Showing posts with label Cities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cities. Show all posts

Monday, 5 June 2017

Strap Hanger by Taras Grescoe - Book Report #185

Being a daily commuter who travels by bus I found this book to be quite satisfying.

In it the author explores the rapid transit systems of New York City, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Paris, Copenhagen, Moscow, Tokyo, Bogota, Portland, Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal.

All of these cities, including my own, have a combination of busses and rail as part of a larger public transportation system.

What was interesting was how some cities get the rail right and others simply don't.  It was interesting to learn how each system came about and how they evolved.


I read this book entirely on my commutes and felt pretty good about myself in that I am using a system that will play a bigger part in our lives in the future.

Not only was it informative on the subject of transit but it also worked as a travel book.  In each city the author gives a history of the city and a bit of the flavour and how the population lives.

I liked the book very much.

Taras Grescoe


Monday, 3 August 2015

Triumph of the City by Edward Glaeser - Book Report #140

One more in my quest for the good in the world. Here Glaeser makes a compelling and well researched argument that the city is humanity's best invention.

I came to this book after listening to the Freakonomics podcast from May 6, 2015 titled Could The Next Brooklyn Be ... Las Vegas?!  Listen to that as a good companion to the book.  You can find it here:

http://freakonomics.com/2015/05/11/could-the-next-brooklyn-be-las-vegas-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/

Everything you love and hate about city life is explored; the very nature of crowds,  people bumping into each other and exchanging ideas has led to advancements in science, business and the arts. 


By compressing people and building up, instead of sprawling out we take up much less land and reduce our individual carbon footprint. 

My favourite thought came from chapter 8, titled Is There Anything Greener Than Blacktop?  "If you love nature, stay away from it."

 
He also tackles the difficult subject of cities in decline, think Detroit of today and New York of the 1970's and how cities have re-imagined themselves over and over again. 

All in all I found this book to be a fascinating read. It made me think of where my city is doing things right and where it is not.

Edward Glaeser