Written for a class on happiness communication, I used Montgomery’s Happy City to explore the creation of a city with people in mind. An idyllic city should be the perfect environment to situate its residents with all the tools they need for a happy life. American cities as we know them are the case studies for books like Happy City with their “layers of imported traffic, noise, pollution, and road danger, [that] do not currently meet our needs for well-being much better than the sprawl” (Montgomery, 2014, p. 77). Cities are concrete, man-made, fabricated realities that do not serve everyone. Integrating collectivist values that benefit everyone, such as public spaces…