Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design (51 page)

The cognitive linguist
: Lakoff, George, “George Lakoff Manifesto,” a summary of his thoughts from his book
Don’t Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate
(White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green, 2004).

6. How to Be Closer

John Ruskin
: Ruskin, John,
Sesame and Lilies
(New York: Metropolitan Publishing, 1891), 136.

Hospital patients with views of nature
: Ulrich, Roger S., “View Through a Window May Influence Recovery from Surgery,”
Science
, 1984: 420–21.

Sonoma County Jail
: Farbstein, Jay, Melissa Farling, and Richard Wener, “Effects of a Simulated Nature View on Cognitive and Psycho-physiological Responses of Correctional Officers in a Jail Intake Area,” final report, National Institute of Corrections, 2009.

Stephen and Rachel Kaplan
: Berman, Marc G., John Jonides, and Stephan Kaplan, “The Cognitive Benefits of Interacting with Nature,”
Psychological Science
, 2008: 1207–12.

to local crime rates
: Kuo, F. E., and W. C. Sullivan, “Environment and Crime in the Inner City: Does Vegetation Reduce Crime?”
Environment & Behavior
, 2001: 343–67.

lived next to green spaces
: Kuo, F. E., W. C. Sullivan, R. L. Coley, and L. Brunson, “Fertile Ground for Community: Inner-City Neighborhood Common Spaces,”
American Journal of Community Psychology
, 1998: 823–51.

deeper alchemy
: Weinstein, N., A. K. Przybylski., and R. M. Ryan, “Can Nature Make Us More Caring? Effects of Immersion in Nature on Intrinsic Aspirations and Generosity,”
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
, 2009: 1315–29.

live in areas with more parks
: Kuo, Frances, “Parks and Other Green Environments: Essential Components of a Healthy Human Habitat,” National Recreation and Park Association, 2010.

Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid
:
Painting by Numbers: Komar and Melamid’s Scientific Guide to Art
, ed. JoAnn Wypijewski (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997).

population nearly doubled
: City of Vancouver.

lowest per capita carbon footprint
: City of Vancouver, Sustainability Group, “Climate Protection,” 2008,
http://vancouver.ca/sustainability/climate_protection.htm
(accessed January 29, 2011).

“view corridors”
: Berelowitz, Lance,
Dream City: Vancouver and the Global Imagination
(Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2005).

Another paradox of density
: Turcotte, Martin, “The Time It Takes to Get to Work and Back,” General Social Survey on Time Use: Cycle 19, Statistics Canada, 2005; “2005 Annual Report Livable Region Strategic Plan,” Regional Development Policy and Planning Department, Greater Vancouver Regional District, Burnaby, 2005; “City of Vancouver Transportation Plan Update: A Decade of Progress,” City of Vancouver, 2007; U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration, 2009 National Household Travel Survey.

Vancouverism: “Vancouverism is characterized by tall, but widely separated, slender towers interspersed with low-rise buildings, public spaces, small parks and pedestrian-friendly streetscapes and facades to minimize the impact of a high density population.” From Chamberlain, Lisa, “Trying to Build the Grand Central of the West,”
New York Times
, December 28, 2005,
www.nytimes.com/2005/12/28/realestate/28transbay.html
(accessed January 24, 2011).

Cheonggyecheon River
: Vidal, John, “Heart and Soul of the City,”
The Guardian
, November 1, 2006.

High Line
: High Line and Friends of the High Line, “High Line: Planting,”
www.thehighline.org/design/planting
(accessed September 15, 2012).

bacteria found naturally in soil boosts seratonin
: “Can Bacteria Make You Smarter?”
Science Daily
, May 24, 2010,
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100524143416.htm
(accessed March 3, 2012).

One study in Alameda
: Pillemer, K., T. E. Fuller-Rowell, M. C. Reid, and N. M. Wells, “Environmental Volunteering and Health Outcomes over a Twenty-Year Period,”
The Gerontologist
, 2010: 594–602.

“Crossing Brooklyn Ferry”
: Whitman, Walt, “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry,” in
Leaves of Grass, 1891–92 Edition
(Philadelphia: David McKay, 1892).

hikikomori: Hoffman, Michael, “Nonprofits in Japan Help ‘Shut-ins’ Get Out into the Open,”
The Japan Times
online, retrieved October 21, 2011.

hierarchy of human motivation
: Maslow, A. H., “A Theory of Human Motivation,”
Psychological Review
, 1943: 370–96.

psychologists believed that
: Thanks to the environmental psychologist Robert Gifford for collected insights, both in conversation and in his article “The Consequences of Living in High-Rise Buildings,”
Architectural Science Review
, 2007: 2–17.

overload—the sheer crowdedness
: Milgram, S., “The Experience of Living in Cities,”
Science
, 1970: 1461–68.

your sense of control
: Rodin, Judith, Susan K. Solomon, and John Metcalf, “Role of Control in Mediating Perceptions of Density,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
, 1978: 988–99.

it’s not so much square footage
: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, “Compendium of OECD Well-Being Indicators,” 2011,
www.oecd.org/std/47917288.pdf
(accessed August 12, 2013).

What you look at
: Day, Linda L. “Choosing a House: The Relationship Between Dwelling Type, Perception of Privacy and Residential Satisfaction,”
Journal of Planning Education and Research
, 2000: 265–75.

2.4 in the United Kingdom
: Macrory, Ian, “Measuring National Well-Being—Households and Families, 2012,” Office for National Statistics, U.K., April 26, 2012,
www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171766_259965.pdf
(accessed April 29, 2013).

poor mental health
: Halpern, David,
Mental Health and the Built Environment: More Than Bricks and Mortar?
(London: Taylor and Francis, 1995).

Thoits found that
: Blau, Melinda, and Karen Fingerman,
Consequential Strangers: Turning Everyday Encounters into Life-Changing Moments
(New York: W. W. Norton, 2009), 67, 100–101. See also Thoits, Peggy A., “Personal Agency in the Accumulation of Multiple Role-Identities,” in
Advances in Identity Theory and Research
, ed. Peter J. Burke, Timothy J. Owens, Richard T. Serpe, and Peggy A. Thoits (New York: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003), 179–94.

The number of people
: U.S. Census Bureau, “America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2007,” U.S. Department of Commerce Economics and Statistics Administration, 2009.

college dormitories at Stony Brook
: Valins, S., and A. Baum, “Residential Group Size, Social Interaction, and Crowding,”
Environment and Behavior
, 1973: 421.

subjective experience of isolation
: Halpern,
Mental Health and the Built Environment
, 137–39, 153.

Pruitt-Igoe housing complex
: Newman, Oscar,
Creating Defensible Space
, Center for Urban Policy Research, Rutgers University (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Policy Development and Research, 1996), 10.

Oscar Newman
: Ibid., 11.

Pruitt-Igoe meltdown
: Hall,
Cities of Tomorrow
, 237–40; also see von Hoffman, Alexander, “Why They Built the Pruitt-Igoe Project,” Joint Center for Housing Studies, Harvard University,
www.soc.iastate.edu/sapp/PruittIgoe.html
(accessed January 24, 2011).

The feeling is familiar
: Wenman, Christine, Nancy Hofer, Jay Lancaster, Dr. Wendy Sarkissian, and Larry Beasley, C.M. “Living in False Creek North: From the Residents’ Perspective,” School of Community and Regional Planning, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, 2008.

The perfect yard
: Gehl, Jan,
Life Between Buildings
(Skive: Danish Architectural Press, 2006), 38, 67, 191.

feelings of belonging
: Helliwell, John, and Christopher P. Barrington-Leigh, “How Much Is Social Capital Worth?” working paper, Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2010.

Part of the problem is
: Helliwell and Barrington-Leigh, “How Much Is Social Capital Worth?”; “Connections and Engagement: A Survey of Metro Vancouver, June 2012,” Vancouver Foundation, 2012; Halpern,
Mental Health and the Built Environment
, 262.

“business and transit”
: Condon, Patrick M.,
Seven Rules for Sustainable Communities: Design Strategies for the Post Carbon World
(Washington, DC: Island Press, 2010), 12–22.

The human density
: Durning, Alan Thein,
The Car and the City: 24 Steps to Safe Streets and Healthy Communities
(Seattle: Northwest Environment Watch, 1996); Kopits, Elizabeth, Virginia McConnell, and Daniel Miles, “Lot Size, Zoning, and Household Preferences: Impediments to Smart Growth?” discussion paper, Washington, DC, Resources for the Future, 2009.

You can be downtown
: City of Vancouver.

most expensive city for housing
: Economist Intelligence Unit.

7. Convivialities

Le Corbusier
: Le Corbusier in S. Von Moos,
Le Corbusier: Elements of a Synthesis
(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1979), 196.

Richard Sennett
: Sennett, Richard,
The Conscience of the Eye: The Design and Social Life of Cities
(New York: W. W. Norton, 1990), xiv.

a year on the Strøget
: Gehl, Jan,
Life Between Buildings
(Skive: Danish Architectural Press, 2006).

The first summer
: Gehl, Jan, and Lars Gemzøe,
Public Spaces—Public Life, Copenhagen
, 3rd ed. (Copenhagen: Narayana Press, 2004), 12.

streets and plazas of New York
: Whyte, William H.,
The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces
(New York: Project for Public Spaces, 2004).

the Internet
: Hampton, Keith N., “Neighborhoods in the Network Society: the e-Neighbors study,”
Information, Communication & Society
, 2007:10:5, 714–48.

When TV service
: Frey, Bruno S., Christine Benesch, and Alois Stutzer, “Does Watching TV Make Us Happy?” working paper, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts, University of Zurich, 2005, 15.

no substitute for
actually being there: The first generation of research into Facebook sociology has arrived and has found that among other things, it helps people with low self-esteem make new connections. Shyness may prevent you from winking at someone in a bar, but you might still poke them online. Among university students, Facebook use correlates with
slightly
higher social capital and life satisfaction. But maxing out on Facebook friends does not produce stronger social dividends. For one thing, most people lack the brain capacity to maintain an unlimited number of true friends. Research by the evolutionary anthropologist Robin Dunbar suggests that the maximum number of acquaintances most of us can maintain is 150, but when it comes to good friends, the people we can actually count on, we are limited to between six and twelve. That number doesn’t change much whether friends meet online or in person, and so far, online friends do not seem to be measuring up as proxies. When surveyed about their online relationships, most people describe friendships that are not as deep or committed and don’t involve the interdependence or understanding of their face-to-face relationships. A study of youths in highly networked Hong Kong found that young people who developed friendships in person shared more subtle codes of communication—they could more easily read between the lines of what each other were saying. They were more likely to know each other’s family or friends. They confided more deeply in each other. They felt they knew each other better.