Aerotropolis: The Way We'll Live Next Review

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Aerotropolis: The Way We'll Live Next ReviewGreg Lindsay is one of the first writers to commit the resources to understanding the effect of air travel on urbanity. Despite all the talk about "Instant" cities and "just in time" delivery, over the past three years, he has clearly shown himself to be a tenacious, shoe-leather journalist, having traveled to the far corners of the world and interviewed countless dozens of high-, low- and no-ranking people who are designing the future by participating in the aerotropoli of the world. Mr. Lindsay's peregrinations actually prove the point of the book - even in a hyperconnected, instant world, where everything seems to be about applications for mobile devices, mobility itself - of "stuff" and of people - is the key to the economic viability of places. While there is plenty of well-supported number-crunching and research, it is the jet-lagged, drop-jawed wonder of the narration that carries the reader through the book. From the searing desert of Dubai and its slave-labor towers in the sand, to the spinning-plates action of the packaging raceways at the UPS Worldport in Louisville, we get the sense that we are taking a tour of modern earthly wonders that we have only begun to comprehend. And yet, the effort to do so is both commendable and enjoyable.
If, on a future flight, you should ever chance to find yourself seated next to Mr. Lindsay (and considering how much he is traveling, the chances are good), you could find no better guide to Just What Exactly It Is We Are Doing. If Ryan Bingham is the Net-Age (yet-still-very-much-Jet-Age) Don Draper, Greg Lindsay is its Marshall McLuhan. If you see him, buy him a cocktail. Until you get that chance, at least buy his book.Aerotropolis: The Way We'll Live Next Overview

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Human Geography: People, Place, and Culture Review

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Human Geography: People, Place, and Culture ReviewThis book is insightful, detailed, and interesting. I actually didn't fall asleep reading it- now if only that were true for my history textbooks! This was my textbook for an AP Human Geography class I took at my school. The teacher was barely adequate, and I basically taught myself everything from this book. H.J. de Blij knows how to write well. He doesn't just give you facts, either. You're taught how to spacially analyze worldwide phenomena, not just to memorize place names. He covers everything from political geography to urban landscapes to environmental science.
This textbook is also great if you simply want to know more about the world we live in, and wish to learn from a more international, rather than American-centric, point of view.Human Geography: People, Place, and Culture OverviewHuman Geography gets general readers to think geographically across scale and across a wide range of geographical phenomena and global issues. All concepts and themes are touched on with the historical background one would expect, but also with current examples to make the reading more relevant. The content is written in such a way that it is approachable and appealing. It includes all of the important themes in a succinct and engaging narrative style that can easily be understood. From the Field boxes and opening vignettes help anyone who has not personally traveled much of the world. General readers will also find the latest data as they build their understanding of important concepts.

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Politics and Pasta: How I Prosecuted Mobsters, Rebuilt a Dying City, Dined with Sinatra, Spent Five Years in a Federally Funded Gated Community, and Lived to Tell the Tale Review

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Politics and Pasta: How I Prosecuted Mobsters, Rebuilt a Dying City, Dined with Sinatra, Spent Five Years in a Federally Funded Gated Community, and Lived to Tell the Tale ReviewFor me this was a very exciting and entertaining read. Not only is it very often laugh out loud funny at Buddy's sense of humor, it also takes you inside his very exciting and eventful life. You learn so much from this book about insider politics and politicians both good and bad along the way. People I work with want to read this book simply from hearing me laugh out loud so often while reading it.
Over the years I watched the news, read the papers, read the books, and listened to talk radio all hammer the Mayor relentlessly and I always wanted to hear the other side of the argument. Something just never seemed to add up to me. There always seemed to be inconsistencies in the reporting as if they all had a vendetta against him or some sort of jealousy or ulterior motive. Certain judges rulings in the court case perplexed me as so very unfair and seriously biased. FINALLY you get to hear the other side of it, and it's revealed in a very witty and interesting story.
I never lived in Providence but followed Buddy's life through the media and watched firsthand the transformation of the city from the time I was a teenager, clubbing and taking advantage of its nightlife, up until today, over 30 years later. Arguably the result of Buddy's vision and tenacious resourcefulness the city today bares no resemblance to the dull gray lifeless place it used to be. In his book he'll let you in on the iron will and determination it took to make this transformation happen. I loved this book, it was so much fun to read.Politics and Pasta: How I Prosecuted Mobsters, Rebuilt a Dying City, Dined with Sinatra, Spent Five Years in a Federally Funded Gated Community, and Lived to Tell the Tale Overview

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The Regional City Review

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The Regional City ReviewThis is yet another book on a New Urbanist idea.
This one describes the idea of transit oriented communties. These are relatively dense planned communities that try to maintain what is seen as the essentials of small community life.
The density and distribution of these communities make them amenable to public transport. However more emphasis is placed on the development of community. Shopping facilities are centralized and made accessible to pedestrians. Public buildings and public space like squares are made central to the life of the community. The public buildings are given distinguished architecture to show their importance to the community. The public park or square is placed at the hub of planned pedestrian traffic to provide a place for unplanned meetings and interactions.
As it is this soert of community will probably work. The idea of the public square at a transportation crossroads as a means to creatre interaction is straight out of Bill Hillier's seminal work 'Space is the machine.' With proper attention to the principles presented by Hillier, there is no reason why a community designed in the way advocated here cannot produce the types of interactions advocated within this book.
However the book does not go far enough to truly identify what these principles are or even to state clearly and directly what basic principles are guiding the plans that it advocates. It would be possible to create developments that follow the plans described here that would work against the outcomes that it is advocating. Hillier's book, in its analysis of some modern housing estates based on similar goals, demosntrates this.
Yet there is something fundamentally wrong with this book. It is a basic statement of architectural determinism. Traditional suburbs are blamed for all problems in society from environmental pollution to school shootings and possibly even to asteroid impacts causing mass extinctions. There seems to be nothing wrong in society that is not the fault of suburbs and that cannot be fixed by these pedestrian-based communities.
The author acknowleges that the autonomy and privacy provided by the suburban form is attractive to many. He even states that his suggested community form is not antithetical to it. However following that one statement the remainder of the book is a jerimiad against suburban life. Privacy and autonomy references are replaced with descriptions of isolation and alienation.
The book would be more convincing if it remained an advocacy for its desired form. There is no doubt that this form if designed properly can foster the close community life that many people find very attractive. However not all people are attracted to this sort of life. Many people prefer the social autonomy that is provided to them in suburbs. With modern communication mechanisms like the telephone, Email, automobile etc, they can maintain multiple social netowkrs each with the social distance that they find comfortable. They are not forced to interact with a neighbor that they do not care for simply because his residence is nearby.
All in all this is a good book for its purpose. The unfortunate blathering about the short comings of suburbs distracts from its main purpsoe and weakens its argument. However many will find the small community life presented here very attractive.
It is worth reading despite these handicaps.The Regional City Overview

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Complex Justice: The Case of Missouri v. Jenkins Review

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Complex Justice: The Case of Missouri v. Jenkins Review is about a relatively recent but little remembered (unless you happen to have been a Kansas City, MO or Missouri taxpayer) case in which a federal judge took control of a large city's school system to bring black students' test scores up to the level of white students'. Though he (1) ordered Kansas City, MO taxes to be raised, (2) diverted Missouri state taxes to the Kansas City (MO) School District, and (3), caused around two BILLION dollars to be spent to "upgrade" the school system which served mostly black students, the results were zero. It was a waste of 2 BILLION dollars by a federal court which thought it had all of the answers about how to raise black test scores -- and which didn't mind going through 2 BILLION dollars of taxpayers' money like a drunk at the racetrack in the losing gamble on an impossible result..
If the court and its "experts" had read massive psychological data on record at the time, they would have known that test scores depend on IQ which is (1), largely inherited and cannot be raised significantly, and (2), that black IQ in the U.S. is around 15 points (1 standard deviation) lower than white IQ on the bell curve. A good argument can be made that the court and its so-called experts were grossly negligent in taking the actions they took.
Joshua Dunn, author of did an excellent job in putting the account of the case, Missouri v. Jenkins, clearly and succinctly into book form easily understood by anyone having the sense to read it. This book is unlikely to be a best seller because it is not the type to attract a wide audience. Never mind. If you are attracted to read this review, you have enough brains to read and understand this excellent account of why central governments and high courts should never be trusted to legislate/decide morality and spend public money in useless attempts to remake society.
Thank you Joshua Dunn for your work in writing an excellent book about a shameful episode in U.S. legal history.Complex Justice: The Case of Missouri v. Jenkins OverviewIn 1987 Judge Russell Clark mandated tax increases to help pay for improvements to the Kansas City, Missouri, School District in an effort to lure white students and quality teachers back to the inner-city district. Yet even after increasing employee salaries and constructing elaborate facilities at a cost of more than $2 billion, the district remained overwhelmingly segregated and student achievement remained far below national averages.
Just eight years later the U.S. Supreme Court began reversing these initiatives, signifying a major retreat from Brown v. Board of Education. In Kansas City, African American families opposed to the district court's efforts organized a takeover of the school board and requested that the court case be closed. Joshua Dunn argues that Judge Clark's ruling was not the result of tyrannical "judicial activism" but was rather the logical outcome of previous contradictory Supreme Court doctrines. High Court decisions, Dunn explains, necessarily limit the policy choices available to lower court judges, introducing complications the Supreme Court would not anticipate. He demonstrates that the Kansas City case is a model lesson for the types of problems that develop for lower courts in any area in which the Supreme Court attempts to create significant change. Dunn's exploration of this landmark case deepens our understanding of when courts can and cannot successfully create and manage public policy.

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