Toward the Livable City
Nonfiction

Toward the Livable City

By
Emilie Buchwald
“An illuminating and accessible resource.” —ARCHITECTURE MINNESOTA
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Commuters, suburbanites, city dwellers: Are you curious about making your life more livable and interested in knowing what that might mean?

Combining firsthand accounts of the attractions and distractions of city life, Toward the Livable City introduces a range of perspectives—including pieces from Bill McKibben, Jane Holtz Kay, James Howard Kunstler, and Tony Hiss—about creating successful, livable cities, with examples from across America and around the world. These leading thinkers weigh in on topics such as smart growth, traffic calming, pedestrian rights, regional planning, riverfront redevelopment, and architecture—as well as the pleasures of sauntering down tree-lined streets to restaurants, theaters, and shops.

Encapsulating the growing movement that brings together planners and architects, environmentalists and seekers of the “good life,” Toward the Livable City is a spirited book about the possibility of enjoying urban and suburban existence.

ISBN
9781571312716
Publish Date
Pages
228
Dimensions
5.94 × 8.94 × 0.38 in
Weight
14.8 oz
Cover Art
Author
Emilie Buchwald

Emilie Buchwald

Emilie Buchwald has worked as an editor, poet, teacher, and award-winning children’s author. She is the co-founder and former publisher of Milkweed Editions. Buchwald has been honored with the prestigious McKnight Distinguished Artist Award, the Kay Sexton Award, and the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, given by the National Book Critics Circle

Praise and Prizes

  • “A surprisingly nonpolemical collection of essays on urban planning that includes work from a luminous panel of contributors … It intelligently discusses planning … without the insufferable language of the official city builders.”

    OnEarth

  • “An illuminating and accessible resource to the policy wonk, as well as the concerned citizen … While the writers of Toward the Livable City share a common respect for and belief in the viability of the urban condition, like a true democracy, they each qualify what that means in highly varied and reliably divergent ways.”

    Architecture Minnesota

  • “A collection of thoughtful—and thought-provoking—essays … Through the authors’ pithy, poignant contemplation, we see and celebrate the living city—and maybe even gain the tools to push our own cities in that direction.”

    Minneapolis–Saint Paul City Pages

  • “Refreshingly eclectic … These essays champion the beauty, vitality, and viability of cities while assessing the government policies that shared them and asserting new regional and local policies for future growth.”

    Common Review

  • “Emilie Buchwald’s essayists build a livable city of their own with lively, diverse reflections that manage to mix feet-on-the-ground with a little pie-in-the-sky… . By the end, I’m learning from the experts what it takes to truly love and change a city.”

    Sojourners

  • “A stimulating and intelligent collection, one that ranges from big policy questions to intensely personal reflections.”

    New Urban News

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