I jokingly thought midway through this that it would be a perfect 5/5, except that he consistently calls DC “Washington” and it threw me for a loop each and every time, so I would have to dock a point for that.

I’m actually docking a point for a much better and more serious reason, but more on that in a minute.

GREAT book for Americans. Less great for the rest of the world, just because so much of this is “how to improve US cities to the standards of everyone else” and not “how to improve everyone”. But like, yes, American cities are appalling for walkability. I lived in Tampa. It was an experience.

And it’s not all about American cars, which are also appalling, but about how spaced out everything is, the lack of spaces to walk in, the lack of reasons to walk, zoning requirements, etc etc, and Speck does a very good job of laying all this out and then walking (heh) through how to fix it without completely demolishing the city and starting over.

HOWEVER. There is exactly one (1) mention of an unsheltered person and it’s a derogatory reference.

The things which make cityscapes unappealing to the homeless also make them unpleasant to walk through. The things which dissuade people from sitting places, hanging out places, existing in a public space are that way on purpose, because city planners and business owners cannot stand the visual of A Drug Addict And Insane Person existing in public. If we’re going to make American cities walkable, we also need to get over our fear of each other. Put back functional park benches, where pedestrians can sit and take a breather (and overnight, people can sleep on so they don’t freeze). Add more public bathrooms. Etc.