In Municipal Mind , Toronto ’s poet Laureate offers a blueprint for building sustainable cities in a global era, predicated on city soul. By weaving bold and savvy strategies for urban creativity and civic prosperity, together with a reasoned appeal for mutual respect, understanding and interaction among citizens, he persuades us that – in the delicate balancing of universal values and individual needs – cities can do far, far better. Municipal Mind offers up a whole new way of civic being and thinking that puts wonder before commerce and nothing before human encounter.

 

 

‘It is odd that the emotional, which is a defining feature of human existence, is absent in discussions of city-making. We have lost the language of the senses … Happily, Pier Giorgio Di Cicco recaptures the sensory, the soulfulness and the soulessness of the city and puts the missing thing centre-stage: The human being.’

 

Charles Landry, author of ‘The Art of City Making’

 

 

‘This book captures the very essence of the creative community, its great potential, its contradictions, and the challenges we all face.

 

Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class

 

 

‘If only our political voices could approach the honesty and clarity in the work of this volume, we would be on our way to re-invent, resuscitate, re-charge the greatest of human endeavours – cititzenship in our contemporary city.’

 

Bruce Mau, author of Massive Change