Jeff Speck on happiness and social justice, in addition to walkability

Jeff Speck has published an article called Ballet of the Sidewalk on MetropolisMag.com looking at what he didn't include in The Walkable City, happiness and social justice. It's a great, quick read that you will all enjoy. Here are two bits that I wanted to highlight:

"All the pleasures that were once provided publicly by the community are now provided privately by the middle-class house. The theater has been replaced by the giant-screen TV, the pool hall has made its way into the rec room, and the playground has become the backyard jungle gym.  

This is wrong. The privatization of the public realm means the end of community life, and we don’t need a new, better pope to tell us what that does to our spirit. [...] 

"Until now, quality of life was my ultimate measure. Now things don’t seem so simple. Somewhere, at the intersection of the quality-of-life city, the sustainable city, the equitable city, and the happy city, lies the good city. I don’t doubt that it is also the walkable city, but walkability alone does not get us there."