Happy City Book Summary - Happy City Book explained in key points

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Happy City summary

Name: Happy City
Rating: 4.4 (34 reviews)
Author: Charles Montgomery

Charles Montgomery

Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design

4.4 (34 ratings)

15 mins

Table of Contents

Happy City
summarized in 7 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 7

What’s in it for me? Learn how urban design can foster happiness.

New York, Tokyo, Paris, London, Berlin – these are among the most vibrant cities in the world. Each has its own particular vibe – and it’s the vibe of a city that makes it famous, that enchants both tourists and citizens, that signals the vitality, creativity, sociability and happiness of the people who live there.

But what makes for a city’s positive vibe? What is it that makes residents feel content? Are there ways to actively create a happy city?

Well, yes, there are.

In these blinks, you’ll learn how urban design influences our happiness; how cities can be designed to reduce stress and foster social interaction, communality and social equality; and how sensible city planning can inspire and make us feel truly happy.

You’ll also find out

why parks with no trees are good, but not great for our happiness;
why driving a car in a city is a harrowing experience; and
why California won’t necessarily make you happier than Ohio.

City suburbs were designed to make us happier, but things haven’t quite worked out that way.

If you took a trip back in time to visit your favorite nineteenth-century metropolis, it probably wouldn’t be your favorite city anymore. Back then cities were dirty, disease-ridden and overflowing with people. This miserable situation led urban planners to ask themselves: What could we do better?

In the early twentieth century, urban planners realized that cities would be better off if they were spread out over a larger area. This seemed like a big improvement on the cramped cities of the industrial revolution – plus, the newly invented automobile allowed city-dwellers to escape to the country every now and then.

And so the suburbs were born. For a while, townspeople were able to live healthier lives than they had in the congested city centers.

Fast forward to the present, however, and it would appear that the tables have turned. The modern city center offers far better living standards than it did in the past, while living on the outskirts of major cities has left citizens unhappy and exhausted.

Suburban residents are, after all, removed from many things. All destinations – from schools to medical facilities and even bars and places to hang out – require a long commute. People who live out in the suburbs spend more time on the road, which generally leaves them more worn down than inner-city citizens.

In 2008, two economists compared German citizens’ estimates of how long it took them to get to work with how satisfied they were with their lives. A pattern emerged: the further the commute, the less satisfied these people felt.

Spending all your time on the road also leaves you with less time to socialize. This too impacts your overall happiness. To prove the point, economist John Halliwell studied the Gallup World Polls from 2003 to 2010. He found that, when it comes to what makes us happy with our life, relationships with other people trump everything else – yes, even income.

While the suburban sprawl was a great idea in theory, it made people unhappier in practice. So, can cities still turn things around?

Banning cars and staying on top of maintenance keep public spaces appealing.

How can you bring people closer together? Here’s an idea: create a space where they can all hang out. That’s what urban planners do when they create common spaces – but not all common spaces are created equal. Traffic and wear and tear can make that public park a lot less fun to visit.

Cars make a lot of noise, which leaves us feeling distracted, unsafe and unwilling to spend time outside. This is enough to keep people from getting in touch with their neighbors. A 1971 study of two San Francisco streets documented the behavior of the people who lived there. In the street with less traffic, each resident had, on average, three local friends and six local acquaintances. Those living in the street with heavy traffic typically only had one local friend and three local acquaintances.

Parks that are small but dense and diverse make urban residents happiest.

Nature is an essential feature of every urban landscape. Even the smallest natural spaces can help city-dwellers feel better.

Improvised experiments at the BMW Guggenheim Lab in Manhattan captured the way people felt while walking the streets of the Big Apple in a tour group. According to participant reports, they felt most unhappy while passing the bare facade of a public housing project; but, just a little way down the road, there was a restaurant built in almost the same way as the housing project, but with a brown wall on which vines were growing. This small addition of nature led passersby to declare this the happiest spot on the tour.

Crowdedness makes us want to hide from the world; a good city helps residents escape when they need to.

Cities that make people happy must pull off a special balancing act. They need to be able to bring people closer together – without, of course, bringing them too close, like cities of the nineteenth century did.

Ever lived in a busy, lively city and found yourself craving more and more time alone? You might not be the only one. It’s been suggested that the crowdedness of large cities leads directly to isolation. Social psychologist Stanley Milgram pointed this out when comparing the behavior of people in small towns to that of people in big cities. People in small towns were much more willing than city-dwellers to help strangers, for instance.

Decisions concerning urban life aren’t immune to bias and poor planning.

There’s a whole host of psychological phenomena that can lead us to make terrible judgments about city planning. Whether you’re picking a new place to live or designing a future city, you should be on the lookout for biases and shoddy plans.

Let’s test this out with a simple question: Would you rather live in California or Ohio? If you’re like most people, you’d pick California hands down. After all, the California we imagine is a world of perfect weather and great surfing. Ohio, on the other hand, just makes us think of bleak winters.

Self-propelled mobility makes us happier, and clever cities know how to encourage this.

It’s a shame that so few city-dwellers choose travel by bike or on foot. Cars, whether on the street or in parking lots, take up a disproportionate amount of public space. And, as you probably know, driving through a city is hardly ever a relaxing experience.

It makes sense, then, that people who ride a bike to work are happier than those who drive. In a traffic jam, our body releases stress hormones. When these hormones build up over time, they can weaken our blood vessels, bones and immune system – not a great thing to put yourself through before a long day at the office!

The happiest cities are driven by urban planning that redistributes resources to the less privileged.

In the early 2000s, Enrique Peñalosa, the mayor of Colombia’s capital, Bogotá, made some radical changes to the lives of urban residents. He introduced car-free days, fast bus lanes, better bicycle paths and reduced traffic on central avenues – all of which made the people of Bogotá much happier, especially the less privileged.

The benefits of driving a car are great, but only if you can afford it. For others, cars take up a lot of private and public space. On the other hand, just about anyone can afford a bike or a public transport ticket. Both require a lot less space and also can help boost everyone’s well-being. Enrique Peñalosa knew this when he took public space away from cars and used it to make room for the TransMilenio, a fast bus system that every commuter could benefit from.

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What is Happy City about?

Happy City (2013) explains how urban planning can help us live healthier and more joyful lives in the big city. From the history of urban sprawl to design blunders, to strategies that encourage residents to socialize, relax and exercise, these blinks reveal the hidden features that can make or break city life.

Best quote from Happy City

The street wears us out. It is altogether disgusting. Why, then, does it still exist? - Le Corbusier

—Charles Montgomery

Who should read Happy City?

Readers thinking about moving to a new city
Students of social psychology or urban planning
People fascinated by the inner workings of urban life

About the Author

Charles Montgomery is an acclaimed journalist, specializing in urban engagement. In 2005, his book The Shark God won the Charles Taylor Prize.

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