How Cities Work: Suburbs, Sprawl, and the Roads Not Taken

Written in a lively and well-researched journalistic style, this book essentially lays down the pieces of a much larger puzzle that the reader must solve for him/herself. As other reviewers have mentioned, it does not offer many concrete solutions and it does not pretend to have easy answers. Instead, it is a far-reaching look at urban spaces, ranging from the new town of Celebration, Florida to the progressive and inspiring city of Portland, Oregon. Marshall also presents an intelligent and logical criticism of New Urbanism, which offers less satisfying and holistic solutions than its descendant, the SmartGrowth movement. Overall, this is an eye-opening, passionate, and highly readable book on the nuances of urban life and planning in contemporary America.

I have been interested in the New Urbanism philosophy for a while now. Living in a walkable community is important to me. In this book, Alex Marshall opened my eyes to different factors involved in maintaining a "traditional city". It challenged my assumptions and changed my opinions. In some ways, Alex is against New Urbanism, saying that usually New Urbanism simply results in buidling new suburban developments. It is not as simple as building houses with front porches within walking distance of a small commercial street. Maintaining a community and a healthy urban core involves transportation, regional government, and politics. Interestingly, Alex challenges that increasing parking and freeway access to a downtown area can kill a City rather than help it. Some people do not like WalMart's because they take business away from smaller community stores. The problems is, this started with the advent of the automobile. If you have a car, you can't blame WalMart. Many people would rather drive to a large box-retail-store to save money than try to find parking at a local small store and pay higher prices. Granted, you might get to know the owner of the local store and meet some neighbors. Gas is cheap and freeways are plentiful. Sadly, there are few alternatives to the car anymore. The minority that would rather live in a "community" and shop at local stores have limited options. As soon as you say "growth restrictions" someone else says you are taking away their right to a new home on 1/2 an acre close to the new freeway paid for and maintained by your tax dollars. What about your right to enjoy a local neighborhood? But, once that person buys their 1/2 acre house, you bet they will fight for growth restrictions to keep that empty stretch of land farther out free from further development. Of course, the developers would have something to say about that. Alex also talks about how suburban developments often seperate housing from retail which makes cars a requirement, and use pods and culdesacs along with feeder streets. This really puts the damper on any ideas of trying to walk or use public transit. It appears that Alex is not a Liberatarian. He supports that governments should not be considered as evil. The entire capitalistic system would not work without the government to enforce the laws, create the transportation systems, print money, form the SEC, etc. Strong and wealthy nations usually have strong governments with a healthy tax base. On a local level, governments used to layout cities, but they don't anymore. Really, state transportation departments build freeways which preceed growth. Now big developers lay out "communities" and turn them over to the city to maintain. Alex does come up with some suggested solutions, but they are not trivial. Overall, the book is an interesting read.

A previous reviewer faulted the author for poor analysis. I don't think we read the same book. Throughout the book, the author repeatedly explains issues of economy, transportation, and the power of governmental choice in the formation of cities. He points out, as few new urbanists do, that cities exist for the economic advantage of its citizens, that government makes real decisions about what kind of transportation system is to be utilized, and that it is the transportation system that ultimately determines the form of regions. He effectively articulates that the functions of a city are innate and independent of the forms that city might take. To the author's credit, he clearly identifies his personal preferences for a developmental form that is transit oriented and dominated by urbanist forms.The book is easy to read, and its theories are clearly and repeatedly stated. Is the book correct? Who knows. The author, very ambitiously, attempts to get at the very basics of the existence of the city form, and I think he proffers thoughtful and compelling arguments.

This book gets 5 stars because Marshall has understood someting that other writers on this subject have missed entirely. The form of our cities is not a result of free-market forces, it is a result of political choices and in a democratic society voters can control those choices. I am so tired of hearing misguided free-market libertarian types insist that traffic jams, strip malls, suburban blandness, endless freeway expansion and social isolation are what people would choose to buy if they actually knew how to make other choices. Marshall realizes that building a good city requires citizens to acknowledge themselves as citizens. The impulse towards suburban living and car-dominated transport is not a step towards individual liberty. To have these things, people must abandon the kind of public life necessary for democracy and give up some degree of political participation for the supposed security of a gated community or a planned community. I appreciated this book as much for its heartfelt support for the democratic ideal of citizenship as for its insightful critique of the flaws in the New Urbanist movement.

This is a fine read, with humor and deep feeling, showing the plight of the modern city and therefore the modern soul.Marshall argues convincingly that the unmittigated promotion of the automobile has robbed us of both community and even the convenience it was ostensibly designed to promote, turning our cities into isolated cul-de-sacs and sad little strip malls, with the "city" itself often either blighted or turned into a theme park for tourists.This loss of place, he argues, is not ammended by most of the "new urbanism" that's in vogue, which he claims is simply the same old suburb dressed up in a sentimental veneer. Neither is simply building more roads a viable solution.Marshall looks to government, in its best sense, as a public institution as the beginning to working with this dilema. The easy answer of a market driven laizze-faire approach is no answer at all. Instead he argues that we need to first understand how cities function and how good design can be both practical and pleasing. Individuals shouldn't be the ones driving growth around their own short term benefit- communities should be looking towards the long term good. We all need to get involved, and make some tough choices.I was taken on an interesting ride by this book, with intimate, street level looks at some of the most soulful and souless communities around- Copanhagen, Silicon Valley, Jackson Heights among others. I speak of soul here, because even though the book is crisp and articulate, I could sense that the author had a real relationship with these places and invites us to deepen our own, looking at the quality of our lives, and how that relates to the cities, towns, and burbs we live in. Not only an important book, but also an enjoyable one.