There are 13 chapters in Charles Montgomery’s new book – Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design. Reviews have been good. Very good. A writer in the New York Times recommended it as one of the five books the new mayor of that city should read. 
For the next 13 days of Price Tags, selected quotes from each chapter – beginning with ‘The Mayor of Happy’:
Is urban design really powerful enough to make or break happiness?
For most Americans, the claim that prosperity and the cherished automobile propelled wealthy cities away from happiness is practically heresy.
And yet the boom decades of the late twentieth century were not accompanied by a boom in happiness.
More people than ever got exactly what they thought they wanted.
… (but) too many rich societies have used their wealth in ways that exacerbate urban problems rather than solve them. Could this help explain the happiness paradox?
Surely it’s possible to apply happy city principles to the wounds of wealthy places.
