Without both, a new book argues, a community can’t achieve its highest purpose. Some cities and suburbs have managed to combine them. Most are finding it difficult.

A new book by William Fulton outlines a simple equation: “Place plus prosperity equals a successful community.” According to an article by Alan Ehrenhalt in Governing, Fulton’s book examines the “subtle relationship between wealth and sense of place.” Many American communities, Ehrenhalt argues, have one or the other, but not both.

For Fulton, “A fully realized city needs to contain all the benefits of an integrated urban existence: close proximity of its citizens to the fulfilment of their ordinary human needs, the ability to walk and bike everywhere, an efficient transit system and a rich tapestry of everyday urban life.”