****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
I bought this book because I have been commuting a sizeable distance every day from a major city (San Francisco) to a more suburban city in the east bay area. Over that time, I have been developing a vested interest in urban planning, mass transportation, and a number of quality-of-life issues."Toward the Livable City" is an anthology of a number of short essays coming from a variety of perspectives on urban living. There's even a series of comic strips- Roadkill Bill, which is not only entertaining, but rings with a lot of truth in addressing the issues and problems with commuting by that dominant form of transportation, the automobile.But I give this book only three stars because several of the stories, while heartfelt, seemed very out of place in a compilation that deals with very concrete, objective subject matter. In particular, Lynda Morgenroth's "Divorcing the City" is a depiction of her struggles and move from the urban Cambridge, MA area to a quieter, outlying suburb that takes an awful lot of words to point out the obvious: that many of us are torn between the stimulus of living in the city and the peace, quiet, and comfort of the suburbs. The main feeling I got out of her story is that she may be one of those borderline hypochondriac, high maintenance, hypersensitive individuals with so much time on their hands that they have nothing better to do than to obsess over their surroundings.Other stories fare better, though they are only small slices of the totality of urban living: Kristin Brennan's "Food for the City, From the City" and Terrell Dixon's "City Places, Sacred Places", which deal with urban vegetable gardens and the community, and observing nature in an urban setting, respectively.The real meat of this book-- and by far the more interesting parts of the book-- comes from the more dispassionate essays that deal directly with development and planning issues. In particular, Philip Lopate's "The Empty Harbor" and Judith Martin's "Reinventing a Vibrant Waterfront" can describe any number of the waterfronts of major cities across the country. It was enlightening to find out the historical and logistic reasons why the waterfront areas are often the last to be developed and utilized to their full potential.James Kunstler's "Cities of the Future in the Long Emergency" is also an eye-opening work and is remarkably prescient about the inherent problems with suburban sprawl and commuting by car. In fact, a number of these stories reflect and predate the current issues we as a country are facing in terms of global warming, energy consumption, and dependence on foreign oil.It is heartening to realize that it is possible to reconcile urban living with smart growth, minimal per-capita environmental impact, and even emotional and physical health. In fact, these two things often go hand in hand. Word of caution: overall, this book has a definite uber-liberal slant on urban planning and lifestyle issues-- I have to CRINGE every time I hear a liberal, white, urban professional refer to a favorite restaurant, cafe, or bookstore as "funky". But a number of the essays are worth reading for their intelligent insights into the issues that affect our way of life in major cities.
