Charles Montgomery – författare

Happy City is the story of how the solutions to this century's problems lie in unlocking the secrets to great city livingThis is going to be the century of the city. But what actually makes a good city? Why are some cities a joy to live in?As Charles Montgomery reveals, it's not how much money your neighbours earn, or how pleasant the climate is that makes the most difference. Journeying to dozens of cities - from Atlanta to Bogotá to Vancouver - he talks to the new champions of the happy city to explore the urban innovations already transforming people's lives. He meets the visionary Colombian mayor who turned some of the world's most dangerous roads into an urban cycling haven; the Danish architect who brought the lessons of medieval Tuscan towns to modern-day Copenhagen; and the New York City transport commissioner who turned the gridlock of Times Square into a place to lounge in the sun.Drawing on the lessons from their stories, from brain science, and from the fascinating realm of urban experimentation, Happy City offers solutions we can all use to improve our livesandshows that simple changes can make all the difference.'Do we live in neighbourhoods that make us happy? Montgomery encourages us to ask without embarrassment, and to think intelligently about the answer' The New York Times Book Review'Excellent . . . Montgomery believes in the importance of smart town planning and Happy City is a compendium of its major ideas' Will Dean, IndependentCharles Montgomery is a journalist and urban experimentalist from Vancouver, Canada. His writings on urban planning, psychology, culture, and history have appeared in magazines and journals on three continents. He is the author of one previous book, and was an original member of the BMW Guggenheim Lab.

Levels of trust are collapsing around the world, as we spend more and more time alone. Our isolation has stark consequences for both individuals—disconnected people are less healthy, and less likely to succeed—and for democracy: low-trust societies like the UK and USA are more susceptible to polarisation and inequality.In The Trust Experiments, the acclaimed urbanist Charles Montgomery shows that our loneliness is not our fault: it’s been designed right into our society. It’s in the single-family homes that discourage neighbourly contact. It’s in the car-dependent infrastructure that makes commutes solo affairs. It’s in the online algorithms that incentivize angry reactions over reasoned debate. But it doesn’t have to be this way.From the baugruppen of Germany to the urban villages of Vancouver to the Utopias of Mexico, Montgomery takes us into intentional communities that have been designed to promote mingling, mutual aid and bridge-building. He visits online activists from Taiwan to Silicon Valley who are using consensus-based algorithms to debunk misinformation and strengthen trust. Drawing on these examples, he shows how we can redesign our housing, cities and online spaces for connection, and apply these lessons to our own lives in ways big and small.

Charles Montgomery's compelling narrative traces the history of the upper Rio Grande's modern Spanish heritage, showing how Anglos and Hispanos sought to redefine the region's social character by glorifying its Spanish colonial past. This readable book demonstrates that northern New Mexico's twentieth-century Spanish heritage owes as much to the coming of the Santa Fe Railroad in 1880 as to the first Spanish colonial campaign of 1598. As the railroad brought capital and migrants into the region, Anglos posed an unprecedented challenge to Hispano wealth and political power. Yet unlike their counterparts in California and Texas, the Anglo newcomers could not wholly displace their Spanish-speaking rivals. Nor could they segregate themselves or the upper Rio Grande from the image, well-known throughout the Southwest, of the disreputable Mexican. Instead, prominent Anglos and Hispanos found common cause in transcending the region's Mexican character. Turning to colonial symbols of the conquistador, the Franciscan missionary, and the humble Spanish settler, they recast northern New Mexico and its people.