MixedThe Guardian\"Klinenberg... has written a paean to libraries, parks, playgrounds and other public spaces, but he is unable to keep the bleaker realities of urban (and, unusually, suburban) life out of his would-be-inspiring \'Aren’t Cities great?\' narrative. What are clearly meant to be instructive just-so stories and heartwarming anecdotes are often much more grim and upsetting than he seems to think they are ... The flaws of the book come out in a discussion of another of these apparently public \'infrastructures\'... This leads us to the question of ownership, and places where this book won’t go – harder measures, such as nationalisation, that could keep social infrastructure social, and keep public spaces public ... [Klinenberg] asks, rightly, why no tech billionaire has ever done for “the people” what Carnegie did with his libraries.\
