Synopses & Reviews
Americans are voting with their feet to abandon strip malls and suburban sprawl, embracing instead a new type of community where they can live, work, shop, and play within easy walking distance. In The Option of Urbanism visionary developer and strategist Christopher B. Leinberger explains why government policies have tilted the playing field toward one form of development over the last sixty years: the drivable suburb. Rooted in the driving forces of the economycar manufacturing and the oil industrythis type of growth has fostered the decline of community, contributed to urban decay, increased greenhouse gas emissions, and contributed to the rise in obesity and asthma.
Highlighting both the challenges and the opportunities for this type of development, The Option of Urbanism shows how the American Dream is shifting to include cities as well as suburbs and how the financial and real estate communities need to respond to build communities that are more environmentally, socially, and financially sustainable.
Review
"In this book, [Chris Leinberger] carefully explains the decisions that have made the drivable suburban model the dominant one and highlights the obvious and unintended consequences that come from spending 35 percent of the nations weatlh building in this way, to the virtual exclusion of other approaches."
Review
"Leinberger, a developer who teaches real estate at the University of Michigan, may be the boldest prophet of walkability anywhere. The United States, he writes, is on the verge of a new phase in constructing its built environment."
Review
"Leinberger isnt just a theoretician. Hes a former new urbanist land developer. As he shows, if were serious about reducing our car dependency, we need to go beyond making the personal decision to walk; we need to advocate for changes that will make walking a viable option for more Americans."
Review
"The clarity of the descriptions and the grounding in economics and market are the best of our collective efforts. I particularly like the chapter on the costs of sprawl a powerful summary that should be read by all new urbanists."
Review
"Developer and professor Christopher B. Leinberger...has written the book to give to colleagues, constituents, and public officials who dont quite get whats going on in American cities and suburbs. The Option of Urbanism: Investing in a New American Dream is free of jargon and, more important, free of ideological resentments."
Review
"In his new book, the latest of his significant contributions to New Urbanism, Christopher Leinberger says American development comes in two basic patterns: "drivable sub-urbanism" and "walkable urbanism." Leinbergers aim is to show how these two kinds of development function and to expalain why its in everyones interest to make sure that walkable urbansim becomes more commonplace."
Review
"The Option of Urbanism is a great read."
Review
“Could it possibly be that [metropolitan] Washington, for years bashed by politicians, its [city] population shrinking and, at one point, almost bankrupt, has become a model of how the entire nation might smartly develop in the 21st century? I never thought Id see the day. But Christopher Leinberger… makes a startling case for it… in his book.”
Synopsis
Synopsis
Highlighting both the challenges and the opportunities for urban development, The Option of Urbanism shows how the American Dream is shifting to include cities as well as suburbs and how the financial and real estate communities need to respond to build communities that are more environmentally, socially, and financially sustainable.
About the Author
Christopher B. Leinberger is a developer, professor, consultant, and author whose work has focused on making progressive development profitable. He is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution and is director of the Graduate Real Estate Program at the University of Michigan. He is a founding partner of Arcadia Land Company, a progressive real estate development firm, and has written award-winning articles for publications such as The Atlantic Monthly and The Wall Street Journal.