Council Office Resource Library

"Improved bus service can make our cities better places to live for all citizens and help address some of America's deepest social and environmental problems. But there is an enormous mismatch between how badly American cities need good bus service and how committed their leaders are to providing it. In Better Buses, Better Cities, transit expert Steven Higashide shows that it does not have to be this way. In defiance of the national trend, bus ridership...

New York Times Bestseller • Notable Book of the Year • Editors' Choice Selection
One of Bill Gates' "Amazing Books" of the Year
One of Publishers Weekly's 10 Best Books of the Year
Longlisted for the National Book Award for Nonfiction
An NPR Best Book of the Year
Winner of the Hillman Prize for Nonfiction
Gold Winner • California Book Award (Nonfiction)
Finalist • Los Angeles Times

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Thirty years after its publication, The Death and Life of Great American Cities was described by The New York Times as "perhaps the most influential single work in the history of town planning....[It] can also be seen in a much larger context.  It is first of all a work of literature; the descriptions of street life as a kind of ballet and the bitingly satiric account of traditional planning theory can still be...

"Public transit is a powerful tool for addressing a huge range of urban problems, including traffic congestion and economic development as well as climate change. But while many people support transit in the abstract, it's often hard to channel that support into good transit investments. Part of the problem is that transit debates attract many kinds of experts, who often talk past each other. Ordinary people listen to a little of this and decide that...

The Color of Law brilliantly recounted how government at all levels created segregation. Just Action describes how we can begin to undo it.