Common Ground in a Liquid City

Common Ground in a Liquid City represents an innovative approach to urban studies, what we might call a "comparative urban analysis." It's part travelogue, part critique of modern city planning, and part urban history of the city of Vancouver, which has emerged over the course of the last decade as the premiere example of what an ideal urban future might look like. Vancouver provides the ideal backdrop for Hern's analysis, but the usefulness of his argument extends far beyond the boundaries of any one specific city. He starts out from the relatively simple idea that the only chance the world has for a ecological future is for the vast bulk of us to live in cities. If we want to preserve what’s still left of the natural world we need to stop using so much of it. It's an interesting argument: while most of the environmental left is arguing that cities produce too much waste, drain too many resources, and should be razed in favor of a more communitarian, back-to-the-earth collection of villages and agrarian societies, Hern takes the opposite approach. Meditating on lessons learned during his trips to cities and villages across the globe, Hern argues that we have to divorce our cities from the idealized images we have of them. A better city is possible, he argues, but only if the population is made up of engaged citizens who are willing and able to participate in common life - and if we build governance structures that allow them to do so.