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Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design
Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design
Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design
Ebook596 pages8 hours

Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design

By Charles Montgomery

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A globe-trotting, eye-opening exploration of how cities can—and do—make us happier people

Charles Montgomery's Happy City will revolutionize the way we think about urban life.

After decades of unchecked sprawl, more people than ever are moving back to the city. Dense urban living has been prescribed as a panacea for the environmental and resource crises of our time. But is it better or worse for our happiness? Are subways, sidewalks, and tower dwelling an improvement on the car-dependence of sprawl?

The award-winning journalist Charles Montgomery finds answers to such questions at the intersection between urban design and the emerging science of happiness, and during an exhilarating journey through some of the world's most dynamic

cities. He meets the visionary mayor who introduced a "sexy" lipstick-red bus to ease status anxiety in Bogotá; the architect who brought the lessons of medieval Tuscan hill towns to modern-day New York City; the activist who turned Paris's urban freeways into beaches; and an army of American suburbanites who have transformed their lives by hacking the design of their streets and neighborhoods.

Full of rich historical detail and new insights from psychologists and Montgomery's own urban experiments, Happy City is an essential tool for understanding and improving our own communities. The message is as surprising as it is hopeful: by retrofitting our cities for happiness, we can tackle the urgent challenges of our age. The happy city, the green city, and the low-carbon city are the same place, and we can all help build it.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherMacmillan Publishers
Release dateNov 12, 2013
ISBN9781429969536
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Author

Charles Montgomery

Charles Montgomery was named a 2003 Lowell Thomas Silver Award winner by the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation. Published originally in Canada as The Last Heathen, this book won the prestigious Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-fiction in 2005. The author divides his time between Vancouver, British Columbia, and Mexico City.

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Reviews for Happy City

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  • 4/5
    This book could easily have been a 5-star work, but it occasionally stumbles or loses focus. The title, for instance. I have a hard time imagining the persons who need to read this book the most, doing so, based on the title. Those folks aren't looking for "happy" cities. This isn't Disneyland. They're looking for fast, congestion-free commuting. There's nothing wrong with single-occupancy car driving that having everyone else take the bus or stay at home wouldn't cure. Or better yet, the ability to walk just a few steps to everything we need on a daily basis. As the author, himself, says, "In other words, we would like to have our cake and eat it, too, the ideal world being one in which we reap the benefits of OTHER PEOPLE choosing to live in apartments and town houses nearby, but not close enough to disturb our sleep [in our single family homes.]" The author does do an excellent job of providing ample and significant data plus colorful and insightful anecdotes to explain why modern cities tend to be the way they are, why that is often a problem for the cities' inhabitants, and concrete steps that could be taken to solve those same problems. However, he missteps to various degrees in areas, such as what seems an unfounded bias specifically against bus transportation, beyond the obvious. He recognizes that implementing solutions is often a tedious, thankless, and frequently unsuccessful endeavor, but, knowing how government works, as I do, I seldom see him show much appreciation for the level of negative reaction to the change he advocates, for reasons that have nothing whatsoever to do with rational thought. Perhaps, it is because the author is Canadian and not American. I've watched enough Canadian news media to know Canada has its own political squabbles and shenanigans, but I doubt they match the current America temperament for taking an opposing position for no other reason than that someone else who is not just like us in race, religion, and other demographic characteristics proposed it. In short, many folks will never read this book who should, but, fortunately, those who will read it, will find many ideas and much encouragement to implement them. Good luck to them.
  • 5/5
    Excellent book with a hopeful attitude...about time! Well written and a fast read.
  • 5/5
    One of the best books on urbanism and making happier places. It could have been a little less narrational at times.
  • 4/5
    A book briefly exploring what makes us happy and then shows how our cities as presently configured, particularly in the dispersed city, does not foster happiness. Plans and examples of how the city can be made happier make up the second half of the book. It is good and further supports the prescriptions of Jane Jacobs and her followers.
  • 5/5
    I wish I could force everyone to read this book. Those of us interested in urbanism have been schooled in the benefits of shaping our cities to a scale suited for humans rather than designing them to facilitate motorized traffic. Human-scaled cities, in which the tyranny of cars is minimized so that residents feel comfortable navigating public space, can reduce pollution, improve health, and save money. In Happy City, Canadian writer Charles Montgomery focuses on another benefit that is often overlooked: good urban design can make us happier.

    Drawing on the findings of psychologists and sociologists as well as designers, architects, planners and philosophers, Montgomery considers both the large and small elements of design contributing to well-being. That happiness is increas