List of cool books and videos about urbanism, transit and other cool things. Please help to expand it! (hexbear.net)

submitted 4 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) by RNAi@hexbear.net to c/urbanism@hexbear.net

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Disclaimer: I don't know shit about all this, but I think it would be a good idea to collectively do this post and pin it until we have community wikis. Most comments in any of these sources are copied from the users who recomended it, see the comments or make a new post to discuss any content

Intro

Why all this is important?
Why train good? A short and biased answer

Books and Essays

"Urbanization Without Cities: The Rise and Decline of Citizenship" - Murray Bookchin
"Rebel cities: from the right to the city to the urban revolution" - David Harvey
"Human Traffic" - Jarrett Walker
"Social Justice and the Cities" - David Harvey
"Palaces for the People: How To Build a More Equal and United Society" - Eric Klinenberg. It has some lib moments and seems to have two editions with different title
“The social ideology of the motorcar” - André Gorz. Essay about why “car bad,” regardless of how cars are developed/worked around.
"The Geography of Nowhere" - James Howard Kunstler. Alt link
"The Death and Life of Great American Cities" - Jane Jacobs. This isn’t a Marxist text by any means, but it’s crucial for understanding the history of urban planning, and I do think it’s an enjoyable read and that Jane hits some great points.
"Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream " - Duany, Plater-Zyberk, Speck
“The Right to the City” - Henri Lefebvre
“The Color of Law” - Richard Rothstein. Also not a Marxist text but this is the book to read if you’re interested in understanding urban segregation in America and how it’s linked directly to federal policy
"Spaces of Capital"
“Designing Tito’s Capital: Urban Planning, Modernism, and Socialism in Belgrade” - Brigitte Le Normand
“Delirious Manhattan” - Rem Koolhaas. Koolhaas is a very controversial architect and urbanist, but this book is a great read for understanding the contrast between the Corbusier-style Modernist Urbanism and the capitalist/post-modern/pre-modern urbanism of New York City. Also as a good eye into the psychology of architecture and how it is shaped and shapes cities and society.
"Capital City: Gentrification and the Real Estate State" - Samuel Stein
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22476.The_Origins_of_the_Urban_Crisis
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/745452.Crabgrass_Frontier
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30833.The_Death_and_Life_of_Great_American_Cities
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5597655-life-between-buildings
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Audiovisuals

Documentaries:

"Taken for a Ride - The U.S. History of the Assault on Public Transport in the Last Century"
The Pruitt - Igoe Myth. Highly encourage this to anyone who wants to blame the failure of segregated projects on Modernist architecture

YouTube channels:

donoteat - My first encounter with all this. Too long videos imo.
Stupid City - Shorter, cool videos.
The Armchair Urbanist
City Beautiful - Lib but okayish to lure libs I suppose.
Cheddar's playlist on urban desing
bigmoodenergy - Videos about the history of american transit. She’s done videos about streetcars, metros, and funicular trains so far and I believe she’s working on another in the series currently.
Unfinished London playlist - Some cool videos there.
Climate Town
Tom Scott's trains videos - He has a lot of cool train videos.
BicycleDutch - Cycling in the Netherlands and bike infrastructure in general.
Not just bikes - Somewhat similar channel to BicycleDutch but with a wider scope, focusing a bit more on urban planning in general. It offers the perspective of a Canadian who moved to the Netherlands (and stans it hard), and has some nice videos on their bike culture/infrastructure and how it didn’t just magically happen.
Help