Main entry:

Fowler, Edmund P., 1942-

Title & Author:

Building cities that work / Edmund P. Fowler.

Publication:

Montreal : McGill-Queen's University Press, 1992.

Description:

xv, 315 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Postwar City Building from Above and Below. The New Urban Environment. The Areas of the Toronto Study -- pt. 1. The Lack of Physical Diversity: Its Consequences. 2. The Economic Costs of the New North American City. The Costs of Municipal Services. Housing. Retail and Manufacturing. Conclusions. 3. The Social Consequences of the New North American City. The Suburbs. Likes and Dislikes. Friendship Patterns. Crime. 4. Children. Belonging to the Environment. Socializing. Juvenile Delinquency. 5. Politics and the New Urban Environment. Conventional Politics. Authentic Politics. Local Government. The Impact of the New Built Environment on Politics -- pt. 2. Exploring Why We Built This Way: Openings to Change. 6. Why Did We Do It? Explanations for the Postwar Urban Environment. Economic Explanations. Political Explanations. Culture. Planners and Planning. 7. Basic Assumptions. Separation from Nature. Economic Institutions. Political Institutions. 8. Our Cities, Our Selves -- Appendix: The Areas and Their Scores on Physical Diversity.

Summary:

Building Cities That Work expands the current debate on urban development by integrating important aspects of city life that are often thought of separately. Using Jane Jacobs' critique of postwar city-building as a starting point, Edmund Fowler shows that recent North American urban development has been characterized by development projects on a massive scale, on indiscriminate use of vast areas of land, and an increasingly evident homogeneity. These are characteristics, he argues, of a perverse and unnatural way of building that is wrecking the planet and enfeebling our social and political networks. In monetary terms this kind of development costs us billions of dollars for transportation, utilities, and other municipal services--the ecological costs are incalculable. Land use patterns have not only helped to undermine community cohesiveness, they have also discouraged block-level democracy and the development of a sense of responsibility for one's locality. Children grow up without proper socialization and contribute to a thriving subculture of vandalism and other street crime. In answering the question of why we began developing cities in this way, Fowler used Toronto as a case study, conducting extensive field work in nineteen areas of the city. He shows not only that postwar building was the result of conscious public policy but goes further, arguing that our cities reflect deep-seated insecurities and cultural malaise in surprisingly direct ways. Tower concludes on a positive note, with many examples of how people have rethought their values and, in cooperation with their neighbours, have organized their physical and social environments on a small, ecologically friendly scale.

Resources:
Table of contents

ISBN:

0773508201
9780773508200
0773511830
9780773511835

Subject:

City planning Canada.
City planning United States.
City planning Ontario Toronto.
Urbanisme Canada.
Urbanisme États-Unis.
Urbanisme Ontario Toronto.
City planning
Stedenbouw.
Canada
Ontario Toronto
United States

Holdings:

Location: Library main 76555
Call No.: ID:92-B62
Status: Available