If we want to preserve what's still left of the natural world, we
need to stop using so much of it. And, says veteran environmental
activist Matt Hern, cities are the best chance we have left for a truly
ecological future . . . but what does it take to make a "truly"
sustainable city?
Common Ground in a Liquid City is a fun and engaging look at the future of urban life. Hern takes us on a journey through over a dozen urban centers, from Vancouver to Istanbul, Las Vegas, and beyond, exploring the history and current composition of cities around the globe and highlighting the elements of each that make it livable.
Each of Hern's ten chapters focuses on a central
theme of city life: diversity, street life, crime, population density,
water and natural life, gentrification, and globalism. What emerges in
the end is an appealing portrait of what the urban future might look
like--environmentally friendly, locally focused, and governed from
below.
Matt Hern is an inveterate city dweller and an
environmental and education activist. The editor of Everywhere All the
Time: A New Deschooling Reader and the author of Deschooling Our
Lives and Field Day, he founded Vancouver's Car-Free Day and is the
director of the Purple Thistle Center for alternative education. These
days, he lives in Vancouver with his partner and daughters and lectures
widely around the globe.
