City Rules

"...Emily Talen's new book City Rules: How Regulations Affects Urban Form is so interesting and important. It makes totally clear that architects and designers don't determine how small or big or what form to make our houses, the rules do. And those rules are often arbitrary, capricious and stupid." * Treehugger *
"...insightful and intelligent... City Rules offers an essential basis for how to proceed." * Better! Cities & Towns *
"It is primarily historical, tracing the origins of urban rules in the USA, the various ways in which they have been applied, and the arguments for and against which they have been generated. The story is fascinating and well told." * Urban Design *
"Ultimately, Talen aims to create more 'walkable, diverse, compact, and beautiful' cities, and this book will be especially interesting and valuable to students of urban planning and architecture who share these important goals." * CHOICE *
"An interdisciplinary audience whose research interests focus on the regulatory, physical, and historical attributes of cities should find Talen's critical analysis of zoning useful." * Journal of Urban Affairs *
"...close examination and clear explanation...an engaging account that shows contemporary city builders and reformers working with codified ideas of past generations that in their institutional form—as rules—continue to wield significant influence." * Annals of the Association of American Geographers *
"This book has long been needed to show the unintended consequences of use-based 'Euclidean' zoning, how we need to change our regulations to achieve a more desirable outcome." * Urban Review STL *
"convincing and practical" * International Journal of Urban and Regional Research *