Common Ground in a Liquid City: Essays in Defense of an Urban Future

by Matt Hern

If we want to preserve what's still left of the natural world, we need to stop using so much of it. And, says veteran environmental activist Matt Hern, cities are the best chance we have left for a truly ecological future . . . but what does it take to make a truly sustainable city? Common Ground in a Liquid City is a fun and engaging look at the future of urban life. Hern takes us on a journey through over a dozen urban centers, from Vancouver to Istanbul, Las Vegas, and beyond, exploring the history and current composition of cities around the globe and highlighting the elements of each that make it livable. Each of Hern's ten chapters focuses on a central theme of city diversity, street life, crime, population density, water and natural life, gentrification, and globalism. What emerges in the end is an appealing portrait of what the urban future might look like—environmentally friendly, locally focused, and governed from below. Matt Hern is an inveterate city dweller and an environmental and education activist. The editor of Everywhere All the A New Deschooling Reader and the author of Deschooling Our Lives and Field Day , he founded Vancouver's Car-Free Day and is the director of the Purple Thistle Center for alternative education. These days, he lives in Vancouver with his partner and daughters and lectures widely around the globe.

Genres: Nonfiction, Urban Planning, Urban Studies, Cities, Politics, Urbanism, Economics

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Robert Wechsler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has some valuable ideas about a sustainable future for cities (and the value of people living in cities, where they use less resources per capita). It’s written in a straightforward, almost conversational manner, with a focus on Hern’s city, Vancouver, while Hern talks about other cities he visited or lived in.

[Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a fun read shoutout to andrew from community books.

Hern covers a lot of ground here. Talks urban agriculture, the disneylandification of cities, diversity and solidarity, the myth of community policing, the sterility that New Urbanists are unwittingly pushing for, and more. Visits Portland, Thessaloniki, Diyarbakir, Istanbul, and lots of other places. Hern writes colloquially at times while also making some really nuanced arguments. Basically ranting on paper which I like.

I know this is a series of essays tying things back to Vancouver, but I do wish we got more about the places in each chapter. We learn very little about Portland, for instance, and making the Portland chapter all about CLTs and shared ownership models felt like a bit of a reach. There’s so much going on in this book and so many arguments that we’re not getting depth on a lot of points.

However, I still really enjoyed. This tickled my brain because there were a lot of well-worn urbanist principles discussed here that I appreciate being reminded of, but also a lot of arguments that I’ve never encountered. Hern is a leftist publishing with AK press and ranting about the neoliberal city in a way that’s compelling, and he’s making arguments that have real policy implications and weight. He sticks to his key themes of relocalization, horizontalism, authenticity, sharing of space, and a few others. There’s a lot to learn here, but a lot left to be learnt too. Will have to read up more and flesh out some of the ideas Hern put forth here.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a really thought-provoking, well-studied book. In many ways it uses Jane Jacobs's classic urban planning study (The Death and Life of Great American Cities) as a jumping off point. It takes Jacobs's core insights into the values of urban diversity, community, and public space and re-considers them in the context of explosive urban growth. Issues like digital technology, globalization, and sustainability are clearly much bigger than they used to be, and Hern brings his own loud voice to the table, championing the power of grassroots ("potluck") organizations, community initiatives, and environmental activism in the face of gentrification and corporate interests.

I agree with much of the content, and truly admire Hern's practice-what-I-preach ethos. However, some of his opinions border on being too idealistic. Human greed and individualism cannot exclusively be associated with real estate developers or the economic elite, and too much faith in the community can be dangerous as well. Ideas such as planting fruit trees on public streets sound great in an idealized world, but they also overlook human shortcomings such as the "tragedy of the commons" that unfortunately have to be considered. I assume Hern is aware of this because he makes attempts to understand opposing views, but at times the book feels more like a cynical left vs. right rant than a true call for change.

The writing style was also a bit trying for me. The book is equal parts academia and bar talk, so seeing words like "densification" and "boo-fucking-hoo" in the same sentence is not uncommon. I'm not a purist when it comes writing styles, but somehow this clash made me take the book a little less seriously.

[Doug Brunell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author Matt Hern does a great job of making a case for why cities should be the wave of the future if only to save the world and its resources (including humans). He does it all by comparing cities he's traveled to around the world to his then-current hometown of Vancouver. I did not think I would be much interested in his findings, but his writing style and argument make it hard not to be engaged.

One thing that Hern does not shy away from is the problems inherent in making cities bigger and more useful. He realizes the economic shift is going to hurt people, including several who already feel a lot of economic pain. After all, if everyone is growing their own food on whatever lots or rooftops they have, what happens to your local grocer and all she employs? Hern also tackles the environmental problems such as what happens when you give people access to things like lakes and oceans that are good for the mental health, but ultimately end up becoming polluted simply by humans enjoying them?

Anyone who is even the slightest bit interested in this topic would benefit greatly from reading Hern's book. I would go so far as to say it should even be designated a textbook for some college course.

[Thomas Cafe · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first foray into a radical, social understanding of urbanism and the importance of the 'city' as a phenomenon. Hern gives a great case for a radical urban future showing a great understanding of theory around the topic as well as providing some inspiring examples and practical tools on how we can physically build these communities. The book used Vancouver BC as a starting point and through comparison with cities across the world Hern tries to build a series of arguments around what needs to be done by Vancouver to combat the rise of neoliberal capital and it's stranglehold on the 21st Century city.

[Elevate Difference · Rating 5 out of 5]

First off, let me say I am not a big fan of urban planning. Even the kindly Jane Jacobs got it wrong with her advocacy of new building along side streets—infill. The condo craze that damages communities from Brooklyn, where I live, to Vancouver, the focus of Common Ground in a Liquid City, can proceed very well along side streets to gentrification and displacement. Author Matt Hern put all my defenses on alert by his proposition early on that continuing urbanization is a given and that greater urban density is essential on a planet of diminishing resources.

Through disarming chunks of personal narrative, Hern manages to craft an argument that soothed me, a victim twice-over of mainstream urban planning, sufficiently enough to win me over. Perhaps city-dwellers can rationally and emotionally work toward a better urban future for all. Patiently, he turns up the dial on radical analysis to indict our metastasizing capitalist “growth” and help us hear its attendant liquid slosh of cash, careers, and mobility.

In both his thoughtful travelogues and his arguments, he gives the concept of place, real dirt and actual location, its rightful, well, place in society and the economy. (He acknowledges the argument that modern communities can also be based on common social and professional interests, but does not refute it here.) For Hern, place is the foundation of community, even though he travels as far as the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir to make his points. He always comes back to his neighborhood in East Vancouver.

I particularly enjoyed his account of his quick get-away from New York City in the face of his partner’s unplanned pregnancy. Not “making it” in New York is a cliched B-movie plot; it is also more often than not a rational and strategic retreat from self-destruction. His is bittersweet, and distance may allow him better to take down the Rudy Giuliani style over policing that doesn’t prevent stabbings on the subway but does drain the city budget.

A few words about the artful structure of the book: each chapter compares Vancouver with another city or town and focuses on making a point. I particularly like how he pinpoints the similarities between Vancouver and Las Vegas, puncturing the self-righteous image of his “green” hometown. Along with his geographic travels, Hern hits practically all the right notes, advocating farmers markets, bicycles and public transportation, and urban agriculture; and dissing tax abatements for stadiums, development that prices out lower-paid workers, competition among cities for the Olympics, and urban branding to attract tourists and capital.

Okay, there is nothing new in the writer being part of the story. Sunday supplement feature writers and neoliberal apologist Tom Friedman have all been doing this for years, but Hern adds one essential ingredient: an authentic commitment to structural change, not from a do-gooder platform, but also for himself, his friends, his family, and all of us. Special message to those going into “urban planning” thinking they will change the world: agitate to get this well-researched but nonstuffy book on the syllabus.

Review by Frances Chapman

[abclaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

Matt Hern lives in Vancouver, Canada. Vancouver has major endorsements like Expo 86, the Commonwealth games and as recently as 2010 the Winter Olympics and Paralympics under its belt, but on top of that with Melbourne, a business review recently granted the city has being a top example of a ‘livable city’. The darkside however is Vancouver has the lowest minimum wage, the highest rate of child poverty, chronic homelessness, the highest rents and housing costs in Canada (pg 207) and like every other city it’s the flux of capital which influences its development rather than its inhabitants.

Matt’s book isn’t really about Vancouver, though. Well it is and it isn’t. Matt is looking at the city he lives in and is drawing out parallels to other places he’s visited. By contrasting two different places in the world he is creating a lynchpin to look at and isolate themes one by one that affects us all where we live. And for the most part this works quite well.

But before he does that, he sets his stall out and thereby the tone of the book. Firstly he his resoundingly in favour of city dwelling, “the only chance the world has for an ecological future is for the vast bulk of us to live in the city.” (pg 9) Secondly he argues, “cities need to be full of solid, distinct and comprehensible places” (pg 9) and thirdly he calls for a rejection of global capitalism and neo-liberalism.

There are, he argues, possibilities of living densely, shortening unnecessary transport journeys, reducing our collective carbon footprint, and sharing energy and resources (pg 16). These are all ecologically sound, and are preferable to humans encroaching on what little is left of the natural world. So humans for the most part - can and should stay where they are. The task for city dwellers, and a key premise of the book is what adjustments can we make to the city to challenge the excess and power that prevails alongside the poverty and despair, but also overt any challenges that may come our way.

The book is based on nine essays covering a different city and a comparative insight. Six are in North America (I will include Hawaii), the remaining are in Greece, Turkey and Kurdistan. Laced with the essays are some pretty nice location shots to guide you.
(Part of a review I wrote due to appear in Freedom Magazine, March 2011.)

[Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Matt Hern traces some well-worn urbanist arguments, shot through his home of Vancouver, and written in the style of a zinester (with all the good and bad about personal experience and lifestyle politics that come with the territory). Though Hern has some serious theoretical chops, his impressionistic writing on place is ultimately more compelling than his contributions to advancing thinking about cities.

[Payton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here's a rare sight: a thoughtful inner-city leftist who understands both New Urbanism and capitalism (and apportions the blame correctly), Vancouver and the world, direct action and policy prescriptions. A useful tool for focusing my own thoughts on density and diversity.

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Forward thinking book and well worth a read. Hern looks at urban issues from city branding to urban agriculture to car traffic. It's focused on Vancouver, but really he could be talking about anywhere.

[Adam Piontek · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really need to review this; it reached a great crescendo and, as a book on urban *values* rather than urban *plans* (and also on many-small-plans as a value), it really got me thinking.

[bunting · Rating 3 out of 5]

quick with pointers about what living in a city can, should and shouldn't be about.