Rating: 
Summary: A Landmark Book
Review: As a fellow Floridian, I am delighted to finally see Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk's distilled thoughts in print. For those of you who have never seen them live, they usually do not present together, choosing to work separately. In this landmark book, Andres' native Cuban fire, coupled with the assurance of knowing he is right, and Elizabeth's cool clarity from intellectual reflection blend smoothly into an incisive and accurate diagnosis of the sorry state of our communities. They also tell us very straightforwardly what we can do about it and why it will be so difficult to achieve radical sanity in building a civil urban landscape.
Rating:
Summary: Instant Classic
Review: Reducing the complicated to the simple is the mark of genius, and Suburban Nation is pure genius. Never before has a book so accurately and succintly diagnosed the disease of sprawl, explained its origins, and provided a cure based upon an empirical analysis of what has worked over time. This book will not only appeal to architects, policy-makers, developers, builders and planners, but also to anyone who is interested in improving our society.
Rating:
Summary: A Very Important Book
Review: A hundred years from now, people will look back on Andres Duany as a world historical figure -- one of the small handful of people who changed our way of thinking about how we should live. This book is a clear and comprehensive summary of his thinking. My only reservation is that he is too apologetic toward modernist architectural critics who have attacked his use of historical styles. Modernism in architecture should be relegated to the dust bin of history, along with modernism in urban planning.
Rating:
Summary: One of the ten best books on American life
Review: I found this book intriguing, because the authors understand why I like my neighborhood. Even better, they understand why I hate so many new housing projects. This is an important book, as vital as Jane Jacobs' work, and it has some uncomfortable truths to share. The US has become a Suburban Nation; a nation of badly-designed suburbs. The newest, more expensive ones are some of the worst. My neighborhood has houses that are smallish, but sidewalks are everywhere. There are stores within reasonable walking distance, and not too many cul-de-sacs. Three parks are less than a mile away. That means I can walk more than one route to get places. More importantly, others walk the neighborhood too, so I actually meet my neighbors. A neighborhood built almost 50 years ago, the trees are mature (a rarity in Silicon Valley burbs) and provide shade, coolness, and beauty. 8000 square foot lots are neither so small that the houses are crushed together nor so large that walking seems to get you nowhere because it takes too long to pass each property. Contrast this with the new developments going in: miniscule yards (and therefore little greenery), matchstick trees that don't receive any sun, overly wide arterials that offer only one way into or out of the development. Walls around the complex not only keep outsiders out, they prevent insiders from going out, too, unless they get in the car and crowd onto the only access road. Once in one's car, there is no opportunity to talk with neighbors on the inside, either. Before reading Suburban Nation, I still had the same sense of what made a neighborhood compelling and we bought our home accordingly, preferring the old small house over the big new ones despite my need for closet space. Authors Duany, Plater-Zybeck, and Speck articulate these principals clearly and enjoyably. With many photographs illustrating both good and bad examples of city planning, Suburban Nation shows the consequences of bad assumptions as well as bad results. The authors like Winter Park, FL, because its downtown is walkable and residents, most of them retired and many who have given up driving, can easily participate in community life. They hate most of the new burbs being built because there is no there there, there's just a road from here to somewhere else with no central gathering point. Most of the failure of the modern suburb is due to the automobile. Wider roads make a community less cohesive, because a wide road encourages speeding, while a narrow one encourages drivers to slow down, regardless of the posted speed limit. New communities have ridiculously wide roads, which not only lead to unsafe traffic but also discourages pedestrians. Cul-de-sacs, corners, and curves are overly wide as well, to accomodate uneeded 40 foot fire trucks; completely unneeded in a suburb where no building is over two stories but purchased by town councils wanting their fire chiefs to be happy. The net result is a 120 foot walk to cross a street instead of 40 feet because the corners are shaved to allow the stupid fire truck access, the fire truck the suburb DOES NOT NEED because a smaller truck would do just as good a job. People claim to want to live in the suburbs for a smaller community, but the way they are built frustrates any chance of finding it. Planners consider schools to be traffic nuisances and build them away from central locations, yet larger schools are what leads to disconnection. Putting them on the boundaries instead of the center of town destroys a chance of meeting other children from the neighborhood, and further increases car usage. The authors ask why a school is considered a traffic nuisance rather than making them smaller to be community assets? Duany and Plater-Zybeck have designed some marvelous new communities, and hope this well-written and ground-breaking book will publicize why they succeed. The first step is repealing the planning rules that prevent all these elements of vital community. Read Suburban Nation and find out how community building begins with good design.
Rating:
Summary: An Absolutely Fantastic Book
Review: I am not an architect or city planner, but I believe this book would be an interesting and informative read for anyone. It provides a lot of information and references for a professional and it is a great starting point for an amateur or concerned and active citizen. Additionally (and very difficult to accomplish all three), it is a very pleasant read for anyone else who wants to learn more about designing a neighborhood, how cities form, how to combat environmental destruction or simply why they do or don't enjoy a specific neighborhood. Part of the success of this book for me was the format. There are small pages with wide margins. The margins allow for small black & white pictures directly next to the text they illustrate. The pictures by themselves are not very good, but they illustrate the text very well. Additionally, the authors used two systems of footnotes/endnotes (a system that I have not seen before) that expand and clarify the story very well, without bogging it down. For asides or amplifications, they have footnotes that you can quickly read, after you have finished your current line of thought. These sources are not always completely referenced, sometimes the authors only reference a series, article, or individual book; but if you are interested the source along with some additional thoughts from the authors are available. For the sources they are citing, the authors use a typical endnote system. This book is a call to action. The authors try to explain the current problems with our cities (and consequently our lives) and some of their solutions. They do a very good job explaining their views, and I believe present a very convincing argument that these problems do not have one source or solution. The authors present problems with our cities today as problems that cut across all economic, social, environmental, occupational & cultural boundaries; and that only traditional neighborhoods cut across all these boundaries to solve these problems. The authors do NOT say that only architects or city planners can solve the major problems facing society today. Quite the opposite; they say that only an educated citizenry can solve these problems if they act truly collectively, and the only mechanism that they have seen that brings people together (across the above-mentioned boundaries) is a "traditional neighborhood". I don't believe the authors are Ludites or are in any way opposed to modern technology or science; however, their basic position is that we need to re-read the texts from 100 years ago and stop using the latest gee-whiz-bang theory to design our cities and guide our lives. If fact, they directly state that experimentation is good; but that we should experiment on the rich because if the latest theory is cracked, the rich can always afford to move! Unfortunately, the rich and powerful seem to know that not all of the latest theories come out perfect the first time, so modern society experiments on the poor, with the predictable results. Everyone should read this book!
Rating: 
Summary: accurate diagnosis, wrong solution
Review: Like most socialists since Karl Marks, the authors of this book accurately diagnose the problem and then prescribe a solution that will only make things worse. Of course I agree that American suburbia is a horrible disaster. But what caused it? The authors hint at the answer which seems to be land use zoning instituted by local government. The authors also describe how this zoning leads to corruption, so large developers are the only ones who can survive in this corrupt and bureaucratic environment. And what remedy do the authors offer? Why, more and "better" government, of course. What they fail to mention is that most of the old towns and cities that they so admire were built without any of this regulation. What these old towns did was to do their job and let the private sector do its job. The job of local government is to take responsibility for public space and institutions. That means that local government, not private developers, should lay out and build the roads. Local government should build public parks, playgrounds, civic buildings, many nice public schools, etc. That is what local government used to do in the US. These days, instead of doing their job, local government (and all government for that matter) spend time meddling and interfering in the private sector. The nightmare that we all recognize as American suburbia is caused by both the fact that local government is not doing what it needs to do and that local government is preventing the private sector from doing what the private sector needs to do. Simply eliminating land use and density zoning would solve many of the problems described in this book. Some quotes to describe the above: "If we truly want to curtail sprawl, we must acknowledge that automotive mobility is a no-win game, and that the only long-term solutions to traffic are public transportation and coordinated land use." What nonsense. Like most Leftists, the authors hate the freedom that the car has given people. Why can't we eliminate sprawl by having high density, pedestrian friendly towns interconnected with massive highways? There is no conflict between pedestrians and cars when the needs of each are satisfied separately. And another: "a federal initiative is needed to better coordinate those policies which now govern the apparently distinct objectives of affordable housing provision, business assistance, job creation, and social services." This big government nonsense speaks for itself. So this book gets 2 stars for its accurate description of everything that is wrong with suburbia. But it is a depressing reminder that the only major forces in our country are corporate fascists and big government socialists. The enterprising spirit of individual freedom and civic duty that created those wonderful old towns and cities and all that was good in America is now extinct.
Rating: 
Summary: Nonsense
Review: In addition to explaining why sprawl is not ideal, the book also portrayed a detailed vision of what working communities would look like. My husband and I will soon be looking for a place to live and raise children; this book will definately help us evaluate existing communities and homes. For example, destinations within walking distance of the home can encourage autonomy in children, and lessen the pressure on the chauffeuring parents.
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