Rating
7
INFO
Plot
City planning is a practice and a profession. It is also a set of goals and—sometimes utopian—aspirations. Formal thought about the shaping of cities as physical spaces and social environments calls on the same range of disciplines and approaches that we use for understanding cities themselves, from art and literature through the social and natural sciences. Surrounding the core profession of city planning, also known as urban or town planning, are related fields of architecture, landscape design, engineering, geography, political science and policy, sociology, and social work. In addition, the legions of community and environmental activists influence debates and controversies within the field.
Notes
Summary, questions, thoughts, connections
- It is informative but not very fun to read
- City planning is ultimately an art rather than science as it mostly deal with people and is performed by people.
- 有些城市规划的从业者就希望有大政府，一个个零散的区大小的政府就很难协调大型的工程。这点在美国就是一个问题，而在国内就完全不是一个问题。
Review
Informative but not fun to read.
It is also a tour guide book that listed some fun places for us to visit or visit in imagination in future.
City planning is a civil service usually provided by government so a lot of the issues and arguments are similar to the discussions around government in general. Should we have a big or small government? Should the government focus on fast development, or equality, or well being of future generation?
Highlights / Quotes
Introduction
Page 42 @ 26 June 2024 09:28:21 PMCorbusier’s Radiant City of high-rise towers in a park or the diametrically opposite Broadacre City of Frank Lloyd Wright
柯布西耶是大人物。这两个都是以建筑师著名。书后又说后来城市规划慢慢拜托这些建筑家的影响，更转向工程技术为主导。
Page 42 @ 26 June 2024 09:28:32 PMsuper city Arcologies proposed by Paolo Soleri in the 1960s and 1970s
Paolo Soleri 的一些设计很奇妙，让人有点想到之前玩过的一个也算蒸汽朋克的解密游戏Machinarium
Europeans plan new American cities
Page 47 @ 29 June 2024 11:01:30 PMwere to orient the grid to the prevailing winds for good ventilation
也算讲究风水
Gridded for growth
Page 54 @ 29 June 2024 11:45:47 PMBy the twentieth century, a street pattern that varied from the grid signaled a neighborhood or suburb with social aspirations,
Blight and urban renewal
Page 95 @ 04 July 2024 08:31:55 PMallow forced acquisition of a non blighted house to support the expansion of a specific pharmaceutical company.
美国也有强拆
The Jane Jacobs revolution
Page 86 @ 07 July 2024 12:46:22 AMJane Jacobs shook the foundations of urban planning with The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961).
Page 90 @ 07 July 2024 07:55:27 AM1970s and 1980s developer James Rouse turned from suburban malls to pioneer the “festival marketplace,” repurposing historic buildings such as the Faneuil Hall Market in Boston and building Harbor place in Baltimore
这两个地方我都去过
Horton Plaza in San Diego. It is a contrived environment,
这个也去过
Page 91 @ 07 July 2024 07:59:02 AMVancouver and Salt Lake City both hired Moshe Safdie, Denver signed Michael Graves, Minneapolis commissioned Cesar Pelli, and Calgary called on the design firm Snøhetta.
Planning for the middle class
Page 122 @ 08 July 2024 11:15:03 PMNew York usually gets the credit as the first American city to adopt comprehensive zoning
The dynamics of inequality
Page 128 @ 09 July 2024 10:29:30 PMgentrification—a term originally coined to describe the transformation of London neighborhoods
原来是个英国词。这个词的意思基本就是平民窟化的反向
Alternative voices
Page 140 @ 10 July 2024 09:14:05 PMSandercock’s arguments would have resonated with John Stuart Mill, who wrote in 1848, “it is hardly possible to overrate the value, in the present low state of human development, of placing human beings in contact with persons dissimilar to themselves, and with modes of thought and action unlike those with which they are familiar. Such communication has always been one of the primary sources of progress
The organization of regional planning
Page 150 @ 11 July 2024 12:25:49 AMPortland, Oregon’s, Metro is the only elected regional government in the United States,
Urban containment and growth management
Page 155 @ 11 July 2024 10:50:10 PMAdirondacks Park in New York, Pinelands National Reserve in New Jersey
Megaregions and superregional development planning
Page 157 @ 11 July 2024 10:54:59 PMBoston–Washington corridor as an interconnected urban complex Maybe longer than 400 mi?
Page 160 @ 11 July 2024 11:02:31 PM$13 billion bridge connecting Hong Kong, Zhuhai, and Macau. The goal is to help the region transition from lower-value export manufacturing to innovative and high-tech manufacturing
How can roads help the transition?
Chapter 6. Nature in the city
Page 162 @ 13 July 2024 11:29:23 AMSeveral thousand Coyotes live in Chicago and its suburbs, and thousands more roam the hills and ravines… Coyotes are so good at hiding from human
Parks and open space
Page 167 @ 13 July 2024 12:11:25 PMenvironmentally sensitive areas that are difficult to build on, such as steep hills, marshes, lakefronts, and stream courses, into parks and parkways
Stoking the urban metabolism_ energy and water
Page 173 @ 13 July 2024 01:21:16 PMWeak land use regulations may allow well fields too close to industries that contaminate ground water, as in Miami.
Page 174 @ 13 July 2024 01:23:42 PMwhen it is valuable, it is corruptible, a truth that drives the screenplay for the film Chinatown (1974
Sustainable and regenerative cities
Page 177 @ 13 July 2024 01:48:29 PMcreating Manhattan’s distinctive ziggurat towers from the 1920s and 1930s.
What happened around 1930?
Page 177 @ 13 July 2024 01:49:15 PMreduce the total mileage driven by the average individual, measured as vehicle miles traveled (VMT) per capita
But still keep selling new cars. How can this be sustainable.
Page 178 @ 13 July 2024 01:52:51 PMThe shift of retail commerce to on line shopping and household package delivery adds to net congestion and fuel use.
Avoiding “natural” disaster
Page 192 @ 13 July 2024 02:41:57 PMbeach house is safer on deep pilings than on a concrete block foundation
Page 195 @ 13 July 2024 03:01:47 PMPoor people tend to live on the lowest land with the greatest likelihood of flooding, whether they are in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans or marginal districts in Dacca, and they have the greatest likelihood of being sacrificed to save high-value districts and cities.
Same same everywhere
Climate change and urban futures
Page 201 @ 13 July 2024 04:47:05 PMThe expectation is that people closer to the equator will find it harder to make a living and even to survive.
Resilience after disaster
Page 203 @ 13 July 2024 04:51:25 PMthe principal resource available for recovery linked to long term development is the people themselves and their local knowledge and expertise
Same for city planning