Friendly City Urbanist: Brent Finnegan, longtime local urbanism advocate and Planning Commissioner, runs this blog and weekly news roundup. We’re all reading this!
Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity
Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Build American Prosperity looks at the cities of the past and the great American Suburban experiment. It also shows how, if we work hard to change direction, that it won’t lead our cities into financial ruin. This is the book that got a lot of us involved in trying to build a better Harrisonburg.
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
Trouble with the structure of our cities comes back to institutional racism and segregation. This book explores how our government, at every level, systematically imposed racial segregation long after it became technically unconstitutional. We did so with “undisguised racial zoning; public housing that purposefully segregated previously mixed communities; subsidies for builders to create whites-only suburbs; tax exemptions for institutions that enforced segregation; and support for violent resistance to African Americans in white neighborhoods.”
For anyone trying to understand the history of the infamous “urban renewal” plan in downtown Harrisonburg, this book is a must.
Walkable Cities by Jeff Speck
“Jeff Speck has dedicated his career to determining what makes cities thrive. And he has boiled it down to one key factor: walkability.
Making downtown into a walkable, viable community is the essential fix for the typical American city; it is eminently achievable and its benefits are manifold. Walkable City—bursting with sharp observations and key insights into how urban change happens—lays out a practical, necessary, and inspiring vision for how to make American cities the best they can be.”
Arbitrary Lines by M. Nolan Gray
“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 to Fix It. With lively explanations and stories, Gray shows why zoning abolition is a necessary—if not sufficient—condition for building more affordable, vibrant, equitable, and sustainable cities.”