21st Century Garden Cities of To-Morrow

Book excerpt: The two authors complement each other beautifully, one a visionary and gutsy politician, the other a gifted academic with a deep rooted social conscience. With the benefit of a century of post Letchworth Garden City knowledge and the lessons of two World Wars, their timely released book re-brands the Garden City from a social as well as a technical point of view. It says it's a manifesto for 21st Century Garden Cities of To-Morrow, but it could equally be a manifesto for decent human urban survival on our cherished Planet. It concentrates on the role of each citizen - his or her responsibilities and opportunities. It advocates restoring basic human values back to ordinary people, away from the `I'm doing you a favour' private pro-bono benefaction and/or cash-starved governmental institutions that seem to know the cost of everything, but the value of nothing.