Laws of the Landscape

Pietro S. Nivola is a vice president of the Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C, USA, where he is the director of Governance Studies. Among his previous books are Tense Commandments: Federal Prescriptions and City Problems (Brookings, 2002) and Agenda for the Nation , coedited with Henry J. Aaron and James M. Lindsay (Brookings, 2003).

"A fascinating study of how public policies have shaped cities, with emphasis on the difference between the U.S. and Europe. " —Witold Rybczynski, New York Review of Books, 6/21/2001|"Nivola has performed a useful service in checking those of us who are so enamored of the urbanity and cultural sophistication of the European city that we tend to believe, naively, that all America needs is to copy the European policy model." —Martin Zimmerman, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 8/1/1999|"Anyone interested in the vexing question of how to improve urban life in America should read this book." —Keith Monroe, Winston-Salem Journal, 3/19/2000|"Intelligent, thoughtful-provoking, and well-written. If you love cities, this book deserves your attention." —Dennis McCarthy, Forum for Applied Research and Public Policy, 5/1/2000|"Nivola's willingness to acknowledge the tradeoffs in land-use policy represents a refreshing change from the current rhetoric.... His readable prose distills urban trends in a slim volume that is understandable to both policy analyst and novice reader." —Samuel R. Staley, Family Policy, 5/1/2000|"Packed with useful comparative information, analysis, and policy suggestions that could prove helpful to an American, European, and Japanese audience interested in the fate of metropolitan areas in developed countries." —Thomas Kontuly, Urban Studies, 7/1/2001|"Instead of trying to answer the question of who loses and who gains in the 'dumb growth' debate, Nivola provokes a more interesting discussion by unpackaging the unrelated but potent mix of 'accidental' urban policies that have led to over half the American population currently living beyond metropolitan boundaries." — Urban Age, 9/1/1999|"Laws of the Landscape should be the basis for every first-year planning course. It teaches that to understand suburbia, planners need to examine tax laws and their economic impacts more than colored land use maps and statistics. " —Peter L. Abeles, BookNews, Citizens Housing and Planning Council of New York, 10/1/1999|"... well written, concise, and inexpensive. It is packed with useful comparative information, analysis and policy suggestions that could prove helpful to an American, European and Japanese audience interested in the fate of metropolitan areas in developed countries. This book should interest a broad cross-section of geographers, sociologists, economists and urban and regional planners." —Thomas Kontuly, University of Utah, Urban Studies