Where We Want to Live: Reclaiming Infrastructure for a New Generation of Cities

by Ryan Gravel

**Winner, Phillip D. Reed Award for Outstanding Writing on the Southern Environment**

**A Planetizen Top Planning Book for 2017**

After decades of sprawl, many American city and suburban residents struggle with issues related to traffic (and its accompanying challenges for our health and productivity), divided neighborhoods, and a non-walkable life. Urban designer Ryan Gravel makes a case for how we can change this. Cities have the capacity to create a healthier, more satisfying way of life by remodeling and augmenting their infrastructure in ways that connect neighborhoods and communities. Gravel came up with a way to do just that in his hometown with the Atlanta Beltline project. It connects 40 diverse Atlanta neighborhoods to city schools, shopping districts, and public parks, and has already seen a huge payoff in real estate development and local business revenue.

Similar projects are in the works around the country, from the Los Angeles River Revitalization and the Buffalo Bayou in Houston to the Midtown Greenway in Minneapolis and the Underline in Miami. In Where We Want to Live , Gravel presents an exciting blueprint for revitalizing cities to make them places where we truly want to live.

Genres: Urban Planning, Nonfiction, Urbanism, Cities, Urban, Urban Design, Transport

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 26, 2016

Reviews

[Judy Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

A special thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

2016 Best Uran Planning

Urban Atlanta designer, Ryan Gravel delivers a challenge to Americans WHERE WE WANT TO LIVE, Reclaiming Infrastructure for a New Generation of Cities ---his extraordinary vision to create a healthier and more satisfying way of life, by connecting neighborhoods and communities. We all have to embrace the change, work together and do our part—we can make a difference.

As Americans, we are disgusted at the metropolis sprawled before us, with communities moving further out in order to find affordable housing. Therefore, creating, even more, madness on the overcrowded highways. People are relying more and more on the automobiles to get around.

By taking action through businesses, governments, nonprofits, citizen campaigns, grassroots leaders and developers working together—will help create a more sustainable healthy, and equitable way of life for everyone.

WHERE YOU WANT TO LIVE will empower you and inspire to join the plan for changing decades of thinking, the old school way--an environment organized primarily around cars instead of people. We cannot sit back and expect someone else to shape the world on our behalf. Take action in the face of dramatic regional and cultural change, and build communities that we actually want to live in. To start the process, we all have to define what we want and start working together.

From traffic, pollution, and sprawl—mistakes of the past. Think resilient, connected, mobile, healthy, sustainable, economically thriving, and diverse—talking points. Politics of change. Four positions:

Start with small projects from political structure, stop the sprawl, redirect growth. Revitalizing urban neighborhoods and historic Downtown, and refashioning the vast commercial strips of outlying areas into vibrant transit-centered corridors. A means to start a conversation, take action, and help shape a new and better direction. Experimenting with new ideas, cultivating a political structure for change, stopping sprawl, and shift to more sustainable growth strategies, we can build a better future for everyone.

Gravel's vision for Atlanta has moved into a wide-ranging, urban regeneration projects being expanded across the country. It takes ordinary people like all of us and the force of a shared momentum. Everyone has to share in the role for infrastructure and can help shape and advance this cycle of change.

Similar projects are in the works, from the Los Angeles River Revitalization and the Buffalo Bayou in Houston to the Midtown Greenway in Minneapolis and the Underline in Miami. In Where We Want to Live, Gravel presents an exciting blueprint for revitalizing cities to make them places where we truly want to live.

If you have listened to the author’s videos or heard him speak previously, his creative vision came from Paris in 1995. He addresses the beginning, how it took shape and his journey in his insightful book. His interest was to figure out how he could work within the complexities to improve cities like his own hometown of Atlanta. The Beltline was conceived as his graduate thesis. A way to reinvigorate Atlanta’s in-town communities with new development and improved transit mobility. A need for urban regeneration.

Changing the way people think. The process. Discovering a new kind of infrastructure for our lives.

From our ancestors, our history, the rail service, land growth, a growing nation, and the twentieth century. Explosive growth. Urban examination. Suburban growth, traffic congestion, and the ecological consequences of unmitigated sprawl…real change in the way we build our city requires a significant shift in the attitude of a region that has for too long prioritized the automobile as the primary tool for urban expansion.

People are fed up with traffic and sprawl, and rediscovering a new and improved way to live work and play. An intimate relationship between infrastructure and our way of life.

Gravel’s plan connects 40 diverse Atlanta neighborhoods (awesome) to city schools, shopping districts, and public parks, and has already seen a huge payoff in real estate development and local business revenue.

I found the history fascinating and enjoyed catching up with familiar places, and seeing all the work which has been completed thus far. Before I left Atlanta, Ryan was already active with the project- was so excited about the upcoming plans to connect Atlanta and its submarkets. Nicely done!

Whether you want Urban Downtown living or the suburbs, we all want to create a healthier and more satisfying way of life, by connecting neighborhoods and communities.

Read More "A personal note" on My Blog

JDCMustReadBooks

[Paul Edlund · Rating 4 out of 5]

At times somewhat pedantic, but overall a good book. He presents good ideas and I find myself thinking about his ideas at odd moments, so...

[Joseph Seymour · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s a motivating read, both makes me want to travel to Atlanta and improve how I incorporate vision and catalyst infrastructure into plans. It became a little repetitive towards the end, though it’s in service to the thesis. Looking forward to reading the other beltline book, City on the Verge.

[Larry Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book! Gravel puts into clear prose what many of us discuss everyday- the value of walkable cities and the price we are paying in health and quality of life for our automobile-centric infrastructure.
His description of the evolution of the Atlanta Beltway and its positive impact on Atlanta is very interesting and a valuable model for other cities to emulate. His wider description of what goes into making our cities places where the coming generations want to live and work is essential reading.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting anecdotes and insights, especially about perspectives on sprawl and the Beltline's foundational history. For me, however, it was mostly really boring, in that it rehashes basic city planning concepts and the inspirational language surrounding them that I'm more than familiar with (from going through the same grad program as Gravel, in fact). I'm not sure what I was expecting; I guess at the least more about the underlying concepts for the Beltline (especially for future stages) that didn't sound like something I had heard a million times before -- the nitty gritty of the process itself perhaps, or definitely more about how the Beltline will address unexpected criticism/impacts on neighborhoods going forward.

I really should have read this review before bothering with the book -- it's by a professor who I worked under and even wrote a paper about social equity + the Beltline for!

Anyway not bad, and definitely a lot of useful inspiring concepts and info for people who maybe aren't well-versed on city planning impacts but have a familiarity and interest in Atlanta.

[Ryan Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to start with a big qualifier on my review: this book is extremely Atlanta-centric and people who aren't familiar with the region may not understand all of the regional and neighborhood references as easily.

That said, I loved the book as a mini-timeline on Atlanta's growth into a major population center and how catalyst infrastructure like the Beltline seeks to help shape that future. It was great to see the inner workings of an almost 15-year project to bring the Beltline to where it is now.

I would have really enjoyed an extra chapter or 2 digging in to the impact and promise of similar projects that Gravel touches on throughout the book (High Line, LA River, Promenade Plantée, etc) but maybe that's just a second book in the making.

If you have ever lived in and cared about Atlanta you owe it to yourself to read this book and see how differences are made.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

An outstanding book about leveraging unused infrastructure to bring cities back to life. It will join my favorite books about cities: Death and life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs, Rise of the Creative Class by Richard Florida as essential reading. Gravel came up with the idea for the Atlanta Beltline as his masters thesis at GeorgiaTech. Inspiring and hopeful.

[Nathan Griffin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not sure how non-Atlantans would like this book overall, but found this a very fascinating read mostly because Gravel's points are very contextual to Atlanta. Lots of great history and context that sheds so much light on the reasons for starting the Beltline project, and also provides a pretty detailed overview of its longterm goals.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book relates primarily to Atlanta's infrastructure, namely the beltline and its integration of LRT into the public transportation repertoire, alongside a case study of how that enhanced the wellbeing of residents. What I found most helpful about this book as a Canadian reader in Ontario is that it illuminates the relationship between hard infrastructure (roads, sidewalks, transportation routes, etc.) and soft infrastructure (social infrastructure, community development, the capacity for the development of community hubs, etc.). It's definitely not a definitive guide, but for someone looking to explore a case study that demonstrates some possibilities, I highly recommend this.

One thing the book fails to mention is how gentrification plays a role in improving infrastructure for some, but simultaneously making it inaccessible to those it pushes out, whether by physical land appropriation or the cost of living being affected by real estate prices/speculation. The absence of this perspective definitely sheds light on the privileges the author came into writing the book with (white, cisgender, male, heterosexual, middle-class, grad school educated). It made it hard to see past some parts of the book because I felt like the guidelines offered for better infrastructure are platitudes that don't necessarily make room for the realities that equity seeking groups face on the margins when gentrification takes place under the guide of a more "livable" city. I think about "Capital City" by Samuel Stein in the context of this book, or "How to Kill a City" by Peter Moskovitz and it becomes clear that Gravel's book is a positivist rendering of gentrification under the auspices of improved infrastructure. It certainly alludes to issues and provides great language to describe it, but the guidelines it offers didn't quite address the specific character of racialized displacement in areas affected by sprawl that an updated version, or the original version may have done.

One of the best quotes from the book, despite my misgivings about its overall contents, relates to sprawl. I found this quote profoundly relevant as someone who was born in the sprawl outside of Toronto, and raised in the sprawl of Brampton, Ontario where development exploded after 2005, with seemingly little consideration for the need for neighborhoods whose infrastructures support the wellbeing of their residents, while relying less on car-centric visions of the city.

"In sprawl, by sharp contrast, the kneejerk reaction has been to solve the problem by "fixing" the public realm- by adding more lanes to roadway. Of course this asks even more of the public sector, which must now fix the problems that the unregulated private market has created. And since the solution of more lanes, unbound from stringent land-use regulations, only promotes more sprawl, the problem can only get worse. The public sector is always in a defensive position, always playing catch up, and always paying more. Citizens wonder why the costs of maintaining free-flow on all these roads is growing so much and blame government ineptitude rather than the freeloading consumer market.

It is not only the public sector that loses however. Private land and property are often devalued by traffic congestion or by new competition down the road. The only consistent winners are those who play the game: (1) Make a quick investment in cheap land and inexpensive buildings; (2) Sell before their life cycle is over; (3) Move down the road and repeat.

The kind of blight that can be found in the wake of this cycle is most often associated with the devastated town centers and urban neighborhoods that were left behind late in the last century. But sprawl also indiscriminately cannibalizes older sprawl, decimating the economies that once supported early commercial strips and their companion postwar neighborhoods. As it turns out, compared to urban neighborhoods, early sprawl has even less protection than that. In response to new sprawl, old sprawl has a much harder time adapting." (pp.72-73).

I don't think I would read it again, but I am grateful that I had the chance to read this particular perspective as it's given me much to think about.

[Charles Earl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Where We Want to Live last week, having long admired Gravel's conceptualization of the Beltline project. His departure from the Beltline Project https://ryangravel.com/2016/09/27/faq... gave me some concern about the future of the undertaking, but it seems that it speaks to the health of the effort that he's staying true to bringing equity to all the impacted communities.
For those unfamiliar, the Atlanta Beltline Project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BeltLine is a lauded redevelopment in Atlanta that seeks to repurpose and revitalize the brownfields around the various abandoned commuter rails that ringed Atlanta. These rail lines date to the late 19th and early 20th century. I grew up listening to my great aunts and grandparents lamenting the demise of the Atlanta "trolleys" (rails and their later electric bus incarnations).
Gravel is the planner/architect who formed the idea of utilizing the abandoned rails (the last "trolley" ran in 1949), along with a growing green space movement to revitalize the idea of mass transit in the Atlanta metro area. This was first put together in his master's thesis at Georgia Tech. The success of the project is evident now throughout Atlanta -- Ponce City Market and the Beltline walking paths being some of visible highlights.
I found the book wonderful for how it connects the evolution of the project with a sense of physical space. The inspirations, from his walks in Paris as an undergrad to his reflections back to the noisy apartment fortuitously next to the railroad tracks are great for setting the context.
His discussion of equity -- that is the sense that redevelopment benefit the poor and the African American residents of Atlanta who've historically been on the loosing end of redevelopment (ala Techwood Homes and other "gentrifications" ) -- was for me the highlight of the book.
I think at times the writing veered into an academic style, so perhaps there is an unevenness in it.
I feel however that he's done an amazing job at capturing in a small book the essence and important ideas of a movement that will impact many cities for the good in the coming century. The book inspired me to walk more, to look for opportunities in my own community to the east of Atlanta, to become involved at making equity a part of life.
I took a lunch walk along the edges of the Beltline just the other day and came across old track still covered in kudzu (the amazingly fast vine of these parts). The possibilities stretched far beyond the horizon.

[Bill Leach · Rating 2 out of 5]

While the title implies a broader viewpoint, this book is about the author's work to redevelop the Atlanta Beltline. The book begins with the author's fond remembrance of early years in Paris where he lived in higher density are where all amenities were within walking distance. Believing that such neighborhoods are superior to urban sprawl, he lead a move to re-develop a roughly circular set of four early railway lines with adjacent industrial line.

The primary objective seems to be "urban-scaled mixed-use redevelopment", while also preserving 40 existing neighborhoods. No specific transportation component seems to be included other than new transit stations and a trail / greenway. Some 4000 acres of land were slated for re-development. New parks were built with the vision of adding 1400 acres of new park space.

While the Beltway redevelopment is seen by residents as a very positive initiative, especially in terms of green space and attractiveness, it is unclear what this project demonstrates in urban design concepts. Virtually no information is provided in this book on the resultant urban densities, or what commercial development took place. Presumably, the many new residents work - but where and how to they get there? While this development contributes less to urban sprawl than single family residential, how is it any different than any other medium density development?

The worst part of this book is that is full of vague, virtually meaningless wording. For example, in talking about transportation the author states that if the land "... is redeveloped appropriately, future population and employment growth on those sites will support it. This runs contrary to much conventional contemporary planning practice, but taps into a more intuitive understanding about city building.". Presumably this means that no transportation planning has been done.

[Erik Rostad · Rating 4 out of 5]

I lived in Midtown Atlanta as the first section of the Beltline was completed. The Beltline is an initiative created by the author of this book, Ryan Gravel, to connect four separate, unused rail lines that form a 22-mile perimeter around the city of Atlanta. I began running that first 2-mile section on the east side of the city almost every day. It was amazing to see a grand project begin to take root, be embraced and loved by many, and immediately transform the city of Atlanta in multiple ways.

This book describes the process of master’s thesis to city-wide implementation. As someone who lived in Atlanta for 24 years, it was fascinating. Ryan Gravel covered the history of the city and the sprawl that has come to define it. But it’s a book with a larger scope than just the Beltline project or Atlanta’s infrastructure history. It’s a book about thinking big. Pursuing big ideas. Gathering support. Finding the best solutions for the most people. Repurposing what already exists instead of starting from scratch.

I loved this book. I probably loved it more than most people because of my connection to Atlanta. But this book covers a number of cities and provides ideas for any type of big project.

[Jonathan Karron · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a huge fan of the Atlanta Beltline (I live a block away from it) I’ve had the chance to see Ryan speak and have read about some of his ideas and his inspiration for his vision. But hadn’t seen it pulled together in a comprehensive way like this book did.

I’m not a city planner or architect and sections of this book felt a bit oriented towards that crowd. And I was less interested in Detroit, LA and other cities he talked about (but applaud them for working to reclaim rivers, railroad tracks, etc).

Foe anyone in ATL and a fan of the beltline though, this is definitely worth a read. So glad his vision came to life (or some version of it) as it has truly transformed and connected my adopted hometown and I personally am on the beltline almost daily.

[Pamela · Rating 3 out of 5]

So many interesting ideas and stories, but the overall effect is underwhelming. The writing rarely is just okay, occasionally rising to good but frequently dipping into awful. Highlights were his defence of (some) sprawl and clearly differentiating a few eras of sprawl designs. I liked the last chapters on infrastructure and equity, civic identity and wellness. Overall the story of the creation of the Beltline was...underwhelming? As often as he refers to as a monumental struggle, it doesn't hold any narrative interest and the overall impression was that it was a fairly dry administrative affair.

[Atuck · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for a City Policy class.

Gravel provides explanations and defenses for his Atlanta Beltline project, complete with lessons on sprawl and the necessity of more walkable communities.

The issue with the book is that Gravel eventually ends up having to defend the Beltline after it is clear that it fails to protect current residents from gentrification. Understanding that his creation is out of his hands, he defends it, essentially saying that no matter who enjoys the benefits it had to be done. Even since the book, developers in bed with the project have utilized loopholes to prevent adhering to stipulations for a certain amount of protected low income housing.

[Rachel Whitfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish it would have gone deeper into the various mechanisms involved in creating a “catalyst” project. This is definitely inspiring from a community engagement perspective but from a planning perspective there wasn’t enough specific material, much more glazing over certain extremely important conversations such as affordable housing and who gets the short end of the stick even when “good” change is occurring. But, it’s also a book written before many of these changes went down in Atlanta. But love Ryan Gravel of course, as a daily Beltline user

[Evan Kostelka · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author does a great job of discussing the Atlanta Beltline and a few other projects in the US that are similar in spirit to the fighting of sprawl.
However, I was led to believe this was more of a study on sprawl and its effects. There is a good chapter about that in here, and tidbits are sprinkled throughout but this book is more of a history and discussion of the Atlanta Beltline project.

[emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

a bit biased as an atl native but i really loved this! i enjoyed the comparison between the beltline and other social infrastructure projects, it made the goals of the beltline not feel so impossible. interesting to read this so many years after it was written and compare to what’s actually been done.

[A Ter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Few others other than Ryan Gravel can expertly meld the big ideas of a thinker with the detail and practicality of a technocrat and the gusto and coalition building of a politician. This book is both inspiring and pragmatic.

[Ramiro Santana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gave more insight about Atlanta, a city where I have been living for over 5 years already, and really enjoyed learning more about it. I think that this is a must-read for anyone living in the area and wants to understand the situation with our present-day transportation system.

[Hillary Copsey · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing isn't strong, and the author is self-congratulatory. However, if you're interested in city planning and the Atlanta Belt Line, which the author helped create and of which he should be proud, then it's worth a quick skim.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating book that made me fall in love again with a city that has seen so much pain lately (2020.) So thankful for visionaries like Ryan Gravel and their area of giftedness to improve how we connect with one another! Great book!

[Tyler Richards · Rating 2 out of 5]

Man spent a summer in Paris and made it the personality of his whole book. Would have loved more about why connecting various Atlanta suburbs would be so great! Cool idea all around, but a 2 star book. One more mention of a Boulangerie and I would have exploded.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars - loved the content

[Adam Epstein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting portrayal of one mans quest to reform city design in Atlanta

[Benjamin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some good tidbits here and there that I appreciated, but also a ton of what felt like empty writing. The core arguments are agreeable and true, but also obvious. Lots of references to different places, projects, plans, but little elaboration. I'm surprised at how little I learned from this book.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gravel is a fantastic planner, with wonderful perspective and genuinely novel ideas. He is, however, not as good a writer, and so this book drags a little at times. I would still recommend it for planners.

[Jeramey · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title really should have been something about the Atlanta Belt Line because that's almost exclusively what this book is about.

That said, it feels too early in The Belt Line's history for a book like this. I suspect in a couple years this would be a much better book.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

In documenting the origin story of the Atlanta Beltline, Gravel provides historical context for the problems it seeks to mitigate and how its inception can serve as a model for those looking to build better cities atop outmoded infrastructure. Those seeking to assemble diverse coalitions to achieve the seemingly impossible will benefit from the lessons in Where We Want to Live.

He also offers an indictment of relentless sprawl, illustrating how it damages us physically, financially, and culturally. Even the suburbs are not immune from the eternal current of car-dependent development.

"Every site undercuts the value of the others. By preventing walkable concentrations that would more likely hold their value because they are more resilient and adaptable to changing market conditions, and by continuously offering new competing sites of equal value just a little bit farther down the road, sprawl creates a vicious cycle of suburban cannibalization."

The author also details similar movements and projects underway in New York City, Los Angeles, and Detroit to show that these issues are not limited to Atlanta. The future of the city is rising, Where We Want to Live offers us a glimpse of what that can look like.

[Michael Lewyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The beginning and end of this book discusses the growth and decline of suburbia; it didn't tell me much I didn't already know, but it may be useful for readers less familiar with this issue. Even in this relatively dry part of the book, Gravel makes a few interesting points such as a) the evils of long blocks (which make walking boring by reducing pedestrians' choices), (b) the difference between 1950s sprawl (which is basically auto-oriented but usually allows children to walk to school and a shop or two) and more recent, more anti-pedestrian sprawl and c) the inflexibility of cul-de-sac dominated sprawl, which cannot be changed from one use to another as easily as gridded streets.

The middle of the book, focusing on the Beltline, was more interesting to me. Gravel notes that while megaprojects often trigger a "Not In My Back Yard" (NIMBY) response to affected neighborhoods, neighbors of the Beltline got behind it. Gravel suggests that it was popular precisely because it didn't originate from a mayor or real estate developer or some other controversial group, and also because it would replace abandoned rail lines that had been centers for crime and vagrancy. (Also, parks tend to be less polarizing than transit or new housing).