Thread by @LambethLivingSt

That’s good enough for us! Our book for August will be Happy City, inspired by @deekinstow.

Use #LLSBookClub to take part (and also let us know below if you’re joining so we don’t feel looooneelllyyyyy).

@deekinstow We're more than a week into August, so you know what that means? It's time to start book club.

Follow this thread if you want to join in the conversation.

This month, we're reading Happy City

@deekinstow Let's start at the beginning -- chapter 1. We're talking about happiness and the city.

Specifically, with this idea from Christopher Alexander et. al. that our surroundings are just as responsible for our wellbeing as our internal lives.

Does that ring true to you?

@deekinstow No one is a bigger champion of this idea than @EnriquePenalosa -- urbanist darling and the (twice) former mayor of Bogota.

Peñalosa is so special because he truly believed the design of a city could improve the happiness of those who lived there.

@deekinstow @EnriquePenalosa When it came to Bogota, Peñalosa believed the city had been screwed over. First, from being reoriented around cars - which most citizens couldn't afford (sound familiar?)

Secondly, from the privatisation of public places - leaving no places for residents to walk, play, or linger

@deekinstow @EnriquePenalosa So Peñalosa chucked out the city's plan to build a load of highways and instead invested in cycle lanes, parks, rapid transit and pedestrian plazas instead. One day a year, private cars were banned from the city.

Now, it looks like this

@deekinstow @EnriquePenalosa Peñalosa's philosophy was this one. He knew we couldn't have our cake and eat it too. We had to make a choice. Cities for cars, or cities for people -- which was it going to be?

We know which we'd go for, how about you?

@deekinstow @EnriquePenalosa At the end of Chapter 1 we're left with a question -- what does a happy city look like to you?

Join the conversation by replying below. ⬇️⬇️⬇️

(Don't worry, we're a lazy book club, you can join the conversation even if you haven't read the book).

@deekinstow @EnriquePenalosa We're carrying on our #LLSBookClub looking at Chapter 2 of Happy City.

And it turns out the Beatles were right -- money can't by happiness.

Income matters, of course, but it's not the whole park of the story...

@deekinstow @EnriquePenalosa If you live in a poor country then getting richer does go hand in hand with feeling happier.

But if you live in a wealthy country, like the UK, then every dollar you earn beyond the average income mark gives less and less satisfaction.

@deekinstow @EnriquePenalosa So if it's not money, what is it? Surprise, surprise -- location as a lot to do with our happiness.

Odds are -- if you live in a small town or by the sea you're likely to be happier with your life than those who live by a garbage dump or under a flight path.

@deekinstow @EnriquePenalosa But if small towns and the seaside will make us happier, then why are we all living in South London?

It's because happiness isn't all about hedonism. It's also about reaching your full potential, meeting a challenge and overcoming it.

@deekinstow @EnriquePenalosa The ideal happiness state is what scientists call "challenged thriving" where a meaningful, connected life is mixed in with a little bit of heroic struggle.

Struggle like overcoming the grit, noise, chaos and expense of a big city like London.

@deekinstow @EnriquePenalosa And overcoming this struggle is a shared venture. In this chapter, Montgomery challenges us all to remember that the city is a shared good -- one where we create a common good that we could not build alone.

@deekinstow @EnriquePenalosa In the end of this chapter, Montgomery outlines a seven step goal for what a city should try to accomplish after it has successfully catered for the needs of food, shelter and security.

@deekinstow @EnriquePenalosa 1. The city should strive to maximise joy and minimise hardship.

2. It should lead us towards health rather than sickness.

3. It should offer us real freedom to live, move and build our lives as we wish.

@deekinstow @EnriquePenalosa 4. It should build resilience against economic or environmental shocks.

5. It should be fair in the way it apportions space, services, mobility, joys, hardships and costs.

@deekinstow @EnriquePenalosa 6. Most of all, it should enable us to build and strengthen the bonds between friends, families and strangers that give meaning, bonds that represent the city's greatest achievement and opportunity.

@deekinstow @EnriquePenalosa 7. The city that acknowledges and celebrates our common fate, that opens doors to empathy and cooperation, will help us tackle the great challenges of this century.

@deekinstow @EnriquePenalosa So that being said, our discussion question for this chapter is this:

In which of these goals are we succeeding? Where are we failing? How do we make Lambeth, and London, reach the potential of a Happy City?

Let us know below ⬇️⬇️⬇️