The Human City - by Joel Kotkin (Paperback)

About the Book

Internationally recognized urbanist Joel Kotkin challenges the conventional urban-planning wisdom that favors high-density, "pack-and-stack" strategies. Instead, Kotkin advocates for "smart suburbs" that take advantage of new technologies, family-friendly policies, and sustainable planning to build dynamic small cities, redeveloped neighborhoods, and a human-scale urban environment.

Book Synopsis

Internationally recognized urbanist Joel Kotkin challenges the conventional urban-planning wisdom that favors high-density, "pack-and-stack" strategies. Instead, Kotkin advocates for "smart suburbs" that take advantage of new technologies, family-friendly policies, and sustainable planning to build dynamic small cities, redeveloped neighborhoods, and a human-scale urban environment.

Review Quotes

Praise for Joel Kotkin's The Human City: Urbanism for the Rest of Us

"[Kotkin] weaves an impressive array of original observations about cities into his arguments, enriching our understanding of what cities are about and what they can and must become." --Shlomo Angel, Wall Street Journal

"Kotkin argues that suburbs are where middle-class families want to live. . . . A city hostile to the middle class is, in Kotkin's view, a sea hostile to fish." --Alexander Nazaryan, Newsweek

"[The] kinds of places that are getting it right . . . we might call Joel Kotkin cities, after the writer who champions them. These are opportunity cities . . . [that] are less regulated, so it's easier to start a business. They are sprawling with easy, hodgepodge housing construction, so the cost of living is low. . . . We should be having a debate between the Kotkin model and the [Richard] Florida model, between two successful ways to create posterity." --David Brooks, New York Times

"Kotkin's premise focus[es] on the predictions made by some economists who believe suburbs are going to wither as more Americans return to the cities. He [says] those have been hasty reactions to the 2008 economic recession, and that humans' desire for spacious living remains strong. " --Ronnie Wachter, Chicago Tribune

"The Human City . . . takes a wider and longer view. Kotkin shows how cities developed as religious, imperial, commercial, and industrial centers. . . . To his subject Kotkin brings a useful worldwide perspective." --Michael Barone, Washington Examiner

"[Kotkin] believes it's time to start rethinking what suburbia can be and to become more strategic about how it evolves." --Randy Rieland, Smithsonian.com

"Kotkin recommends that we embrace a kind of 'urban pluralism'. . . . That means a sustained effort to make the city livable, yes, but it also entails acceptance of the suburbs. . . . The reality of suburban life isn't as grim as the naysayers suggest, and Kotkin rattles off a long list of statistics to prove it." --Blake Seitz, Washington Free Beacon

"[Kotkin] writes that the suburbs are alive and well--and are positioned for strong opportunity." --Michael Stevens, Crain's Chicago Business

"Whether you're a downtown dweller or suburbanite, renter or owner, there is plenty of urban food for thought in The Human City." --Deborah Bowers, Winnipeg Free Press

"A long and lucid argument against . . . the current orthodoxy--that high-density living in the core, rather than suburban sprawl, is the optimal design for the modern urbanopolis." --Pat Kane, New Scientist

"[The Human City] is a prolonged argument for development that responds to what people want and need during the course of their lives . . . . [It] is not meant as an anti-urbanist tract, but rather as a redefinition of urbanism to fit modern realities and the needs of families. . . . It's hard to argue with that point." --David R. Godschalk, Urban Land Magazine

"The notion that people are dying to leave the suburbs is just not true. . . . Kotkin [says] most of the job growth and affordable housing are in the suburbs." --Kim Mikus, Daily Herald

Advance praise for Joel Kotkin's The Human City: Urbanism for the Rest of Us

"The most eloquent expression of urbanism since Jane Jacobs's The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Kotkin writes with a strong sense of place; he recognizes that the geography and tr

About the Author

Joel Kotkin teaches as a Presidential Fellow in urban futures at Chapman University (Orange, CA) and is the Executive Editor of the widely read website NewGeography.com. He is the author of seven previous books, and a regular contributor to The Daily Beast and Forbes.com.