National Geographic on Cities of the future
Urban development fans will love the April 2019 issue.
National Geographic magazine's April 2019 issue on urban development is collectable for urban development fans. It also has fantastic pictures.
Here are some articles I liked:
The article “To build the cities of the future, we must get out of our cars.” has fantastic pictures by Andrew Moore, and Robert Kunzig has done great by summarising the developments of walk-friendly cities. It refers to the emerald city planning guide by Calthorpe Associates. You can download it here.
The related articles also feature one of my favourites: Want to visualize inequality? View cities from above. It features pictures by Johnny Miller. The Johnny Miller website is a treasure trove of many such pictures.
The development of Tokyo is documented quite well.
The photos feature titled “This man spends 8 hours every day commuting. He's not alone.” is quite good.
In my paper How cities Develop, I have explored the commute as distance travelled in acceptable commute time. Those insights seem to be bearing out.
I like your paper. Very reasonable and a perspective that any community of any size could use.
NatGeo's problem is that their articles were written before the effect of the COVID pandemic. Hybrid working environments are spreding faster than the virus. The challenge that large cities face is what to do with all those empty office buildings. My sense is that we will see a lessening of urban density and the expansion of smaller neighborhood cities. It follows what I write about when the Center no longer holds the Periphery (https://edbrenegar.substack.com/p/synthetic-center-and-periphery). I am writing on this topic again related to linear cities.
The real problem seems to be that no one asks the public what they want. Municipal leaders and their friends in the property development industry just assume that what they want will be fine with the public.