Plan on Reading These 4 Books in 2024

In Homelessness Is a Housing Problem, Gregg Colburn and Clayton Page Aldern ask why the size of the homeless population varies so widely from place to place. They test a range of commonly invoked reasons to explain high levels of homelessness: favorable wintertime temperatures, generous social services, and unusually high levels of poverty. But they settle on a simple, straightforward conclusion: "Regional variation in rates of homelessness can be explained by the costs and availability of housing."

Homelessness Is a Housing Problem should erase any doubt about the powerful role of housing markets in creating homelessness. Written with straightforward prose and digestible empirical analyses, this book will serve as a useful resource for planners seeking to dispel myths about homelessness and zero in on its causes.
—Review by Brian McCabe, Georgetown University

Remaking the American Dream argues that there is much more simmering within single-family enclaves than meets the eye. Vinit Mukhija writes about the evolution of single-family neighborhoods in their totality, treating the construction, removal, and (all too rare) regularization of informal housing units alongside the legal addition of second and third units as all part of the same story. Its rich collection of case studies includes detailed accounts of important, but seldom-told episodes of planning history, such as Vancouver's long road toward embracing additional units on R1 lots, and the California state government's decades-long cat-and-mouse game with municipalities seeking to block accessory dwelling units.

This book will guide planning practitioners working to bring zoning reform and housing choice to U.S. neighborhoods. The environmental, social, and fiscal pressures to release single-family enclaves from their straightjackets in coming years seem sure to intensify.
—Review by Jake Wegmann, University of Texas at Austin

Forty members of my midtown neighborhood association are heatedly debating what to do about the herd of javelina that dig up gardens and terrorize people out walking their dogs. One woman says she is so frightened of the boar-like creatures that she won't leave her house. So far, the Arizona Game and Fish Department, the police department, and Pima County Animal Control all say, "Live with it."

How did we get to this situation? Peter Alagona — in his very readable book, The Accidental Ecosystem — recounts the tale. Stories of a puma in Southern California, a sea lion in Seattle, bats in Austin, a bear in New Jersey, and coyotes in Chicago bring to our attention how urban encounters with wild animals occur nationwide. Ultimately, Alagona calls for coexistence — "to see the good in wildlife and to work to coexist with it, even with creatures that can sometimes be annoying, is also to see good in human kind, to work toward a more just, humane and sustainable future." This is an excellent book for planners thinking about the built environment's setting in the broader ecosystem.
—Review by Margot Garcia, FAICP, Virginia Commonwealth University

In the U.S., several cities have declared themselves sanctuary cities, adopting policies that protect undocumented immigrants and their families. These policies typically include refusing to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in detaining and deporting people and affirming the rights of undocumented residents to access local services.

In his book, The Sanctuary City, Domenic Vitiello rejects the idea that sanctuary emerges from local government policies. Instead, he argues that sanctuary, or safety, emerges from the collective efforts of civil society, local institutions, and immigrants who collectively mobilize to support vulnerable newcomers. As Vitiello puts it, "Sanctuary cities are the places, the safe spaces, where immigrants, refugees, and their allies help one another rebuild their lives and their communities."

The Sanctuary City is a meticulously researched piece of urban history, examining the migration and settlement experiences of Central American, Southeast Asian, Liberian, Arab, and Mexican immigrants in Philadelphia across the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Though it tells the unique story of migrant groups in Philadelphia, the themes it engages with are universal. The book will be of interest to planners and others who care about immigrant integration, civil society, and community development.
— Review by Amada Armenta, University of California, Los Angeles