The Ideal Communist City by Alexei Gutnov

The book The Ideal Communist City published in the 1960s was authored by A. Gutnov, A. Baburov, G. Djumenton, S. Kharitonova, I. Lezava, S. Sadovskij from the Moscow University. It is a superb book on urban planning. Offers food for thought in the planning of cities.
In contrast, Randal O'Toole offers some interesting remarks at The Commons blog regarding "the ideal communist city" based on his experience in Halle-Neustadt (old East Germany). Also can find a related report on Leipzig-Halle: Nearkt Recovered From Socialism.

Houston Electric: The Street Rrailways of Houston, Texas by Steve Baron

For those of us interested in transportation, history and how transportation has shaped our cities, Houston Electric is a superb book. I been fortunate to exchange emails from time to time with the author Steve Baron. Recently he expressed the following:

It is ironic that I wrote the book as a rail fan and advocate of light rail, but in several cases it has been used as "ammunition" by those who oppose light rail. I don't really have a problem with that, although the fact that streetcars were abandoned for logical reasons 60 years ago has very little bearing on the light rail debate of today, in my opinion. (April 6, 2008)

As Mr. Baron indicates, don't think people today understand the old passenger rail and the role it plaid in our cities vs. what it is being done now. Two different epochs. The least we could expect is for us to learn from history. It is also wonderful to point out Mr. Baron's statement "...streetcars were abandoned for logical reasons 60 years ago..." There is so much truth in his statement.

More about the book can be found at Houston Streetcars History Pages and can find info how to order the book here.

For those interested in reading more about the old Birney trolley the Birney Trolley Museum Library page has an incredible list of books.

Beneath the Metropolis: The Secret Lives of Cities By Alex Marshall

A fascinating book. A quote from Alex Marshall web page:
"The pulse of great cities may be most palpable above ground, but it is below the busy streets where we can observe their rich archaeological history and the infrastructure that keeps them running. In The Secret Lives of Cities journalist Alex Marshall investigates how geological features, archaeological remnants of past civilizations, and layered networks transporting water, electricity, and people, have shaped these cities through centuries of political turbulence and advancements in engineering — and how they are determining the course of the cities' future."

Tunneling to the Future: The Story of the Great Subway Expansion That Saved New York by Peter Derrick

Tunneling to the Future: The Story of the Great Subway Expansion That Saved New York by Peter Derrick is a fabulous book, a must for transportation and urban planners. I presented a review of the book to the Houston Property Rights Association. Following is a bullet point summary of the book about the New York subway:
- The Dual System of Rapid Transit was of unrivaled significance for the development of New York City
- It set the pattern of growth of residential areas
- Largest and most expensive single municipal project ever built
- Subways saved New York from problems related to rapid population growth and improved quality of life (tenement houses)
- Helped developed midtown Manhattan as on of the world’s largest employment center
Personally, the book provides data showing that (unlike the popular believe) the NY subway was developed to take people away from downtown into the suburbs. Today people think that the subway created the population density found in New York and other large cities.

The Age of Turbulence by Alan Greenspan

The Age of Turbulence is great reading for those of us who enjoy history and economics. Below is a quote from the early chapters...

"...Townsend-Greenspan was unusual for an economics firm in that the men worked for the women (we had about twenty-five employees in all). My hiring of women economists was not motivated by women's liberation. It just made great business sense. I valued men and women equally, and found that because other employers did not, good women economists were less expensive than men. Hiring women did two things: it gave Townsend-Greenspan higher-quality work for the same money, an it marginally raised the market value of women."

Note that Townsend-Greenspan was Alan Greenspan's company founded in 1954 and was dissolved in 1987 when Greenspan became Chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Here is a fantastic quote from the chapter titled Irrational Exuberance that makes reference to the time Greenspan was having his honeymoon in Venice.

(page 181) "Venice, I realized, is the antithesis of creative destruction. It exists to conserve and appreciate a past, not create a future. But that, I realized, is exactly the point. The city caters to a deep human need for stability and permanence as well as beauty and romance. Venice's popularity represents one pole of a conflict in human nature: the struggle between the desire to increase material well-being and the desire to ward off change and its attendant stress.
America's material standard of living continues to improve, yet the dynamism of that same economy puts hundreds of thousands of people per week involuntarily out of work. It's no surprise that demands for protection against the forces of market competition are on the rise - as well as nostalgia for a slower and simpler time. Nothing is more stressful for people than the perennial gale of creative destruction. Silicon Valley is without question an exciting place to work, but its allure as a honeymoon destination has, I would guess, thus far gone largely unrecognized."

These two paragraphs are like an elixir to the palate of urban development. And must be mentioned Greenspan's penmanship is superb in expressing his respect for others as well as (although untold) his respect for and fondness of his wife Andrea Mitchell. In keeping with his affection towards his wife describes her as "...looked ravishing, even though she'd been working at her usual intense pace and had the flu." (page 203)

In reference to the memorial of President Ford who he most admired "It was a tribute to this genial soul, but also evidence of American's thirst for the civility and politics that Ford represented and that had long since departed." (page 245)

"...three important characteristics influencing global growth: the extend of competition domestically...the quality of a country's institutions that make an economy work; and the success of its policy makers..." (page 251)

He also quotes Amartya Sen "In the terrible history of famines in the world, no substantial famine has ever occurred in any independent and democratic country with a relatively free press. We cannot find exceptions to this rule, no matter where we look." (page 253)

Chinese Lessons by John Pomfret

From Publishers Weekly
Pomfret's first sojourn in China came as an American exchange student at Nanjing University in 1981, near the outset of China's limited reopening to the West and its halting, chaotic and momentous conversion from Maoist totalitarianism to police state capitalism and status as world economic giant. Over the next two decades, he returned twice as a professional journalist and was an eyewitness to the events at Tiananmen Square in 1989. Pomfret's enthusiasm and personal access make this an engaging examination of three tumultuous decades, rooted in the stories of classmates whose remarkable grit and harrowing experiences neatly epitomize the sexual and cultural transformations, and the economic ups and downs, of China since the 1960s. At the same time, Pomfret draws on intimate conversations and personal diaries to paint idiosyncratic portraits with a vivid, literary flair. Viewing China's version of capitalism as an anomoly, and focused overwhelmingly within its national borders, the book's lack of a greater critical context will be limiting for some. But Pomfret's palpable and pithy first-hand depiction of the New China offers a swift, elucidating introduction to its awesome energies and troubling contradictions. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.