Urbanism Without Effort: Reconnecting with First Principles of the City

“Urbanism Without Effort” cautions urbanists not to get carried away by urban design concepts and public policies. It’s because, the book warns, while mixed uses, transit-oriented design and bike lanes may be helpful and even necessary, they aren’t sufficient to make cities come to life. What is needed? Basically, the unplanned parts of cities, the author argues.

Charles R. Wolfe is an attorney, consultant and college lecturer who lives in Seattle and London.

The big ideas for Urban Atlanta:

• We need to identify places that naturally attract people in our cities.
• A useful tool for seeing and understanding these places is an “urban diary.” Basically, it is a collection of photographs of successful gathering places with descriptions of what makes them so appealing. 
• Zoning has hindered the development of naturally occurring urban places. This may explain why most of these places were created before zoning imposed uniformity on cities. 
• We must be careful about transplanting urban designs that work in one place to another. Naturally occurring urban places succeed by being unique. Our aim should be to preserve their uniqueness.