What's New

April 2002

Built Environment

Kunstler, James Howard. The City in Mind: Meditations on the Urban Condition. New York: Free Press, 2001.

From Publishers Weekly: Author and urban gadfly Kunstler (Home from Nowhere; Geography of Nowhere) has graduated from the nowheresville of previous titles to a punchy new study of eight cities in as many chapters: Paris, Atlanta, Mexico City, Berlin, Las Vegas, Rome, Boston, and London. Outspoken and straining for an aphoristic style, Kunstler lacks the overt humanistic impulses of urban studies writers like Jane Jacobs or Lewis Mumford. Instead, he favors snappy observations such as "If Las Vegas truly is our city of the future, then we might as well all cut our throats tomorrow." Kunstler tosses off insults to icons like the distinguished architect I.M. Pei: "Few architects have done as much wholesome damage to any city as the partners I.M. Pei and Harry Cobb did in Boston." He also dips into the unconsciously funny during a stroll through London's Hampstead Heath in which he turns out to be possibly the only urban scholar unaware of its gay cruising grounds, or what Kunstler calls "this somewhat sordid destination." While there are more serious reflections here, the book's generally ill temper is most likely to please readers who want a Don Ricklesian poke-and-prod version of urban affairs. And one is also left wondering what the "urban condition" might be in more easterly world cities. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See what the Las Vegas Review-Journal had to say about Kunstler's opinions.

Commercial Uses

Satterthwaite, Ann. Going Shopping: Consumer Choices and Community Consequences. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2001.

From Library Journal: In this intriguing and well-researched book, Satterthwaite, a city planner in Washington, D.C., provides an in-depth examination of the history and societal impacts of shopping. She explores shopping and retailing from farmers bartering their extra produce in ancient Mesopotamia to recent phenomena like superstores and e-commerce. Shopping, Satterthwaite argues, reflects the wider culture, and as incomes and free time have increased, women's roles have changed, and technology has evolved, shopping has fundamentally shifted as well. For centuries, shopping has been a social, community-based activity where shoppers interacted with friends and neighbors at a locally owned store on Main Street. The advent of nation-wide franchise discount stores, superstores, and e-commerce has stripped the act of shopping of any community. She ends with an examination of recent efforts in the United States and abroad to restore community interaction to the shopping process. Excellently written and well argued, Satterthwaite's book will make a fine addition to the collection of any academic or large public library. Mark Bay, Cumberland College Library, Williamsburg, Kentucky. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc. Reviewed in the May 2002 issue of Planning magazine.

Economic/Urban Policy

The Entrepreneurial City: A How-To Handbook for Urban Innovators. New York: Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, 200?

From the introduction by former Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith: "When first elected, the mayor contributing to this briefing book all started with a clear and coherent philosophy of innovative government, incorporated good ideas, and put them into action. They have notched many successes, racked up some failures, and learned a great deal along the way. The purpose for including these experiences in our briefing book, as Winston Churchill repeatedly advised, is that as leaders, 'the further backward you can look, the further forward you can see." Read a complimentary review from the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Information Technology

Horan, Thomas A. Digital Places: Building Our City of Bits. Washington, D.C.: Urban Land Institute, 2000.

"In Digital Places: Building Our City of Bits, author Thomas A. Horan examines how digital technologies have changed urban life. Horan, who is executive director of the Claremont Information and Technology Institute and an associate professor in the School of Information Science at Claremont Graduate University, says that "the rise of cyberspace begs an examination of its connection to the physical world, the world of bricks and mortar." Building on William Mitchell's thesis that technology allows individuals and individuals to reinvent places, Horan examines "digital placemaking in homes, workplaces, libraries, schools, communities, and cities." ... Digital Places is a good book. Though many of the themes are familiar, Horan outdoes City of Bits author William Mitchell (who wrote the forward for Digital Places) by offering much more than a breezy overview of the potential brought by digital connectivity. By offering substantial depth on the issues he chooses to cover, Horan has added to the debate on design in the digital world." —Curtis D. Frye, editor and chief reviewer of Technology and Society Book Reviews.
Available from Planners Book Service. Click on the title above.

Join the discussion forum and read an author interview at www.digitalplaces.uli.org

Natural Resources Management

Gobster, Paul H., and R. Bruce Hull, Editors. Restoring Nature: Perspectives from the Social Sciences and Humanities. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2000.

Using diverse examples from projects across the U.S., the book suggests ways in which restoration conflicts might be resolved, and provides examples of stewardship that show how volunteers and local residents can help make and maintain restored environments. Throughout, contributors set forth a wealth of ideas, case studies, methodological approaches, and disciplinary perspectives that shed valuable light on the social underpinnings of ecological restoration and natural resource management. Ecological restoration is an inherently challenging endeavor. Not only is its underlying science still developing, but the concept itself raises complex questions about nature, culture, and the role of humans in the landscape. Paul H. Gobster is research social scientist with the USDA Forest Service, North Central Research Station in Chicago. Reviewed in the Autumn 2001 issue of the Journal of the American Planning Association.

Redevelopment

Norquist, John O. The Wealth of Cities: Revitalizing the Centers of American Life. Reading, Mass.: Perseus Press, 1998.

From Amazon.com: Milwaukee Mayor Norquist, a first-time author, appropriately alludes to Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations in his title. This strongly free-market book blames bad government policy for much of what's gone wrong with cities. He names a few familiar enemies, such as welfare's culture of dependency and the government monopoly on public education. More interesting, however, is his analysis of how government created the suburbs through road construction and housing subsidies — public actions that gave people the means to abandon once-thriving urban cores. Norquist describes how some cities have begun to turn the corner, and also recommends a series of commonsense public policies. Politicians have a knack for writing books that say nothing, but Norquist offers a thoughtful analysis of urban America, one that avoids the tired answers of both Left and Right and sets forth its own unique vision. —John J. Miller. See the Wall Street Journal review.

Planning History

Fogelsong, Robert M. Downtown: Its Rise and Fall, 1880-1950. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2001.

"Downtown was American urbanism's most magnificent achievement, and here at last is a history worthy of it. Fogelson goes beyond nostalgia to analyze downtown as a continuing political, economic, and cultural struggle to create a vital center in a society otherwise dedicated to dispersion and fragmentation. Comprehensive in scope and brilliantly researched, this book is now central to the interpretation of American urban history. It is also a vital resource in today's struggles to restore the American downtown to a central place in the new American region." —Robert Fishman, A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Planning, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Additional review at citylimits.org.

Regional Planning

Pastor, Manuel, Jr., et al. Regions that Work: How Cities and Suburbs Can Grow Together. Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota Press, 2000.

Offering a new vision of community-based regionalism, this book arrives just as "smart growth" measures and other attempts to link cities and suburbs are beginning to make their mark on the political and analytical scene. The authors make a powerful case for emphasizing equity, arguing that metropolitan areas must reduce poverty in order to grow and that low-income individuals must make regional connections in order to escape poverty. Review from the Alliance for Regional Stewardship.