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Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design QUOTES

Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design QUOTES

1 " sociologist Erving Goffman suggested that life is a series of performances in which we are all continually managing the impression we give other people. "

― , Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design

2 " Sociologists point out that the suburbs have done an efficient job of sorting people into communities where they will be surrounded by people of the same socioeconomic status. Meanwhile, the architectures of sprawl inhibit political activity that requires face-to-face interaction. It is not that sprawl makes political activity impossible, but by privatizing gathering space and dispersing human activity, sprawl makes political gatherings less likely. "

― Charles Montgomery, , Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design

3 " As much as we complain about other people, there is nothing worse for mental health than a social desert. "

― Charles Montgomery, , Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design

4 " There is a message for all city makers here. It is that with the right triangulation, even the ugliest of places can be infused with the warmth that turns strangers into familiars by giving us enough reason to slow down. "

― Charles Montgomery, , Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design

5 " The city is not merely a repository of pleasures. It is the stage on which we fight our battles, where we act out the drama of our own lives. It can enhance or corrode our ability to cope with everyday challenges. It can steal our autonomy or give us the freedom to thrive. It can offer a navigable environment, or it can create a series of impossible gauntlets that wear us down daily. The messages encoded in architecture and systems can foster a sense of mastery or helplessness. "

― , Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design

6 " Happiness is a house with many rooms, but at its core is a hearth around which we gather with family, friends, the community, and sometimes even strangers to find the best part of ourselves. "

― , Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design

7 " As much as we complain about other people, there is nothing worse for mental health than a social desert. A study of Swiss cities found that psychotic disorders, including schizophrenia, are most common in neighborhoods with the thinnest social networks. Social isolation just may be the greatest environmental hazard of city living—worse than noise, pollution, or even crowding. The more connected we are with family and community, the less likely we are to experience colds, heart attacks, strokes, cancer, and depression. Simple friendships with other people in one’s neighborhood are some of the best salves for stress during hard economic times—in fact, sociologists have found that when adults keep these friendships, their kids are better insulated from the effects of their parents’ stress. Connected people sleep better at night. They are more able to tackle adversity. They live longer. They consistently report being happier. "

― , Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design

8 " We were born to move—not merely to be transported, "

― , Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design

9 " You are important—not because you’re rich, but because you are human. "

― , Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design

10 " listen to the parts of ourselves that are more inclined toward curiosity, trust, and cooperation. "

― , Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design

11 " Partly because sprawl has forced Americans to drive farther and farther in the course of every day, per capita road death rates in the United States hover around forty thousand per year. That’s a third more people than are killed by guns. It’s more than ten times the number of people killed in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. "

― , Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design

12 " We drive as fast as road designs tell us to drive. The result: drivers kill four times as many pedestrians on spacious suburban residential streets than on the narrow streets of traditional neighborhoods, because those spacious roads make driving faster feel safer. And it is not collisions that kill people, but collisions at high speed. "

― , Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design

13 " having one friend or family member to confide in had the same effect on life satisfaction as a tripling of income. "

― , Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design

14 " People who live in monofunctional, car-dependent neighborhoods outside of urban centers are much less trusting of other people than people who live in walkable neighborhoods where housing is mixed with shops, services, and places to work. "

― , Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design

15 " a human on a bicycle is the most efficient traveler among all machines and animals. "

― , Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design

16 " There is no single answer to any problem in the city. The solution comes from a multiplicity of answers.’”* "

― , Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design

17 " Here’s an image that sticks: imagine a loaded Boeing 747 crashing every three days, killing everyone aboard. That’s how many people die on U.S. highways every year. "

― , Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design

18 " everything remains inherently connected to everything else. "

― , Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design

19 " The sad part is that a place’s popularity can actually destroy the elements that contribute to happiness. The more we flock to high-status cities for the good life—money, opportunity, novelty—the more crowded, expensive, polluted, and congested those places become. The result? Surveys show that rich, high-status states in the United States are among the least happy in the country. "

― , Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design

20 " Aside from the financial burden, people who endure long drives tend to experience higher blood pressure and more headaches than those with short commutes. They get frustrated more easily and tend to be grumpier when they get to their destination. "

― , Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design