Welcome to The Urban Condition

The Urban Condition is an occasional blog where I’ll be sharing tidbits, scribblings, and provocations based on research and reporting from my forthcoming book with Island Press, tentatively entitled, Living for the City: How Better Urban Planning Can Help Solve America’s Biggest Problems.

Expect brief historical essays, book reports, on-the-ground field work, and analysis of contemporary policy debates.

In the book, I hope to offer an accessible introduction to urban planning in America through the lens of the quintessential features of the built environment — streets, railroads, freeways, single family homes, affordable housing complexes, office parks, skyscrapers, and more. Each entry will explore the past, present, and future of a given urban form, exploring how its current state affects daily life, and how it might change for the better.

Feel free to reach out: benjaminmosesschneider@gmail.com