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Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time

Jeff Speck · 4 HN comments
HN Books has aggregated all Hacker News stories and comments that mention "Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time" by Jeff Speck.
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Amazon Summary
Jeff Speck has dedicated his career to determining what makes cities thrive. And he has boiled it down to one key factor: walkability. The very idea of a modern metropolis evokes visions of bustling sidewalks, vital mass transit, and a vibrant, pedestrian-friendly urban core. But in the typical American city, the car is still king, and downtown is a place that's easy to drive to but often not worth arriving at. Making walkability happen is relatively easy and cheap; seeing exactly what needs to be done is the trick. In this essential new book, Speck reveals the invisible workings of the city, how simple decisions have cascading effects, and how we can all make the right choices for our communities. Bursting with sharp observations and real-world examples, giving key insight into what urban planners actually do and how places can and do change, Walkable City lays out a practical, necessary, and eminently achievable vision of how to make our normal American cities great again.
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Hacker News Stories and Comments

All the comments and stories posted to Hacker News that reference this book.
I would think that contractors need to dig a deep hole to ensure the foundations of the building are secure - get into the bedrock, especially in earthquake zones. Whether the car parks are below or above ground is moot.

That said - The High Cost of Free Parking (1) and The Walkable City (2) are both excellent reads on the matter of parking and car parks. The second is the more readable.

(1) http://www.amazon.com/High-Cost-Parking-Updated-Edition/dp/1... (2) http://www.amazon.com/Walkable-City-Downtown-Save-America/dp...

Anechoic
I would think that contractors need to dig a deep hole to ensure the foundations of the building are secure - get into the bedrock, especially in earthquake zones

Not necessarily, spread footings or piles can work if designed properly and the soil can support it.

I recommend this book as relevant to your interests: http://www.amazon.com/Walkable-City-Downtown-Save-America/dp...

Speck is kinda acerbic, but if you can get past this, his points are very good.

> In response to the general subject of driving, it is my opinion that arbitrary point-to-point human mobility is an essential feature of an ideal society. The inability to move from place to place for employment, vacation, or recreation is, again in my opinion, detrimental to society's mutual respect and wellbeing, and leads to economic and cultural segregation.

But a pervasive public transit system, combined with cycling and walking, achieves that. What it doesn't achieve is the capacity to ship large items between arbitrary points, and a distinct comparative slowness when traveling long distances (vaguely defined).

And you could just as easily argue that the health of a society is degraded by the over-usage of what amounts to an isolating coffin on wheels. There are no opportunities to casually chat with a stranger (unless you carpool with different people, or yell out the window at stopped traffic lights) while in transit: only the endpoints of your trip matter for the cross-pollination you speak of. I would expect this results in zones of high quality surrounded by the mortar of low quality areas.

Incidentally, I picked up this book today: http://www.amazon.com/Walkable-City-Downtown-Save-America/dp... I haven't read it yet and thus cannot recommend it.

A great book that was recently released that talks about how to "fix" cities is Walkable City by Jeff Speck. Very compelling read.

http://www.amazon.com/Walkable-City-Downtown-Save-America/dp...

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