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Within Walking Distance: Creating Livable Communities for All
For five thousand years, human settlements were nearly always compact places. Everything a person needed on a regular basis lay within walking distance. But then the great project of the twentieth century—sorting people, businesses, and activities into separate zones, scattered across vast metropolises—took hold, exacting its toll on human health, natural resources, and the climate. Living where things were beyond walking distance ultimately became, for many people, a recipe for frustration. As a result, many Americans have begun seeking compact, walkable communities or looking for ways to make their current neighborhood better connected, more self-sufficient, and more pleasurable.
In Within Walking Distance , journalist and urban critic Philip Langdon looks at why and how Americans are shifting toward a more human-scale way of building and living. He shows how people are creating, improving, and caring for walkable communities. There is no one-size-fits-all approach. Starting conditions differ radically, as do the attitudes and interests of residents. To draw the most important lessons, Langdon spent time in six communities that differ in size, history, wealth, diversity, and education, yet share crucial compactness, a mix of uses and activities, and human scale. The six are Center City Philadelphia; the East Rock section of New Haven, Connecticut; Brattleboro, Vermont; the Little Village section of Chicago; the Pearl District in Portland, Oregon; and the Cotton District in Starkville, Mississippi. In these communities, Langdon examines safe, comfortable streets; sociable sidewalks; how buildings connect to the public realm; bicycling; public transportation; and incorporation of nature and parks into city or town life. In all these varied settings, he pays special attention to a vital local commitment.
To improve conditions and opportunities for everyone, Langdon argues that places where the best of life is within walking distance ought to be at the core of our thinking. This book is for anyone who wants to understand what can be done to build, rebuild, or improve a community while retaining the things that make it distinctive.
In Within Walking Distance , journalist and urban critic Philip Langdon looks at why and how Americans are shifting toward a more human-scale way of building and living. He shows how people are creating, improving, and caring for walkable communities. There is no one-size-fits-all approach. Starting conditions differ radically, as do the attitudes and interests of residents. To draw the most important lessons, Langdon spent time in six communities that differ in size, history, wealth, diversity, and education, yet share crucial compactness, a mix of uses and activities, and human scale. The six are Center City Philadelphia; the East Rock section of New Haven, Connecticut; Brattleboro, Vermont; the Little Village section of Chicago; the Pearl District in Portland, Oregon; and the Cotton District in Starkville, Mississippi. In these communities, Langdon examines safe, comfortable streets; sociable sidewalks; how buildings connect to the public realm; bicycling; public transportation; and incorporation of nature and parks into city or town life. In all these varied settings, he pays special attention to a vital local commitment.
To improve conditions and opportunities for everyone, Langdon argues that places where the best of life is within walking distance ought to be at the core of our thinking. This book is for anyone who wants to understand what can be done to build, rebuild, or improve a community while retaining the things that make it distinctive.
280 pages, Paperback
Published May 16, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 16, 2023
DNF
Well intended, but the author seems to have a poor understanding of many things. Maybe I missed the point. But, there’s just too much that go against the theme of the book.
Well intended, but the author seems to have a poor understanding of many things. Maybe I missed the point. But, there’s just too much that go against the theme of the book.
September 9, 2017
Philip Langdon wrote A Good Place to Live, a cover story for Atlantic Monthly thirty years ago about people building new communities that made walking a central element of everyday life. Here, in this book, Langdon explores the human element in communities.
For five thousand years, city people found everything they needed within walking distance. People found that building a city at pedestrian scale allows everyone to participate in the life of the community. But that sphere began to change about two hundred years ago as modern transportation began to evolve.
“We should find the best of life within walking distance,” Langdon writes, suggesting the name for this book. And that’s the goal of this book, he adds.
But, over the past two hundred years conditions changed, as explained by Peter Norton in his own five-star book, Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City.
Langdon gives six dense places chapters of their own, featuring a mix of uses relating to the eye and human gait. Among the stories, I found the one about Portland most interesting.
Langdon visited Portland twenty-five years ago to write about one of the most appealing downtowns in the country after turning itself around from its earlier run-of-the-mill status.
The Pearl District of Portland, since the seventies, created the best large walkable neighborhood in the core of an American city, an area of 120 blocks, writes Langdon.
The Pearl District’s secret sauce? Small blocks. Two hundred feet on a side give a human scale and more corners. Compare that with the grid of cities from a similar era, such as Chicago and Milwaukee, where large blocks occupy six times the area of the Pearl blocks.
Portland spent years experimenting with ways to make downtown welcoming to pedestrians. The Pearl benefited from those trials, writes Langdon. Portland also works to make its buildings presentable on all four exposures.
Portland’s progress traces back forty-five years. An investment strategy emerged based on Jane Jacobs thoughts and observations, published in her classic book, The Death and Life of American Cities.
“Places organized at the pedestrian scale function as the healthiest and most rewarding places to live and work,” Langdon writes in his conclusion.
Few people made note of Portland as a city until the early seventies. Portland now takes pride in its status as “a moralistic community,” focused on the public good. For some time, the city offered transportation and land-use planning classes to the public so that they could understand the systems. These civic skills raised the level of debate.
This book pairs well with Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Timeby Jeff Speck and Completing Our Streets: The Transition to Safe and Inclusive Transportation Networksby Barbara McCann.
Fourteen pages of notes and an eight-page index support this book.
For five thousand years, city people found everything they needed within walking distance. People found that building a city at pedestrian scale allows everyone to participate in the life of the community. But that sphere began to change about two hundred years ago as modern transportation began to evolve.
“We should find the best of life within walking distance,” Langdon writes, suggesting the name for this book. And that’s the goal of this book, he adds.
But, over the past two hundred years conditions changed, as explained by Peter Norton in his own five-star book, Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City.
Langdon gives six dense places chapters of their own, featuring a mix of uses relating to the eye and human gait. Among the stories, I found the one about Portland most interesting.
Langdon visited Portland twenty-five years ago to write about one of the most appealing downtowns in the country after turning itself around from its earlier run-of-the-mill status.
The Pearl District of Portland, since the seventies, created the best large walkable neighborhood in the core of an American city, an area of 120 blocks, writes Langdon.
The Pearl District’s secret sauce? Small blocks. Two hundred feet on a side give a human scale and more corners. Compare that with the grid of cities from a similar era, such as Chicago and Milwaukee, where large blocks occupy six times the area of the Pearl blocks.
Portland spent years experimenting with ways to make downtown welcoming to pedestrians. The Pearl benefited from those trials, writes Langdon. Portland also works to make its buildings presentable on all four exposures.
Portland’s progress traces back forty-five years. An investment strategy emerged based on Jane Jacobs thoughts and observations, published in her classic book, The Death and Life of American Cities.
“Places organized at the pedestrian scale function as the healthiest and most rewarding places to live and work,” Langdon writes in his conclusion.
Few people made note of Portland as a city until the early seventies. Portland now takes pride in its status as “a moralistic community,” focused on the public good. For some time, the city offered transportation and land-use planning classes to the public so that they could understand the systems. These civic skills raised the level of debate.
This book pairs well with Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Timeby Jeff Speck and Completing Our Streets: The Transition to Safe and Inclusive Transportation Networksby Barbara McCann.
Fourteen pages of notes and an eight-page index support this book.
March 17, 2020
As someone who lived in the Rittenhouse Square/Fitler Square area of Philadelphia between 1970 and 1990, I was very interested to see how the changes that I saw beginning there were described in the first chapter of this book. I was amazed to see how the community organizations had successfully continued working to enlarge the community without losing the qualities that made the area so interesting. Using examples of six towns or districts of cities that have been transformed into vibrant walkable communities, Langdon highlighted several approaches or conditions that allowed this to happen. He also noted the advantages gained by the residents of these communities where street layout, building placement, availability of transit, and easy access to shops and gathering spaces allow them to know their neighbors. Each example chapter (except the one on Starkville, Mississippi where the conversion to a walkable space was driven by one person with a vision and the money and skill to change the built environment) showed how the elements necessary to create and sustain these walkable neighborhoods were the result of collaboration with community groups, city governments, business groups, and transit companies. The final chapter gives examples of how more specific efforts such as Complete Streets, temporary 'Tactical Urbanism" projects, bike lanes, and target code reforms can ensure that the areas continue to include residents of varied economic status, ages, and cultural backgrounds, all things that make the neighborhoods interesting. This book was well written for the layman and is filled with ideas and visions of what neighborhoods can be.
April 10, 2020
If I could rate 4.5, I would do. Langdon does an excellent job in telling the histories, successes, and strategies of six walkable communities in the US. Building communities, coming together, practicing what Jane Jacobs preached... all necessary ingredients in the New Urbanism recipe. What the book lacked however (and this could be my selfish desire) are potential solutions or tactics for larger urban environments. I live in downtown Los Angeles, historically a ghost town / parking lot after work hours, turned fledgling vibrant walkable neighborhood — in comparing against Langdon’s description of the Pearl District in Portland, I can see where LA could take some tips. Sadly though, developers here seem more concerned with single building amenities only offered to their tenants above the podium and less intrigued by connections to ‘the street’.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, if only for the hope it offers re: the want and need for more walkable communities in years to come, regardless of city size.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, if only for the hope it offers re: the want and need for more walkable communities in years to come, regardless of city size.
May 21, 2020
I always enjoy reading about good urban spaces and this was no exception. The author chose a variety of towns to review from large to small. It paints an easily understood picture of what makes these places comfortable and enjoyable. I especially enjoyed reading the descriptions of how each neighborhood addressed revitalizing their spaces - each was in a different context and responded accordingly. The programs in New Haven differed from Philadelphia
May 25, 2020
A greatly organized book that frames how walkability contributes to the success of a diversity of communities. Often the author's argument seems to support incremental development and interpersonal relationships of business owners with the neighborhood as the backbone for establishing a strong walkable community. Each example makes me want to visit that community with a greater appreciation for the steps that were taken to get to where it is today.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews