num_pages: 345
description: The Urban Mystique, a new book of lively observations about Los Angeles and other cities by Josh Stephens, has just been published by Solimar Books.With a title inspired by Betty Friedan’s account of life in the suburbs, The Urban Mystique is equal parts lamentation and celebration. It collects Stephens’s work from the California Planning &amp; Development Report and elsewhere, covering everything from the minutiae of setbacks, the impacts of transit investments, the promise of smart growth and sustainability, and the precariousness of urban politics in the 21st century. In the book, Stephens seeks the human side of cities, highlighting how ineffable qualities like spirit and culture relate to the visible elements of the built environment: streets, buildings, infrastructure. Indeed, The Urban Mystique treats the built environment and human environment as one in the same.Having covered urban planning for over a decade, Stephens understands the intricacies of planning. But Stephens’s first love was literature, and he reads cities as texts with messages and truths waiting to be articulated. It is this combination of appreciation for the technical and the human that makes The Urban Mystique a significant contribution to American urban writing.  Ultimately, The Urban Mystique is motivated by the idea that all city-dwellers have different tastes and needs but that, at the same time, the urban ideal is a place that is dynamic enough, wealthy enough, spirited enough, and large enough to accommodate the needs and wants of everyone who chooses to participate in humanity’s greatest collective work. For Stephens, that work focuses on places like Los Angeles and San Francisco, and Santa Monica and Beverly Hills. He takes a few detours too, to Beijing, Honolulu, Krakow, and Tucson, among others.“Every chapter of The Urban Mystique contains gems of critical observation. They add up to a genuinely enlightening and thoroughly enjoyable book.” –Donald Shoup, Author, The High Cost of Free Parking “Josh Stephens uses his perch in Los Angeles to take stock of, and take aim at, everything from housing policy and gentrification to the histrionics of NIMBYISM. The Urban Mystique is a bracing look at the way we live now.”–John King, Urban Design Critic, San Francisco Chronicle
language: English
title: The Urban Mystique: Notes on California, Los Angeles, and Beyond
publisher: Solimar Books