking of a man though a stereotypical impression of gay man to suggesting that the only type of zoning that is of value is inclusionary zoning (a pc way to say red lining) because Aspen needs ditch diggers too Speck shows that he is part of an elitist part of society that cares little for the people and things outside of his little world. Speck's ideas cast all but the educated and wealthy to edges of visible society. No where in this book of creating walkable cities does he provide for elderly or people who have limited mobility. In fact the changes he would implement would punish the afore mentioned groups. An example, cross walks; to paraphrase Speck, The buttons walkers can press to get the walk sign, if a blind person uses this device, they can not be sure if the walk light has come on or if there is just a lull in the traffic. The second alternative is the walk sign accompanied by, as Speck describes it, the obnoxious bird noises that give an audible indication to the vision impaired that it is safe to cross. Speck's final solution is to just have no walk light demand button for pedestrians to use. His reasoning being that a blind person can just listen for the lull in traffic to know when it is safe to cross the street. Confusing right??? This is how the entire book flows. If it is convenient for Speck and the ilk he claims to represent it should receive funding and attention from public and private sources, and if it is not in the narrow view of what he deems to be good it needs to be defunded, scrapped, or punished through economical measures.I would be proud to live in a city or town that did not hire Mr. Speck or entertain his ideals.
Would you ever listen to anything by Jeff Speck again?
I would only listen to an apology from Mr. Speck for wasting my time and money.
How did the narrator detract from the book?
Yes, the bigoted impression of an overly feministic male has no place in any book. And by the way Mr. Speck, if you have to explain why when you do the impression you are not being a homophobe, then you are being a homophobe. Shame on you sir.
What character would you cut from Walkable City?
Jeff Speck
Any additional comments?
Don't waste you time with this book.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Jacob Bernard
- 03-26-18
Great Focus on Urban Walkability
Many books on Urban Planning are used to teach me something new, or to affirm many of my preconceptions. In Walkable City, however, the author had numerous points that challenged these preconceptions, and led me to reconsider positions I had taken for granted. An excellent examination in depth of walkability.
The author, while good in humor and engaging, could stand to practice his vocal delivery, as there were a number of instances where I had difficulty understanding him. His voice is deep, and at times mumbles the ending of sentences.
Overall, great work I recommend to any urban enthusiast.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Mamadoo
- 06-20-17
Cities Make More Sense Now
I've never understood why it's so difficult to drive into Boston and Washington DC. Now that I understand that's they're purposely set up to make that difficult, I'm more inclined to take public transportation and more equipped to beat that system. Win/Win
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- Lola Johns
- 06-07-16
Interesting introduction to walkability
Knowing nothing about city planning, I started listening to this book while traveling in Europe for the first time. I wanted to know more about why places like Copenhagen, Paris, London, Krakow, etc, felt so much more walkable than my own Minneapolis and what was holding my home city back. He addressed everything I wanted to know, possibly with some bias; I dont know enough about urban planning to say for sure. Aside from a few recording issues, I enjoyed the book.
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- shaun
- 07-26-16
Drab narration
As an urban studies major and as someone who well versed in this subject, i believe the content is superb and that the narration is sooo absolutely boring and dreary. It was hard listening to Jeff speak and how every sentence sounds completely different from the next as if some paragraphs were done in multiple takes. I did not enjoy that and it was difficult to absorb all of the details and information from the great content of this book.
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- Fred
- 05-10-16
Who knew that this book would be so interesting and informative?
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It gave me perspective as to why I enjoy some cities more than others. I travel a lot and now I can see why I love places like Europe and stay away from areas that don't cater to pedestrians. I definitely recommend this book.
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