After decades of sprawl, many American city and suburban residents struggle with issues related to traffic (and its accompanying challenges for our health and productivity), divided neighborhoods, and a non-walkable life. Urban designer Ryan Gravel makes a case for how we can change this. Cities have the capacity to create a healthier, more satisfying way of life by remodeling and augmenting their infrastructure in ways that connect neighborhoods and communities. Gravel came up with a way to do just that in his hometown with the Atlanta Beltline project. It connects 40 diverse Atlanta neighborhoods to city schools, shopping districts, and public parks, and has already seen a huge payoff in real estate development and local business revenue.

Similar projects are in the works around the country, from the Los Angeles River Revitalization and the Buffalo Bayou in Houston to the Midtown Greenway in Minneapolis and the Underline in Miami. In Where We Want to Live, Gravel presents an exciting blueprint for revitalizing cities to make them places where we truly want to live.

RYAN GRAVEL is an urban designer at Perkins+Will and creator of the Atlanta Beltline, which was originally the subject of his master's thesis at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Today, Gravel is a designer, planner, writer, husband, and father. He is often called on to speak internationally and to large national audiences at conferences on topics as wide ranging as brownfield remediation, transportation, public health, affordable housing, and urban regeneration. His TEDx presentation provides an overview to inspire a global audience, and his attention to social media rounds out an expanding platform.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
PREFACE
1: AS MANY GAINS AS LOSSES
2: "INFRA-CULTURE"
3: CYCLES OF CHANGE
4: THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH SPRAWL
5: TOUGH LOVE
6: AN IDEA WITH AMBITION
7: A WIDE-OPEN PLACE
8: AN EXPANDABLE VISION
9: BREAKING GROUND ON HOPE
10: CATALYST INFRASTRUCTURE
11: AN INFRASTRUCTURE FOR HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
12: AN INFRASTRUCTURE FOR ECONOMIC PROSPERITY
13: AN INFRASTRUCTURE FOR EQUITY
14: AN INFRASTRUCTURE FOR CIVIC IDENTITY
15: UP AHEAD
Notes
Index