The Living City
How America's Cities Are Being Revitalized by Thinking Small in a Big Way

Roberta Brandes Gratz (Author)

9780471144250, Wiley

Paperback / softback, published 8 November 1995

448 pages
23.6 x 15.5 x 2.3 cm, 0.599 kg

THE LIVING CITY

"An intelligent analysis. Sensible, undoctrinaire, evengood-humored. An appealing mixture of passion and clinicaldispassion."
-Washington Post Book World

"The best antidote I've read to the doom-and-gloom propheciesconcerning the future of urban America."
-Bill Moyers

"This is fresh and fascinating material; it is essential forunderstanding not only how to avoid repeating terrible mistakes ofthe past, but also how to recover from them."
-Jane Jacobs, author of The Death and Life of Great AmericanCities

From coast to coast across America there are countless urbansuccess stories about rejuvenated neighborhoods and resurgentbusiness districts. Roberta Brandes Gratz defines the phenomenon as"urban husbandry"-the care, management, and preservation of thebuilt environment nurtured by genuine participatory planningefforts of government, urban planners, and average citizens.

THINKING SMALL IN A BIG WAY.

Process Is People.

Savannah's Victorian District.

Gentrification and Displacement.

Winning Skirmishes, Losing Wars.

Understanding the Lessons.

Urban Husbandry: The Economy of Wisdom.

Planned Shrinkage: The Economy of Waste.

Urban Dispersal.

THE CITY REDISCOVERED.

Big Steps, Modestly: The Stories of Ithaca and Corning.

Outside, Inside: Burlington and Pittsfield.

Avoiding Wrong Lessons: The Remnant Complex vs.

Small Improvement, Big Differences.

Culprits.

Streets Have Value.

Old Areas Flourish Anew.

THE TROJAN HORSE: BIG PLANS, BIG MISTAKES.

The Past Over and Over Again.

The Question Is Why: Concrete Bunker or Else.

Epilogue.

Notes.

Index.

Subject Areas: Architecture [AM]