Tag: Talk the Walk

Walking related books for your holiday shopping needs

Walking related books for your holiday shopping needs

It’s the holiday season! We pulled together a list of books that you might consider for your gift giving needs, including from authors who have talked at WalkBoston events. We encourage you to buy books from your local bookstore, or find a store near you via Bookshop. At the bottom, we’ve included a list of a few Massachusetts bookstores you might consider supporting in person or through their online ordering form.

Books (listed alphabetically by author first name)

Books for kids (or the young at heart) on your list

Bookstores (listed alphabetically)

Event: WalkBoston’s Talk the Walk Session: “Confessions of a Recovering Engineer,” 9/29 12pm on Zoom

Event: WalkBoston’s Talk the Walk Session: “Confessions of a Recovering Engineer,” 9/29 12pm on Zoom

WalkBoston’s Talk the Walk Session
“Confessions of a Recovering Engineer”
September 29, 12-1pm
Register for this event

Lunch hour discussion session on Zoom. Open to all. Eating is encouraged. Video is optional. 

“Talk the Walk” is our topic-driven discussion session (not just books!). These discussion sessions may include articles, podcasts, videos, and yes, maybe even a book or two. This session features the book “Confessions of a Recovering Engineer” by Chuck Marohn. The author will be joining us for a brief presentation to kick things off, followed by breakout groups for discussion questions, and if time allows, an author Q&A.

Charles Marohn, professional engineer and founder of the Strong Towns movement, lifts the curtain on America’s transportation system in his newest book, Confessions of a Recovering Engineer. In this book tour presentation, Marohn demonstrates how the values of engineers and other transportation professionals are applied in the design process, and how those priorities differ from the values of the general public. By showing how transportation investments are a means to an end and not an end unto themselves, Marohn reveals how the standard approach to issues like fighting congestion, addressing speeding, and designing intersections only makes transportation problems worse, at great cost in terms of both safety and resources. By contrast, the Strong Towns approach to transportation focuses on bottom-up techniques for spending less and getting higher returns, all while improving quality of life for residents of a community.

Discussion questions: 

  • Discuss Marohn’s distinguishing between a “Road” and a “Street.” Do you agree? Is it helpful? Where does this distinction not hold up?
  • Marohn indicates the hierarchy of engineer values are for road design for vehicles: speed, volume, safety, cost; where the public’s hierarchy is safety, cost, volume, speed. Agree? Disagree? How are these values reflected?
  • Has your experience with civil engineers & consultants reflected what Marohn is confessing? Do you see change happening? Examples?

Register for this meeting:

https://www.givesignup.org/TicketEvent/TalkTheWalk 

You will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. 

Articles to get you started:

Not sure if you’ll have time to read the whole book before 9/29 but still want to participate? A website with supplemental material was created to accompany the book. We’d encourage you to check out info from the intro and first three chapters.  

Want to go deeper? Buy the book! 

We encourage you to buy it from your local bookstore, or find a store near you via Bookshop

Here are a few stores you might consider supporting: 

Event: WalkBoston’s Talk The Walk Session: “Jane Jacobs,” 5/5 12pm On Zoom

Event: WalkBoston’s Talk The Walk Session: “Jane Jacobs,” 5/5 12pm On Zoom

WalkBoston’s Talk the Walk Session
“Jane Jacobs”
May 5, 12-1pm
Register for this event

Lunch hour discussion session on Zoom. Open to all. Eating is encouraged. Video is optional. 

This is our second topic-driven discussion session (not just books!). These discussion sessions may include articles, podcasts, videos, and yes, maybe even a book or two. This session will cover Jane Jacobs (brief bio on Wikipedia). The event coincides with the Jane’s Walk Festival Weekend (May 6-7-8), which features citizen-led free walks around the globe.

This Talk the Walk Session will feature a presentation by author Anthony Flint, who wrote “Wrestling with Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took on New York’s Master Builder and Transformed the American City.”

Sixty years after the publication of “The Death and Life of American Cities,” the legacy of Jane Jacobs endures. She would be cheered by the pandemic-driven transformation of urban environments to accommodate outdoor dining, biking, scooting, and walking; the support of local businesses and grassroots local climate action; and the resilience of transit systems enabling the “15-minute city,” a 21st-century version of how she lived her life in Greenwich Village. But what wouldn’t she be happy with? Quite probably the scourge of “Not in My Backyard” responses to multifamily housing, amid dizzying increases in housing costs.

We’ve included a few relevant links about Jane Jacobs below. If you have read something related that others might find interesting or a question you’d like to include, send it our way—we can include it in our event reminder email and add to this post.

Discussion questions to consider:

  • For whom does Jane Jacobs’ concepts work? For whom don’t they work?
  • What makes Jane Jacobs’ arguments exciting to planners?
  • How do Jane Jacobs’ theories/ideas hold up today, particularly with the latest challenges cities are facing in 2022 (ongoing pandemic, remote/hybrid work, online shopping, rising housing costs, gentrification, etc?)
  • What are some of the critiques of Jane Jacobs’ concepts?

Register for this meeting:

https://www.givesignup.org/TicketEvent/TalkTheWalk
You will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Articles to get you started:

Event: WalkBoston’s Talk the Walk Session: “15-Minute Cities,” 7/29 12pm on Zoom

Event: WalkBoston’s Talk the Walk Session: “15-Minute Cities,” 7/29 12pm on Zoom

WalkBoston’s Talk the Walk Session
“15-Minute Cities”
July 29, 12-1pm
Register on Zoom

Lunch hour discussion session on Zoom. Open to all. Eating is encouraged. Video is optional. 

This is our first go at having a topic-driven discussion session (not just books!). These discussion sessions may include articles, podcasts, videos, and yes, maybe even a book or two. 

The first session will cover “15-Minute Cities.” Short explainer of the concept from Wikipedia. A few relevant articles are below. If you have read something related that others might find interesting or a question you’d like to include, send it our way—we can include it in our event reminder email and add to this post.

Discussion questions: 

  • For whom does this concept work? For whom doesn’t it work?
  • Does the concept exacerbate economic and ethnic segregation?
  • Why has the concept come to prominence now? What makes it exciting to planners?
  • Is it less applicable or more applicable if larger numbers of remote workers move to remote areas?
  • What does it mean for already built up cities? Is it applicable to American suburbs?

Register for this meeting:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMlfuurqzIvGdBFihVdRDkg-rlLon09UtCc
You will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. 

Articles to get you started: