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Book Review: Governing Urban Regions through Collaboration: A View from North America

The remainder of the book is dedicated to advocating for high density transit-oriented design and aesthetic improvements of city centers. While reiterating the principles of New Urbanism, the book elaborates on the benefits of balanced transportation, mixed uses, walkability, functional diversity, and compactness. To reduce wasteful commuting, the book suggests a hierarchy of distance-based transportation modes that should work in tandem within and among cities. Instead of lamenting the usage of personal automobiles, as usually found in the sustainability oriented literature, the book suggests viable methods to achieve a balance among various public and personal modes of transportation. The underlying idea is to enhance the user experience of public transportation to make it more efficient, comfortable, and safe than using an automobile. Mixed-use zoning and aesthetic improvement of city centers are the other methods emphasized in the book. The authors believe that eco-design can be achieved when human activities are concentrated in dense city centers, which reduces excess commute and also protects the natural habitat outside of the urban boundary. Indeed, attracting residents to city centers requires enhancing the livability in these areas and adding value to the downtown real estate. The authors assert that public aversion toward living downtown prevailing in most North American cities today is caused by the poor implementation of density and transportation services in the past. To correct that image, they suggest that cities should change their roles from policy-oriented regulators to designers and builders of the physical form. In addition, city governments’ transition to an active engagement in ambitious downtown redevelopment projects can increase property values and eventually attract private real estate investors. Even though it appears unrealistic for resource-poor cities to muster enough financial capacity and political willingness to engage in redevelopment, the concept emphasizes the need of active public sector participation in reanimating the core areas. The authors suggests dismantling some of the prevailing urban policies that classify land uses and segregate densities into zones, as they work against the objectives of eco-friendliness. Most urban policies currently in practice in the United States have their roots in the early twentieth century, when they were enacted to exclude certain commercial activities and people. Barnett and Beasley, however, avoid stepping into the political aspects that are responsible for the continued existence of such policies, considered as arcane and arbitrary by some. Interestingly, these policies were never designed with a focus toward environmental sustainability. For example, a big house with an ample backyard in a homogenous, low-density, automobile-oriented community located far away from an urban center has been the lifestyle dream embedded in many people’s social psyche for almost a century. By putting the blame of suburbanization on a few botched downtown redevelopment plans, the authors assume that public choice for homogeneity, self-governance, and social exclusion never had a role to play. The authors avoid discussing the issues related to metropolitan fragmentation and claim that downtown redevelopment alone can reverse the flow of population migration. The book is a beautiful collection of inspiring ideas for downtown redevelopment. But it fails to elaborate on how such ambitious projects will be financed. Nevertheless, the book lists some conventional financial methods ranging from user fees, tax-increment financing, and private equity financing that can be used to cover the cost. These methods are known to accrue debt and are often politically infeasible. The cost is eventually reflected by the high price of real estate, followed by waves of gentrification in the redeveloped areas. Most of the exemplar cities referenced in the book are among the most expensive cities in the world. Thus, the book adds to the notion that sustainable development is an expensive undertaking as it does not explore low-cost vernacular alternatives. Ecodesign for Cities and Suburbs is a continuum in the search for a better approach to achieve urban sustainability. The issues of suburbanization, wasteful commutes, environmental degradation, and the vision to create compact cities, as discussed in this book, show a remarkable resemblance with Nivola (1999), and Downs (1994), among many others, written almost two decades ago. However, technological advancements in the past twenty years, successful examples of using sustainable methods around the world, and recently renewed sensitivity toward the effects of climate change make this book relevant in the present context. The book uses an academic writing style and the chapters are seamlessly integrated. With a convincing compilation of innovative technologies, glossy pictures of beautiful urban landscapes, and a passionate advocacy for New Urbanism, this book will inspire new generations of urban scholars and practitioners. It is a must-read for any freshman student of sustainable Urbanism.