Neuendorf, William, and Kennedy Smith. Better Models for Urban Supermarkets. Washington, D.C.: National Trust for Historic Preservation, 2004.

Detailed discussions take community advocates through the process of researching market needs, organizing local support, making an economic case for a neighborhood supermarket, and solving design challenges. Case studies from major U.S. cities demonstrate just how well these new kinds of urban supermarkets are working.

Rusk, David. Cities without Suburbs. 3rd ed. Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2003.

David Rusk, the former mayor of Albuquerque and now an international speaker and consultant on urban policy, argues that America must end the isolation of the central city from its suburbs in order to attack its urban problems. Rusk's analysis, extending back to 1950, covers 522 central cities in 320 metro areas of the United States. He finds that cities trapped within old boundaries have suffered severe racial segregation and the emergence of an urban underclass. But cities with annexation powers, termed "elastic" by Rusk, have shared in area wide development. Rusk assesses the major trends of the 1990s, including the perceived rebound of central cities, the impact of Hispanic and Asian migration, the growing similarities of older "inner-ring" suburbs to central cities, and the emerging influence of faith-based movements. New recommendations take account of growing restrictions on cities' annexation powers, even in the southwestern United States, and of new opportunities for federal shaping of home mortgage programs and urban planning processes. Rusk's conclusion stresses cities' growing experience with building political coalitions in pursuit of development and growth. Reviewed in July 2004 issue of Planning magazine.

Barlett, Peggy F., and Geoffrey W. Chase, eds. Sustainability on Campus: Stories and Strategies for Change. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2004.

Environmental awareness on college and university campuses began with the celebratory consciousness-raising of Earth Day, 1970. Since then environmental action on campus has been both global (in research and policy formation) and local (in efforts to make specific environmental improvements on campuses). The stories in this book show that achieving environmental sustainability is not a matter of applying the formulas of risk management or engineering technology but part of what the editors call "the messy reality of participatory engagement in cultural transformation." Reviewed in November 2004 issue of Planning magazine.

Foreman, Dave. Rewilding North America: A Vision for Conservation in the 21st Century. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2004.

Dave Foreman takes on arguably the biggest ecological threat of our time: the global extinction crisis. He not only explains the problem in clear and powerful terms, but also offers a bold, hopeful, scientifically credible, and practically achievable solution. Foreman begins by setting out the specific evidence that a mass extinction is happening and analyzes how humans are causing it. Adapting Aldo Leopold's idea of ecological wounds, he details human impacts on species survival in seven categories, including direct killing, habitat loss and fragmentation, exotic species, and climate change. Foreman describes recent discoveries in conservation biology that call for wildlands networks instead of isolated protected areas, and, reviewing the history of protected areas, shows how wildlands networks are a logical next step for the conservation movement. The final section describes specific approaches for designing such networks (based on the work of the Wildlands Project, an organization Foreman helped to found) and offers concrete and workable reforms for establishing them. Reviewed in January 2005 Planning magazine.

Wheeler, Stephen M., and Timothy Beatley. The Sustainable Urban Development Reader. London: Routledge, 2004.

The Reader brings together classic readings from a wide variety of sources to investigate how our cities and towns can become more sustainable. Sixty-one selections span issues such as land use planning, urban design, transportation, ecological restoration, economic development, resource use, and equity planning. Section introductions outline the major themes, while introductions to the individual writings explain their interest and significance to wider audiences. Additional sections present 24 case studies of real-world sustainable urban planning examples, sustainability planning exercises, and further reading. Review in October 2004 Planning magazine.

Vogt, A. John. Capital Budgeting and Finance: A Guide for Local Governments. Washington, D.C.: International City/County Management Association, 2004.

Clearly explains capital budgeting approaches and methods, especially for local jurisdictions under 200,000 in population. Gathers together and clearly presents the accepted and successful policies, practices, and procedures from across the country and describes in detail every step — from selecting projects, to planning how to pay for them, to structuring and selling debt. Provides an abundance of local government documents, working papers, charts, checklists, and examples from successful jurisdictions. Approach and recommendations consistent with the National Advisory Council on State and Local Government Budgeting, emphasizing goal setting and planning.

Highway Capacity Manual. 4th ed. Washington, D.C.: Transportation Research Board, 2000.

New to HCM 2000 are a chapter on interchange ramp terminals, sections on the planning uses of the material, and a discussion of the appropriate use of simulation models.

Shoup, Donald. The High Cost of Free Parking. Chicago: Planners Press, 2005.

Off-street parking requirements are devastating American cities. So says Donald Shoup in this no-holds-barred treatise on the way parking should be. Free parking, he argues, has contributed to auto dependence, rapid urban sprawl, extravagant energy use, and a host of other problems. Planners mandate free parking to alleviate congestion, but end up distorting transportation choices, debasing urban design, damaging the economy, and degrading the environment. Ubiquitous free parking helps explain why our cities sprawl on a scale fit more for cars than for people, and why American motor vehicles now consume one-eighth of the world's total oil production. Shoup proposes new ways for cities to regulate parking, namely, charge fair market prices for curb parking, use the resulting revenue to pay for services in the neighborhoods that generate it, and remove zoning requirements for off-street parking. Review from April/May 2005 New Urban News.

USA Today article.

Kmiec, Douglas W. Zoning and Planning Deskbook. 2nd ed. New York: Thomson West, 2004.

Discusses the latest developments in land use control, analyzing procedural and substantive considerations, remedies, and strategies. Provides techniques for obtaining approvals and permits, public hearings, and securing remedies and relief from adverse decisions. Examines state and federal litigation. Section titles discuss, amongst others: Land Use Control in Context, Typical Zoning Ordinance, Relevant Decision-Making Bodies, Zoning Objectives and Methods, Administrative and Legislative Zoning Actions, Zoning Litigation, Subdivision Control, Scope, Structure, and Objectives of Subdivision Control, Municipal Duty to Provide Service to New Subdivisions, Land Use Planning, Planning Theory, Adoption of Comprehensive Plan, and Legal Significance of Planning.

Pressman, Norman. Shaping Cities for Winter: Climatic Comfort and Sustainable Design. Prince George, B.C.: Winter Cities Association, 2004.

Reviewed in November 2004, Planning magazine.

Walter, David. Design First: Design-Based Planning for Communities. Oxford: Elsevier, 2004.

This illustrated textbook sets out objectives, policies and design principles for planning new communities and redeveloping existing urban neighborhoods. Drawing from their extensive experience, the authors explain how better plans (and consequently better places) can be created by applying the three-dimensional principles of urban design and physical place-making to planning problems. Design First uses case studies from the authors' own professional projects to demonstrate how theory can be turned into effective practice, using concepts of traditional urban form to resolve contemporary planning and design issues in American communities. Review in February 2005 issue of Planning magazine.

Hazel, George, and Roger Parry. Making Cities Work. Chichester: Wiley-Academy, 2004.

Featuring 30 individual case studies which focus on getting to, enjoying and moving around a city, the book identifies "urban heroes": those individuals who have led particularly successful projects in urban improvement throughout the world. The book gives practical examples of successful urban improvement projects throughout the world.

Salamon, Sonya. Newcomers to Old Towns: Suburbanization of the Heartland. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.

2004 winner of the Robert E. Park Book Award from the Community and Urban Sociology Section (CUSS) of the American Sociological Association.

Although the death of the small town has been predicted for decades, during the 1990s the population of rural America actually increased by more than three million people. In this book, Sonya Salamon explores these rural newcomers and the impact they have on the social relationships, public spaces, and community resources of small town America. Salamon draws on richly detailed ethnographic studies of six small towns in central Illinois, including a town with upscale subdivisions that lured wealthy professionals as well as towns whose agribusinesses drew working-class Mexicano migrants and immigrants. She finds that regardless of the class or ethnicity of the newcomers, if their social status differs relative from that of oldtimers, their effect on a town has been the same: suburbanization that erodes the close-knit small town community, with especially severe consequences for small town youth. To successfully combat the homogenization of the heartland, Salamon argues, newcomers must work with oldtimers so that together they sustain the vital aspects of community life and identity that first drew them to small towns.