This article was downloaded by: [University of Birmingham]

On: 19 November 2014, At: 21:15

Publisher: Routledge
Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer
Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Journal of the American Planning Association

Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information:
http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rjpa20

A Review of “Toward the Healthy City: People, Places, and the

Politics of Urban Planning”
a
Kathryn Lawler
a
Atlanta Regional Commission
Published online: 23 Sep 2010.

To cite this article: Kathryn Lawler (2010) A Review of “Toward the Healthy City: People, Places, and the Politics of Urban Planning”, Journal
of the American Planning Association, 76:4, 520-521, DOI: 10.1080/01944363.2010.508401

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01944363.2010.508401

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications
on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever
as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this
publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy
of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor
and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other
liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the
use of the Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction,
redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden.
Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions
RJPA_A_508379_BookReviews.qxp 9/7/10 11:51 AM Page 520

520 Reviews
Journal of the American Planning Association, Autumn 2010, Vol. 76, No. 4

perspectives provide a lively exposition of the tension implicit in the Health, Education, and Social Services
two modes of intervention.
A chapter on settlement patterns celebrates Ebenezer Howard’s
enduring vision, but offers disappointingly scant specific reference to
climate change. Another chapter in Part 1 provides a useful discus- Toward the Healthy City: People, Places, and
sion of transport policy with more explicit relevance to climate the Politics of Urban Planning
change and good citation of U.S. sources. Later chapters deal with Jason Corburn. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2009. 288 pages.
the transition from oil; the high climate vulnerability of developing $48, $24 (paperback).
countries (and of the United States and Australia among developed
countries) based on number of people affected; and the extreme
vulnerability of small islands.
Part 2 features a diverse set of topics, including land use, green
building, offshore wind, and flood risk management as seen through
Europe as a transnational region, California, and the programs of
Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. Part

T
he challenge of building places that not only protect health
Downloaded by [University of Birmingham] at 21:15 19 November 2014

3 offers chapters on the use of scenarios, integrated assessment at the

but also promote it has been discussed since the inception of
regional and local scale, urban green infrastructure, climate change
the planning profession. Groundbreaking research and a
planning in Swedish cities, the low-carbon U.K. cities Woking and
growing national health crisis have renewed the dialogue over the
London, governance, and public engagement in renewable energy
last decade. The premise of Toward the Healthy City is that the
planning, the last two with a U.K focus. The chapter on integrated
process through which places are designed and constructed has to be
assessment is systematic and conceptual, supported by examples
overhauled, so residents will not only live but also thrive. Corburn
from the United Kingdom, and lays out a string of daunting chal-
begins with a succinct but thorough review of the centuries-old
lenges for the planner: “complexity of interactions; constraints of
connections between health and planning. Although he profiles very
existing patterns of development; dynamics of change; an evolving
significant case studies from the San Francisco area and frames some
policy context; interactions at spatial scales; uncertainty; portfolios
of the tasks ahead, he does not answer the fundamental question:
of responses” (p. 237).
What is a planner to do?
As with any work by multiple authors covering manifold
Corburn asks if the debate between Marsh and Olmstead had
topics, there is some unevenness in the product. The chapters are
gone the other way, and Marsh prevailed, would things have turned
brief, and a few come off as perfunctory, occasionally even a bit off
out differently? He suggests that Olmstead’s support for the City
topic, but they are generally well focused, efficient treatments of
Beautiful movement steered planning away from health, safety, and
their subjects. The intended audience of the book is both academics
social justice and toward three distinct goals: the design of public
and practitioners, and there is real value here for both. I would
spaces, transportation circulation, and the development of private
assign this book as a text in the courses that I teach on planning for
land. In essence, Olmstead’s idea removed people and their health
climate change.
and welfare from the planning profession and allowed planners to
Aside from the international distribution of cases, there is not
assume a perch well above the rest of society. This perspective
much discussion in the book from the United States, perhaps
separated them from their public health and social welfare brethren
reflecting the relative lack of progress in dealing with climate issues
with whom they had been previously joined at the hip. The distance
there. The book, thus, demands of the U.S. planning audience a
only grew throughout the 20th century to the detriment of both
measure of curiosity about the rest of the world that will be
cities and their residents.
rewarded.
With a century of rapid and transformative growth behind us,
Although there is no concluding chapter, the introductory
and extensive research and analysis demonstrating that much of that
chapter ends with a measured note of progress, tempered by a
growth was unsustainable, we find our health and quality of life
concern for the effects of the economic downturn. I agree with
degrading, and for some groups, especially minorities, the degradation
the editors that “the extent to which the climate change agenda
has been fatal. An expanding consensus suggests that planners have to
has, in fact, been able to introduce a systematic shift in spatial
rethink the way they work, the rules and regulations that govern their
planning towards ecological priorities” (p.15) is not yet clear.
activities, and the practices ingrained from the last century.
Moreover, the book was released before the recent increase in
Toward the Healthy City contributes several things to the task
public skepticism about climate change as revealed in U.S. polls.
of mapping the path forward. Corburn is adamant that the definition
Stay tuned.
of health in any discussion of health and planning must be broad-
ened to include social welfare, public safety, and economic opportu-
Armando Carbonell nity. More than mortality or disease, they are identified by residents
Carbonell, AICP, chairs the Department of Planning and Urban as critical to the definition of a healthy community. He suggests that
Form at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in Cambridge, MA, planners must participate in the development of analysis and evalua-
and also teaches urban planning, including courses on planning for tion tools that incorporate the social determinants of health into
climate change, in the Graduate School of Design at Harvard planning practices and regulations, rather than wait for them to be
University. developed by others. He also argues that physical change is not the
RJPA_A_508379_BookReviews.qxp 9/7/10 11:51 AM Page 521
Journal of the American Planning Association, Autumn 2010, Vol. 76, No. 4
only remedy that planners must pursue, but that a more relational
analysis should simultaneously examine the environment and the
people who live and move through it. The desire for and energy to
create healthy communities can come from many people and profes-
sions. This is extremely difficult work, and the solutions are neither
easy nor obvious. By broadening the base through the inclusion of
governments, nonprofits, private enterprises, and going to the source,
the very residents whose health is to be improved feature prominently
in the author’s recommendations and case studies.
The book concludes with several in-depth case studies from San
Francisco. Although these stories are interesting and very detailed,
there are two problems. First, these stories demonstrate how much of
the real work was conducted primarily by the Department of Public
Health. Planners played a small role and, in several incidences,
created significant obstacles. The other issue is that these stories are
Downloaded by [University of Birmingham] at 21:15 19 November 2014
just that, stories. They tell the tales of heroic individuals and organi-
zations fighting against all odds to buck the system. Although these
individuals are victorious in the end, the months and months of near
impossible work results in a brighter future for just one small com-
munity. Real and profound change will never come if we rely only on
heroes. Toward the Healthy City highlights individuals but does not
answer the question: What should the profession do?
Olmstead made a bold proclamation with his own answer to
that question 100 years ago, forever changing planning and planners.
He didn’t have extensive years of empirical evidence or evaluation to
support his point of view. To create healthy cities, someone is going
to have to step up and answer the question again. Although Corburn
describes some guideposts, he concludes that the symphony is only
half finished. It’s time for someone to claim a new direction, regard-
less of whether all of the research is in. After all, lives are at stake.
Kathryn Lawler
Lawler, MPP, is the director of external affairs at the Atlanta
Regional Commission, the planning and community services agency
for the 10-county region. Creating communities for people of all
ages and abilities has been the focus of her work and research.
Economic Development
The New Economy of the Inner City: Restructuring,
Regeneration and Dislocation in the Twenty-First-
Century Metropolis
Thomas A. Hutton. Routledge, New York, 2008. 332 pages.
$156, $39.99 (paperback).
T
he New Economy of the Inner City is essentially a mono-
graph about new industry formation in the inner city,
defined as the metropolitan core. According to Hutton,
“the principal purpose of this study is to examine the implications of
Reviews 521
new industry formation in the city’s inner districts in a more system-
atic fashion than has been the case hitherto” (p. 9). It “builds on
streams of new industry scholarship; intersects urban and economic
geography at the frontiers of redefining change; and contributes to
the development of new theory for this contemporary period of
complex urban change” (pp. 10–11).
This book will appeal both to urban scholars and planners.
Academic scholars in the areas of economic geography, planning,
and urban studies will appreciate the first three chapters, which
review the relevant literature across disciplines and provide the
theoretical framework for addressing the primary research questions.
Planners, however, are more likely to enjoy the case studies
described in the next five chapters, in which the author compares
and contrasts the urban experiences of four global cities: London,
Singapore, San Francisco, and Vancouver. The analysis relies on
extensive fieldwork and multiple site visits during the 1990s and
2000s. Every narrative is well documented by detailed maps,
photographs, and interviews, and is used to illustrate in what ways
new industry formation, along with social, cultural, spatial, and
policy factors, contributes to the shaping of the urban landscape in
the new inner city. The last chapter offers an essay in theoretical
synthesis and calls for further research, particularly on new industry
sites in the Asia–Pacific region.
London, the archetypal global city, deserves its two chapters.
First, the author takes us on London’s amazing journey from
industrial manufacturing center to industrial collapse (London lost
800,000 manufacturing jobs from the 1960s to the 1980s) to the
spectacular rise of its banking and financial sector to become a first-
order global city. Of special relevance is the turnaround since 1992
as London emerges as the prototype of a postindustrial city, shaped
by globalization as well as by its unique national primacy status,
poised to host the 2012 Olympics. While chapter 4 describes the
structural forces that shape the unique mix of production regimes
(i.e., pre-Fordist, Fordist, and post-Fordist) that characterize
London, chapter 5 presents narratives of new industry formation at
a more localized level. It takes us on walking tours of three inner city
districts: Hoxton 9, the 1990s New Economy epicenter; Bermondsey
Street, a tribute to heritage-built environment and conservation
policies; and Clerkenwell, an example of the complexity of industrial
organization in the metropolitan core.
Next stop is Singapore, the smallest global city in Pacific Asia.
The focus is on Telok Ayer, a subdistrict of Singapore’s Chinatown,
adjacent to the central business district. Telok Ayer has evolved into
a zone of cultural production and creative industry formation as a
result of both spontaneous and induced bursts of economic activity
against a rich cultural heritage background, with minimal social
costs. In contrast, industrial change and transformation in San
Francisco’s South of Market Area (SOMA) came with massive
dislocation costs. Launched four decades ago with an urban renewal
project that culminated with the construction of the Yerba Buena
Center and the emergence of South Park as a new industrial district,
the redevelopment in SOMA is of special interest to planners
working in contexts of rapid change and restructuring. Finally,
Vancouver’s experience highlights the importance of a comprehen-
sive plan, such as the city’s Central Area Plan of 1991, as well as
international immigration and multiculturalism as dynamic forces of
urban growth and redevelopment of the inner city.