Planning Sustainable Cities and Regions

"Finally, a book about sustainability that fully accepts that the future will not be like the past. Boldly proclaiming that cities are inevitably moving toward livability, Chapple notes how traditional planning techniques cannot fully grapple with our changing demographics, the rise of the networked economy, and the shifting preferences of the next America. Utilizing the experience of the Bay Area – while making the appropriate caveats about the transportability of that experience -- she charts a different approach, one that addresses our distributional and environmental crises even as it neatly fits into an emerging economy that is both more regional and more entrepreneurial. Deftly shifting between high-level theory, case study empirics, and practical policy – and insisting along the way that equity be a guiding principle for the future – this volume should be required reading for both students and practitioners of sustainability planning for the 21st Century."–Manuel Pastor, University of Southern California, USA

"In this exceptional book Karen Chapple develops an argument regarding how planning can be used to achieve justice and sustainability within cities and regions. With great originality Chapple shows how sensitivity to local context is key within a larger goal of enlarging people’s capabilities, not simply broadening their range of choice." –Susan S. Fainstein, Harvard University, USA

"Linking economic development, environmental protection and improvement, and equity have long been articulated, but rarely achieved, goals of city sustainability programs. This book takes a critical look at how cities in California have sought to achieve these goals, and offers a new way of thinking about their pursuit. It is a must read for anyone seriously interested in understanding the promise and impediments to making cities and their regions more sustainable."–Kent Portney, Tufts University, USA