Regional City (Paperback: Revised: 328 pages)

Enhanced Muze Note

The text is not altogether jargon-free, and there are passages where the sense of engagement drains away; there is a feeling sometimes of grinding out a gospel. But over all, the book is accessible and well written, animated by a sense of the large relevance of the matter at hand; and there are many color maps and illustrations. One can complain that the approach is still too narrow, in that the authors are susceptible to imagining that design can solve all problems. And one could wish for more depth in the range of references and vision. But the radicalism of accepting sprawl as a fact, and then working toward civilizing it through the understanding that the aesthetics of the built world are connected to all dimensions of life, is enough for now.