In Within Walking Distance, journalist and urban critic Philip Langdon looks at why and how Americans are shifting toward a more human-stale way of building and living. He shows how people are creating, improving, and caring for walkable communities. For five thousand years, human settlements were nearly always compact places. Everything a person needed on a regular basis lay within walking distance; but then the great project of the twentieth century — sorting people, businesses, and activities into separate zones, scattered across vast metropolises — took hold, exacting its toll on human health, natural resources, and the climate. Now, many people have begun seeking compact, walkable communities or looking for ways to make their current neighbourhood better connected, more self-sufficient, and more-pleasurable.Philip Langdon spent time in six communities — Center City Philadelphia; the East Rock section of New Haven, Connecticut; Brattleboro, Vermont; the Little Village section of Chicago; the Pearl District in Portland, Oregon; and the Cotton District in Starkville, Mississippi — that differ in size, history, wealth, diversity, and education, yet share crucial traits: compactness, a mix of uses and activities, and human scale. In these communities, Langdon examines safe, comfortable streets; sociable sidewalks; how buildings connect to the public realm; bicycling and public transportation; and incorporation of nature and parks into city or town life. In all these varied settings, he pays special attention to a vital ingredient: local commitment. This book is for anyone who wants to understand what can be done to build, rebuild, or improve a community while retaining the things that make it distinctive.