BOTW March 11

By Paige Waskow

The Book of the Week is:

Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution

by Janette Sadik-Khan and Seth Solomonow

"If you can change the street, you can change the world."

                                 

via GIPHY

What's it about?

How do you manage making sure millions of people from one place to another on a daily basis let alone try to change how they get around? Whether we think about it or not, streets are incredibly important. As former transportation commissioner of New York City, Janette Sadik-Khan did just that. This book is her journey, achievements, and failures.

Sadik-Khan introduces the reader to streets in the eyes of an urban planner. Questions such as: how do you maintain what exists so that people can drive or walk while also making the street safer for everyone? and how do neighborhoods vary in transportation opportunity? are frequent topics of consideration. She covers how to read the street and how to make it better for people, communities, and local business rather than strictly cars. Her work challenges the status quo and makes bikes, pedestrians, and those who take public transport just as important as those who drive. It also addresses how to change a busy place, such as Times Square, and make it into a place where people can stop and just be.

Why did I choose it?

Streetfight is an excellent introduction to the work of an urban planner. I knew nothing about how transportation planning really worked until I read this book. I went in with an expectation of it being good, but was surprised by how fascinated I was within the first few chapters- I couldn't put it down.

I am a huge biking and walking advocate, and it was really amazing to see how a more sustainable and safe city could be made. By challenging the status quo, Sadik-Khan brings real hope and action to how we view the street. It inspired me to challenge my own views of cars, not that the book says that they are bad, but how we can make the street a more equitable and community-based place.

Growing up in St. Louis, I have seen a lot of the impacts of how transportation opportunity affects so much of what a person can do. Not having a car here in Cedar Rapids has taught me the value and privilege of being to drive and the need for universal bike lanes and reliable public transportation. This book was an answer to a lot of the burning questions I had about how to solve these problems. Of course, I still have a lot to learn, but I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to change the city they live in.

Where can you get Streetfight?

Sadly, this book is not available at Coe's library or the Cedar Rapids Public Library. If you are really interested in reading it, it is available for purchase on Amazon or other online book-selling services.

If you have a book you love and want to see as a BOTW, leave a comment below!

Happy reading!

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References:

Sadik-Khan, Janette, Solomonow, Seth. Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution. Penguin Random House LLC, 2017.