The City in History; Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects.
The City in History [1961] provides the basis for modern city planning. It is one of the ‘oldies but goodies’ that should be found in the essential readings for anyone interested in cities. Lewis Mumford’s massive historical study brings together a wide array of evidence from the earliest group habitations through medieval towns to modern cities. His classical work shows how the urban form came about and how it has changed throughout human civilization. The fundamental reason for city formation remains relevant and instructive as we plan and re-plan cities for the 21st century. The lessons are directly transferable to contemporary city-building.
Lewis Mumford became famous because of this book; he won the National Book Award for non-fiction in 1962.
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The City’s Form and Function – 2015: A Model for a Complete City based on Sustainable Urbanism
The City’s Form and Function essay in 2014 presented the form and function of a character town in light of its sustainability, i.e., its ability to balance its social, economic and physical attributes in a manner that produced an interesting, pleasant and prosperous place for residents, businesses and visitors. This 2015 essay adds the concept of urbanism to the mix consistent with the professional literature that is now discussing “sustainable urbanism.” These two direct and powerful ideas intersected in the past millennium to provide a useful framework for city planning, development and management: sustainable urbanism.”
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The Company Town
The Company Town [2010] describes an idea we associate with the turn of the 19th century when, in fact, it continues to this day with BMW in Greenville, Microsoft in Seattle and SEMATECH in Austin. This is a book with big ideas and lots of information packed into a tidy, readable and powerful package. Stories and case studies of historic and contemporary towns dominated by a single company or industry abound with details that describe past and present conditions. A must read for city acolytes and economic development strategists.
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Shaping Our Nation: How Surges of Migration Transformed America and Its Politics [2013].
Population origins make a difference. Shaping Our Nations by Michael Barone tells the story of several mass migrations and imigrations that have happened in the United States since the 1600s and a few that surprisingly did not happen. His research is broad and his data is compelling; it explains the demographic composition of contemporary America and why regional politics are what they are. Planning for small cities and towns can benefit from appreciating the national origin of long-time residents and the town’s history of settlement and settlers.
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The 10 Best Small Towns
10 best small towns provides insight into what traits are important to a character town. “Livability.com explores what makes small-to-medium sized cities great places to live. Through proprietary research studies, engaging articles and original photography and video, we examine topics related to community amenities, education, sustainability, transportation, housing and the economy. We then leverage that expertise to develop city rankings for a range of topics including small towns, college towns and our annual Top 100 Best Places to Live.” The ranking criteria used by Livibility.com is very comprehensive and consists of: Income growth, income distribution, employment, population growth forecast, community involvement, health care, natural amenities, crime rate, pollution, educational attainment and cultural assets. This ranking system is very useful.
RANKING CRITERIA
- Income growth
- Income distribution
- Employment
- Population growth forecast
- Community involvement
- Health care
- Natural amenities
- Crime rate
- Pollution
- Educational attainment
- Cultural assets
Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth
Futurism based on conventional thinking finds an uncomfortable home in Professor Fuller’s book. Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth is another “oldie but goodie” that has fallen out of public view. Buckminster Fuller, 1885-1983, is a character, impatient with conventional thinking. He was also a professional futurist who forecasted significant events decades in advance of their occurrence. Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth is one of those wonderful books that were written decades ago but still provoke thought, present universal truths, read like a page-turner and ask why you don’t read it every year… A MUST READ.
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Systems Thinking; The City is a System of Systems.
Systems Thinking is a learned skill. Systems thinking and creative thinking are the yin and yang of thoughtfulness; apparently conflicting but actually complementary. Systems thinking is about structure and discipline. Creative thinking is about organic free-form exploration and associative ideating. Like the duality of yin and yang, when practiced correctly, systems and creative thought are complementary and mutually reinforcing.
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The City’s Form and Function – 2015: A Model for a Sustainable Character Town
The city’s form and function is based on sustainability theory tells us to balance and cross-leverage the social, economic and physical attributes of the town. This essay examines the ideas behind the sustainability approach as it applies to small cities and towns. The call goes out to enlarge the city’s long-range plan to make it truly comprehensive by expanding its scope to include a Social Infrastructure Plan and an Economic Development Plan to the traditional Physical Development Plan. Community participation, systems thinking, comprehensive long-range planning and principles for good governance complete the portfolio of ideas necessary to plan for a character town.
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Vibrant Downtowns; Dynamic and Multi-‐Faceted Centers for Social and Commercial Engagement
Vibrant downtowns define character towns. People seem to enjoy life in certain small town downtowns and special places with bigger cities. A vibrant main street is where society, commerce and tourism meet in a rich setting of active engagement. The interactions are enables by the quality of the street itself, the inviting-nature of the sidewalks, the walking connections between city hall, the post office, the local history museum, the library and the local theater. Restaurants and shops flourish in this environment. Apartments and walk-to neighborhoods enrich the spontaneity of the downtown customer base. The addition of a hotel accommodates business travelers and transitions day-tripping visitors into week-enders.
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The 10 Best Cities for Job Seekers
Economic development is at the heart of this report. The 10 Best Cities for Job Seekers presents the criteria for classifying cities as great sources of employment; a trait of a character towns of any size.
RANKING CRITERIA
- Population Growth 2010-2012
- Median Monthly Homeowner Costs
- Median Income
- Unemployment Rate
City of the Century: the Epic of Chicago and the Making of America.
The City of the Century focuses on Chicago from “the founding” to “the fire” to “the fair” to the First World War; a period of extraordinary civic and business achievement in America and Chicago. The giants of industry were imbued with civic responsibility in addition to their private ambitions. The architects and city-builders established an aura still unmatched in American history. A great story well told; every city building profession, including elected and appointed city officials, can benefit from this story of
Chicago.
Tomorrow-Land, The 1964-65 World’s Fair and the Transformation of America [2014].
Tomorrow-land by Joseph Tirella gives us a page turner; you want to read every page in this book and every paragraph on every page. The story is valuable. The stream of the book is the conception and execution of the New York World’s Fair that ran for two years in Queens, 1964 and 1965; but the real story the author tells is found in the second part of the subtitle as he presents the 1960s as the emotional and revolutionary times that they were. Towns that strive for character can find inspiration and tools to use for creating a town that has values and systems that keep them in tact.
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