The Human City

Around the globe, most new urban development has adhered to similar tenets: tall structures, small units, and high density. However, while contemporary urbanist beliefs favor high-density, "pack-and-stack" strategies, surveys show that 80 percent of people in the United States—and the majority of people in most other countries—would rather live in a more "village-like" setting.

In his eighth book, The Human City: Urbanism for the Rest of Us, Joel Kotkin, a presidential fellow in urban futures at Chapman University and executive director of the Center for Opportunity Urbanism, challenges conventional urban-planning wisdom and argues that in order to be truly sustainable, built environments must reflect the preferences of most people—and families in particular—even if that means encouraging lower-density, suburban development.

Please Join New America co-founder and policy director of the Economic Growth program Michael Lind for a conversation with the author as he argues for a new, flexible approach to urban planning that is centered on human values and provides a diverse range of options.

A question-and-answer session and book signing will follow the discussion. Follow the conversation on Twitter with @politics_prose and @busboysandpoets.

Participants:

Joel Kotkin

Presidential Fellow, Urban Futures, Chapman University

Executive Director, Center for Opportunity Urbanism

Executive Editor, NewGeography.com

Michael Lind

Co-founder and Fellow, New America

Policy Director, Economic Growth Program