Happy City had a lot of interesting information about how urban design affects people’s behavior and therefore their happiness. It advocates for more walkable, community minded development and features profiles and case studies that illustrate its point and make the book more engaging than a simple treatise.

I'm pretty disappointed by this book; it's got major "meh" energy.

The basic premise is that most unhappy :( cites are those designed around cars, for cars, and what we really need in order to be happy is closeness, connection, outdoor seating, bike lanes, we need to walk around promenades and savor the diversity and textures of daily life in the modern agora, and blah blah blah... You'd think Bob Ross wrote this thing, putting happy little trees and happy little coffee shops everywhere...

Ok, fine. The author presents a few examples where going from car-centric to people-centric really did improve the wellness and happiness of its people - and I believe it and wholeheartedly welcome it, but his tone was that of a prescriptive, pompous cosmopolitan know-it-all, rather than a measured, unbiased urban designer. If the author had his way, we'd all be living in a Disneyfied interpretation of his ideal happy city.

Also, you think "car cities" are unsafe? I have seen more serious accidents in cities with extensive bike lanes with their two-wheeled arseholes who think they are in Tour-de-France, than in most car friendly cities. True story.

At the end of the day, you could not pay me enough money to move to a socially dense city. I have worked in NYC and have friends in NYC who wouldn't change it for the world, but it just doesn't work for me. I need distance from people, I'd like to go out and run and not have to keep my head on a swivel in fear of being run over by a stressed out delivery driver, stepping on dog excrement, or tripping over a rat the size of a Shitzu.

And that's another thing I didn't like about this book, the author bashes "suburban sprawl" and posits it as causing this massive decline in urban quality of life, yet cherry-picks the very worst examples to make his case. Connected city-living has its major downsides too, but you won't find an inventory of them here.

All in all, it was a bit of a boring read, but maybe I just don't care about urban design that much?

So so good, so so interesting. I want so many people to read this. This could change the world for the better if taken seriously.

Basically, cars are stupid.
There's a lot more, obviously. But this book REALLY made me frustrated with cars.

Here follows some notes I made while reading. They're for my record keeping and aren't in a readable style, so I'm putting them in spoiler tags.

Spoiler

--pg. 8: Affect of no car day: first day nobody killed in traffic in four years, hospital admissions down a third, pollution thinned, everyone got to everything fine, more optimistic about life.
--pg. 22: Even back in the days of Horace, people longed for the "simple life".
--pg. 55: Commuting = bad. Long commuters 40% more likely to divorce!
--pg. 58-67: People can handle about 6-7 hours of social time before it starts to lessen happiness. More social time with family and friends = more happiness, basically.
--pg. 60: Suburb kids more unhappy.
--pg. 83: You never quite get habituated to commuting because it's a little different every day, bad parts are always uncertain. Changing a long commute to a short walk to work has same happiness increase as falling in love.
--pg. 96: Car deaths are bad and there are lots of them.
--pg. 96-7: Wide, clear roads and suburbia actually cause more car accidents. Lots of distractions, like pedestrians, make us drive slower and more carefully.
--pg. 109-110: Nature is SO good for us. (Even pictures help.)
--pg. 115-116: Vancouver architecture based on view of mountains, commuting times went down, 2/3 trips to downtown on foot or bike or public transport, lowest carbon footprint of continent per capita.
--pg. 119: Plants!
--pg. 120: Green spaces not an optional luxury.
--pg. 121: Gardening is super good for us!
--pg. 129-130: What a difference design can make!
--pg. 133: The perfect yard size is 10.6 feet (just enough to allow for socialness and conversation, but also retreat).
--pg. 137: Ideal density
--pg. 154: TV is bad for you. More TV you watch, the fewer friendships you are likely to have, the less trusting you are, and less happy.
--pg. 188-9: Lots of little parks and stores is WAY better than a few big ones. People walk way more downtown. Light rail makes people lose weight (they walk further to get to it).
--pg. 193: Young people less interested in getting driver's license, more interested in internet/texting time.
--pg. 200: North America is behind with transit cards. Hong Kong sounds so great! (The USA probably think it's too socialist, haha.)
--pg. 201-3: How to improve public transport. (Frequent service, screens showing when next bus/train will arrive, etc.)
--pg. 244-5: Park in Copenhagen has place specifically for alcoholics. (I think that's so cool. Something for everyone!)
--pg. 246: Making a city way better drives up housing costs.

It is well written. It is quick paced. The author has very upbeat positive tone. He gives positive examples about a hard problem and inspires the reader to take part in the solution.

This is one of those lifechanging books that leaves me frustrated at the end because there are already parts of it I've forgotten and I want to be able to produce the lessons, stories, facts, and statistics from this book at a moments notice to win arguments. In that way, it's sort of like any of the Yuval Noah Harari books or the New Jim Crow. I just wish it was information that everyone in the world knew, it would make the world a better place. This is one of those books that I will be recommending people read for a long time and begging them to text me anything interesting they come across as I read it so that I can remember important things.

The book itself was full of things that I felt like I knew in my unconscious mind but it felt vindicating to see backed up in scientific studies. Places where you live close to everything and can walk and bike around are way better than sprawl, and these elements have actual measurable positive effects on human and societal well being. I now understand why Hadley makes me sad and Amherst makes me happy. Put the Chippy's in Hadley in the middle of Amherst and I'd have no reason to venture to that part of route nine. (Andrew, as my only goodreads friend who never lived in Amherst, you can look this up on Google maps if you truly care). GREAT FREAKING BOOK A MUST READ