GENERAL & STRATEGIC PLANS
“A Natural History of the Future” by Rob Dunn
To Understand Our Future on Earth, Look to the Laws That Govern Nature. A Review By Peter Brannen, Dec. 9, 2021 From Mr. Brannen: “Levees surround us. Yes, some hold back rivers that strain against their embankments. But others hold back diseases, which are ready to saturate and overwhelm the fragile walls of antibiotics we’ve erected. […]
“Adrift: America in 100 Charts” by Scott Galloway
From CT.org Professor Galloway describes economic and social conditions in the U.S. using a wide array of statistics; useful in discerning what’s happening in cities. From Amazon: “In Adrift, Galloway looks to the past – from 1945 to present day – to explain just how America arrived at this precipice. Telling the story of our […]
“America’s Main Street Hotels: Transiency and Community in the Early Auto Age” by John A. Jakle and Keith A. Sculle
Hotels in small cities and towns have always been popular despite a post-War decline. They are coming back; even the chains are showing interest in small cities and towns that have some unique character and authenticity that attract visitors. America’s Main Street Hotels discusses the historic experience, but adds evidence of the resurgence. Small cities […]
“American Urbanist: How William H. Whyte’s Unconventional Wisdom Reshaped Public Life” by Richard K. Rein
From Amazon… “On an otherwise normal weekday in the 1980s, commuters on busy Route 1 in central New Jersey noticed an alarming sight: a man in a suit and tie dashing across four lanes of traffic, then scurrying through a narrow underpass as cars whizzed by within inches. The man was William “Holly” Whyte, a […]
“Arbitrary Lines” by M. Nolan Gray
From Island Press…“What if scrapping one flawed policy could bring US cities closer to addressing debilitating housing shortages, stunted growth and innovation, persistent racial and economic segregation, and car-dependent development? “It’s time for America to move beyond zoning, argues city planner M. Nolan Gray in Arbitrary Lines: How Zoning Broke the American City and How […]
“Arrival City, How the Largest Migration in History Reshaped Our World” by Doug Saunders
Arrival City has many instructive ideas for the immigration-driven discussion today; and for those who plan cities. The U.S. used to get this right; and others in the world do so today. Thomas Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum in their 2011 book That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How […]
“Babbitt” by Sinclair Lewis
From CT.org… The New York Times recently reviewed Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis under the subtitle: “The Novelist Who Saw Middle America as It Really Was.” The review also mentions Main Street by Lewis published two years earlier, 1920. Both novels, both works of fiction, both based on Lewis’ observations about small town America. Good reads […]
“Backdoor Revolution: The Definitive Guide to ADU Development” by Kol Peterson
From CT.org Missing Middle Housing, a term invented by Dan Parolek [ https://islandpress.org/books/missing-middle-housing], has expanded the conversation about how people can live in settings that are not single family homes or apartment complexes. ADUs are a big part of the new mix of housing types as are cottages, duplexes, quadraplexes and small apartment buildings. Add […]