Distinguishes between two different systems of shaping the world; according to the first, architecture focuses on the structure of adaptation, subtleties, and finesse. According to the second, architecture should be concerned with efficiency and aspects such as size, speed, and profit. This “business-as-usual” system is incapable of creating the kind of environment that is able to genuinely support the emotional, whole-making side of human life. Calls for a new architecture that we – both as world-wide civilization and individual people and cultures – can create, using new processes that allow us to build places of human energy and beauty; also outlines nine new ways of working in planning, design and construction.

(CITIES * ARCHITECTURE * BUILT ENVIRONMENTS)

Americans must move from an economy driven by domestic consumption, debt, and financial engineering to one that is driven by exports, powered by cleaner energy, fueled by innovation, and is rich in opportunity for all. Movement toward such an economy must be led by metro areas. Devotes a chapter to each of the attributes of America’s next economy. Advocates aggressive investment in a low-carbon economy, which will present new opportunities for the energy sector and the industries that feed it. States can help build the foundation of the new economy by adequately supporting the metropolitan economic engines that are currently legally powerless. Also explains the role of the federal government in this transformation, and what it should not do.

(ECONOMY * CITIES * METRO AREAS AND NEXT ECONOMY * LOW-CARBON ECONOMY)

There are an estimated 600 million passenger cars in the world, and, in some cities, parking lots cover more than a third of the metropolitan footprint. Parking lots are ripe for transformation and can be significant public places, aesthetically pleasing and environmentally and architecturally responsible. They can be lushly planted with trees and flowers, and beautifully integrated with the urban built environrnent.

(CITIES * PARKING LOTS RECONSIDERED)

The global network of urban systems, including ecosystems, is the anthroposphere; its physical flows and stocks of matter and energy within it form its metabolism. Describes the characteristics of material stocks and flows of human settlements in space and time, and offers four case studies of optimal metabolic system design (phosphorous management, urban mining, waste management, and mobility). This edition places a new emphasis on design and resource utilization that reflects concern and scholarship on sustainable development and climate change.

(CITIES * ANTHROPOSPHERE)

Urban sustainability is being radically rethought – conceptually and politically – in our new economic climate. Analyzes changes in key areas of urban planning, including housing, transportation, and the environment.

(CITIES * SUSTAINABILITY * URBAN SUSTAINABILITY)

Due to heightened global migration and transnational mobility, many residents of the world cities lack national citizenship in the places to which they moved for work, refuge, or retirement. Organizations seek to restructure urban citizenship in more democratic directions. Focuses on the uses and limits of such political organizations and coalitions, shows the various ways they pursue expanded rights within the city, and describes the international changes necessary to empower global migrants and popular classes as urban citizens.

(CITIES * MIGRATION * CITIES WITHOUT CITIZENSHIP)

The inner cities remain concentrations of the uneducated, unemployed, underemployed, and unemployable. Many fail to stay in school, and most do not marry, leading to single-parent households. The cycle repeats itself generation after generation. Presents strategies and programs to rebuild lives and revitalize America’s inner cities, and describes workforce development, prisoner reentry, and the role of nonprofit organizations with a view to improve America’s workforce through building human capital at the socioeconomic bottom.

(CITIES * POVERTY IN U.S. * WORK * HUMAN CAPITAL)

Homeless people have no permanent residence and seek security, rest, and protection from the elements. They live in areas that are not designated to be shelters, occupy structures without permission, or are provided emergency shelters by various organizations. Their number has grown and the complexity of the issue has increased. Discusses what steps private, charitable, and public organizations can take to alleviate and eventually solve the problem, with a variety of case studies that bring together different perspectives. Concludes with a resource section that highlights government policies and programs addressing this problem.

(HOMELESSNESS * HOUSING * POVERTY * CITIES)

There’s just a three-day supply of food available for any given city due to complex, just-in-time international supply chains. The system is not only vulnerable but also environmentally unsustainable for the long term. Examines alternative food systems in cities worldwide—London (gardeners grow on some 30,000allotment plots), Paris, Russia (65% of Moscow households grow some of their own food), Vancouver (promoting edible landscaping), Toronto, Los Angeles (supporting 100 schoolyard food gardens), Milwaukee, Detroit (Hantz Frms will be “the world’s largest urban farm”), Chicago, New York (now home to two major rooftop farms), and Cuba (“urban agriculture on a national scale”)-- that are shortening their food chains, growing food within city limits, and taking “food security” in their own hands. Growing spaces in the cities include rooftops, backyards, vacant lots, along roadways, and even in “vertical farms” reusing industrial buildings and derelict inner-city lots. [NOTE: A fascinating and upbeat tour of many exciting projects.]

(FOOD AND AGRICULTURE * CITIES AND FOOD * URBAN AGRICULTURE * ALTERNATIVE FOOD SYSTEMS)

On Philadelphia’s “cosmopolitan canopies” – urban islands on civility. Describes race-relevant interactions —eating, shopping, and people-watching—in public and quasi-public spaces (work-places). Shows how the canopy can ease racial tensions and may be the salvation of increasingly diverse American cities.

(CITIES RACE RELATIONS * RACE RELATIONS IN CITIES)