Happy City
Here’s an image that sticks: imagine a loaded Boeing 747 crashing every three days, killing everyone aboard. That’s how many people die on U.S. highways every year.
written on: 2026-02-25
Good urban design creates happy lives. It’s really that simple. In the United States, we have chosen efficiency over all. Our cities and larger towns are packed with multi-lane stroads, limited sidewalks, and rarely, if ever, bike lanes. There are plenty of towns and cities in this country that have no public green space. Instead, cities are designed to be easily accessible to the commuter coming in for a 9-5, when they should be designed for the individuals who actually live in them.
Building community should not be as difficult as we make it. Our environments should nudge us into being active neighbors. Design choices like large sidewalks, parklets, separated bike lanes (paint is not infrastructure), and robust public transportation help foster a healthy, happy, and more social community. Juxtapose that image with a typical suburban American town: where one has to drive from parking lot to parking lot, spending the majority of their day in a car, yelling at their neighbors (who they could be connecting with instead) who are also inside metal boxes barreling at 50 MPH through a school zone.
I loved the stories and the ideology of this book, obviously. I live in a city, would like to stay living in a city, and want our cities to be the best they can be. However, this was a bit of a slog and pretty disorganized.