Comments on: Book Review: Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time

By: HamTech87

HamTech87 — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 04:02:00 +0000

I wish we would stop using the term “cities”. Many of our villages and towns have the same density as cities, yet residents resist walkability and good urban design because of this nomenclature. We need better terminology….

By: Brendan Crain

Brendan Crain — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 21:33:00 +0000

I have to disagree with you, there, Gil. The book *opens* with the direct assertion that the revolution isn’t needed, that it’s already happened. I read that same tone throughout the book, and I disagree fundamentally with that point. The revolution has barely started, if you look at the numbers. The mass market isn’t ready for a book like this yet. For many people, the case for caring about walkability and bicycling still needs to be made. The case for *hearing* that case still needs to be made! It’s just not a priority for a lot of folks.

By: gilwhite

gilwhite — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 21:24:00 +0000

“…but Speck has a way with words…. we have to show those people not only why walkability is important, but how their own actions and decisions can help to create more of it…. Walkable City offers a wealth of facts and figures with which we can load our cannons. But it also serves as a reminder that we have to keep working on how we present that information to broader constituencies. We’re getting there, but we’re still en route.”
Precisely the value of this book. Getting people to see the positive connections to national security, public health, environmental protection, economic development & growth, talent attraction, municipal financial health, etc. Heck, I’ll run this
out on a limb and talk about sleep habits and mental health/social isolation if
need be.The motivation to create better people habitat rather than better auto habitat is only strengthened when multiple positive benefits come to be seen as obvious. In a world of specialists and silos, the wisdom gleaned from a generalist understanding may be the most logical approach to change.
Yes, the book’s primary weakness, if you want to call it that, is its’ lack of a LQC bottoms up, resident as expert approach(or even the more top down Power of Ten), but you folks have that covered. First you have to sell them on the need for change, then you need to implement it. Speck’s book helps fill a huge void on the ‘selling’ end of things.

By: We Need To Walk About Cities: Traversing The Benefits « ……………………………….. T H I N K I N G ….. C I T Y …………………………&#

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 22:31:51 +0000

[...] Brendan Crain draws out the coherent and convincing benefits of walking in the city: ‘improved health, lower transportation costs, more unplanned social encounters, better sense of purpose and community.’. This notion of a walkable public realm creating opportunities for chance encounters is also put forward by Jeff Speck in his new book Walkable City. Though we cannot design spaces that ensure social results, it is possible to create environments that facilitate such social benefits or situations. [...]