Hi all,
A friend from DC contacted me recently about getting an urban planning book for her father for the holidays, who is a planner in Baltimore. What are some good books on planning issues that have come out in the past five years? Thanks for your help, she'll definitely appreciate it!
-Deirdre
Here are two places to start -
click on "Bookstore" in the blue banner below Cyburbia, links you to Amazon
or
the American Planning Associations' Planners Book Service:
http://www.planning.org/bookservice/
then select either "New Arrivals" or " Best Sellers"
Oddball
Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves?
Why don't you dig how beautiful it is out here?
Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change?
From Kelly's Heroes (1970)
Are you sure you're not hurt ?
No. Just some parts wake up faster than others.
Broke parts take a little longer, though.
From Electric Horseman (1979)
The American City: What Works, What Doesn't, 2nd Ed. by Alexander Garvin.
I am sure you can find plenty of reviews out there. This book is an authoritative source because it describes why projects happen and don't happen, focusing less on architecture and site plans and more on crucial issues like financing that are regularly overlooked by in university planning programs and ultimately by professional planners.
Making Places Special, by Gene Bunnell, is pretty recent. Its an okay read.
I've heard lots of good things about a book called "On Paradise Drive" that is kind of a sociology-planning book.
"Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."
- Herman Göring at the Nuremburg trials (thoughts on democracy)
I missed the opportunity to hear and meet him at the IPA fall conference, luncheon speaker.Originally posted by vaughan
Oddball
Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves?
Why don't you dig how beautiful it is out here?
Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change?
From Kelly's Heroes (1970)
Are you sure you're not hurt ?
No. Just some parts wake up faster than others.
Broke parts take a little longer, though.
From Electric Horseman (1979)
I saw a speaker at APA in 2003 who really pushed it. I went out and bought it, though I haven't read all of it. It tries to highlight cases where planning actually contributed to making a good city. Talks about the process, the politics, etc.. behind places.
The Big Sort, by Bill Bishop. Not strictly a planning book but has lots of planning implications. Explains why in some places the planners are considered communists and in order places they are accused of not going far enough.
My nomination:
McGregor, Roberts, Cousins (2013). Two Degrees: the Built Environment and Climate Change.
I learned a lot from Jarrett Walker's Human Transit, available from his also interesting blog. Lots of good stuff on the relationship of land uses and transit success.
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