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Within Walking Distance

Creating Livable Communities for All

  • Book
  • © 2017

Overview

Authors:
  1. Philip Langdon

    1. New Haven, USA

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  • One of the few treatments of walkability that looks at lower-income and diverse communities

  • Written accessibly by a journalist and experienced urban critic

  • Provides an in-depth look at the citizens, public officials, and planners who are making their communities more walkable and livable

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiv
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Philip Langdon
    Pages 1-11

  3. Big City, Intimate Settings: Center City Philadelphia

    • Philip Langdon
    Pages 12-59

  4. Creating Gathering Places: The East Rock Neighborhood, New Haven, Connecticut

    • Philip Langdon
    Pages 60-89

  5. Keeping the Town Center Vital: Brattleboro, Vermont

    • Philip Langdon
    Pages 90-119

  6. The Walkable Immigrant Neighborhood: Chicago’s “Little Village”

    • Philip Langdon
    Pages 120-157

  7. Redeveloping with Pedestrians in Mind: The Pearl District, Portland, Oregon

    • Philip Langdon
    Pages 158-189

  8. Patient Placemaking: The Cotton District, Starkville, Mississippi

    • Philip Langdon
    Pages 190-215

  9. Conclusion: Toward Human-Scale Communities

    • Philip Langdon
    Pages 217-239

  10. Back Matter

    Pages 241-264
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Keywords

About this book

In this volume, the author 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 traits: 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 ingredient: local commitment.

Authors and Affiliations

  • New Haven, USA

    Philip Langdon

About the author

Philip Langdon was the editor for the New Urban News and a freelance journalist. His articles have been published in The Atlantic, American Heritage, Planning, Urban Land, Planning Commissioners Journal, Preservation, Governing, The American Enterprise, Progressive Architecture, Architectural Record, Landscape Architecture, CityLab, and The New York Times. 

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