Life Between Buildings: Using Public Space
Victor Gruen’s The Heart of Our Cities
Ray Oldenburg • The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community
Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life
Eric Klinenberg • 1 highlight
amazon.com
New Urbanism at its core promotes higher residential densities, a mix of residential and commercial land uses in close walking proximity, and a grid street pattern that promotes closer distances between residential and commercial destinations.22 Grid street patterns that have more intersections and smaller blocks also provide for multipurpose uses,
... See moreJohn MacDonald • Changing Places: The Science and Art of New Urban Planning
And yet collectively cared-for green spaces are especially effective at giving rise to supportive networks. A 2017 analysis of urban community gardens in cities as far-flung as Zagreb, Croatia, Flint, Michigan, and Melbourne, Australia, found that green spaces build social capital.
Kelly McGonigal • The Joy of Movement: How exercise helps us find happiness, hope, connection, and courage
When the effort to travel to transit seems daunting because of distance or fear of danger, people will default to the easier decision to drive. The physical environment goes hand in hand with people’s perceptions of the difficulty of tasks. Research shows people are more willing to walk and use transit when streets are more connected, block lengths
... See more