YOUR CITY
SUCKS!
Fixing Soft Systems to Rebuild Hard Infrastructure
A provocative, data-driven exploration of why American cities are failing and a framework for how to fix them. By Seyi Fabode.
Inside the Book
Why Your City Is Broken
American cities face a $5.5 trillion infrastructure deficit, a loneliness epidemic, and governance systems designed for a world that no longer exists. This book connects the dots between crumbling bridges and crumbling communities.
The City as Organism
Cities aren't machines to be engineered — they're living organisms. When one system fails, the whole body suffers. This book maps the anatomy of urban failure and the path to recovery.
METRO City Scorecard
A comprehensive framework for measuring city health across Mobility, Economy, Technology, Resilience, and Opportunity — moving beyond GDP to capture what actually matters.
21 Laws for Better Cities
From 'The Law of Induced Demand' to 'The Law of the Missing Middle,' 21 actionable principles that can transform how we plan, build, and govern our urban spaces.
From the Author
A Message from Seyi
About the Author
Seyi Fabode
Seyi Fabode is a writer, strategist, and urban systems thinker with deep expertise in energy, infrastructure, and the intersection of technology and city governance. His work spans the worlds of utility innovation, urban planning, and data-driven policy analysis.
As the founder of Asha Labs, Seyi has spent years studying why cities fail and what it takes to fix them — not through grand top-down plans, but through understanding the soft systems (governance, culture, incentives) that determine whether hard infrastructure (roads, pipes, grids) actually gets built and maintained.
Your City Sucks! is the culmination of that research: a provocative, accessible, and deeply researched book that gives citizens, planners, and policymakers the language and frameworks to demand better from their cities.
Get Your Copy
The book that diagnoses why your city is failing — and prescribes the treatment plan to fix it. Available in hardcover and paperback.
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