Happy City

What Hacker News says

1. dlsmithApr 2023
   You might enjoy the book Happy City, by Charles Montgomery.
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2. bkettleMar 2023
   "Happy City" by Charles Montgomery brings an interesting angle on the typical urban planning story by focusing largely on how we can plan cities and communities to maximize happiness. In the book, he discusses that people have this "ideal" of moving to the suburbs, owning their own house, etc, but then the long commutes, isolation of living in a car-dependent neighborhood, dangers of living among high-speed cars, etc. all lead many people to actually be less happy overall after moving to the suburbs.

   So I think that some of this fact that the suburbs are desirable is not necessarily completely rational, and may instead be heavily influenced by the idea that moving to suburbs is what they grew up seeing as their future (due, of course, to federal programs that incentivized suburbanization) and by auto-industry lobbying and marketing that idealizes a car-dependent lifestyle.

   Obviously there will be variability and I'm sure many people enjoy a suburban/rural lifestyle more than they would a city lifestyle. But I don't know if a preference for suburban living is really part of our human nature, and I think assuming that it is can be detrimental as it can take effort away from recreating the peace and quiet and nature access in a way that is accessible to all in a more efficient urban setting.

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3. mattcantstopAug 2021
   For those who are interested in what makes a great town, I recommend two books: Happy City by Charles Montgomery, and Strong Towns by Charles Marohn. Both were red pill/blue pill books for me on what makes a great city.

   When my wife and I moved we completely changed what we were looking for in a house/community. We wanted a Main Street style town. We used to love master planned communities with huge houses. In our small, Main Street style town all of our kids can walk/ride to school, we have two grocery stores within 2 miles away, and all our doctors are biking/riding distance. It's changed how we live. We sold our second car. We own so many bikes. We are more active.

   Cul-de-sac looks really promising. I've been following along and am excited to see what they create. We need more experiments, even if some don't work out.

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4. simonebrunozziMar 2021
   > what me and perhaps many other Europeans think about the American suburb is simply not apparent to a lot of Americans.

   I share this sentiment a lot. Especially given my 30+ years growing up and living in Italy, and 8+ years in the San Francisco Bay Area.

   I liked how this article provided clear examples of what's different, and what's important, about a city.

   A great book I'd recommend is Happy City, by Charles Montgomery. [0] It will most likely change your perspective on how a city should be, but often isn't.

   [0]: https://thehappycity.com/the-book/

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5. 19gFeb 2021
   +1 for Walkable City! For everyone saying that the conclusions in the post are obvious, it apparently wasn't obvious enough that in the US, many cities are built for cars and not people.

   Another good book is 'Happy City' although I liked Walkable City more.

   https://www.amazon.com/Happy-City-Transforming-Through-Desig...

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6. cvigoeJul 2017
   Anyone interested in nature in cities, urban planning and new urbanism should vhe l out "Happy City" by Charles Montgomery. A really enjoyable read.
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