Communities Books - Page 12

A Guide to Smart Growth : Shattering Myths, Providing Solutions

Jane S. Shaw, Ronald D. Utt

List Price: $12.95 By: Heritage Foundation Amazon Marketplace: 11 new & used starting at $4.10

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Follow the money.. 1 out of 5 stars.
22 of 24 people found this review helpful.

A bit of disclosure here for those too lazy to read the fine print. If you think 'A Guide to Smart Growth' is an unbiased look at the issues surrounding urban sprawl and the 'Smart Growth' movement, think again.

This 'book' is published by the Heritage Foundation, the leading conservative think tank whose dogma is vehemently preached by such conservative spinmeisters as Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh. The author, Jane S. Shaw, is a Senior Associate at PERC, the Political Economic Research Center, whose board of directors is composed of investment bankers, developers, venture capitalists, and members of the financial press.

That being said, I suspect there's more than a little conflict of interest here, considering the very interests that benefit from pro-sprawl development policies are the publishers and promoters of this book. Naturally its filled with questionable statistics by such pro-sprawl cheerleaders like Wendell Cox, who is well known in the urban planning community as vocal opponent of 'Smart Growth' and 'New Urbanism'.

By all means read this book to learn about the arguments of those who wish to destory the 'Smart Growth' and 'New Urbanism' movements. Just don't look for solutions, as their goal is to maintain the status quo, not to support responsible, sustainable alternatives to the suburban growth machine.

Editorial Review:

During the last half of the 20th Century the pursuit of the American Dream includes the quest for open space. The result is the suburbanization of America as people leave the city for the fresh air and better schools as well as less traffic and fewer people. Editors Jane Shaw and Ron Utt examine the public policy implications of America's race to the suburbs. Full chapters are devoted to issues such as zoning law reform, traffic congestion and the free market vs. government solutions to suburban sprawl. Also included are in-depth analyses of the lessons learned from smart growth initiatives in Atlanta and Portland.

Organizing the Movement: The Roots and Growth of ACORN

Gary Delgado

By: Temple University Press Amazon Marketplace: 4 new & used starting at $32.00

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City: Rediscovering the Center

William H. Whyte

List Price: $24.95 By: Doubleday Amazon Marketplace: 20 new & used starting at $0.92

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Essential reading for any urban planner. 5 out of 5 stars.
16 of 18 people found this review helpful.

This book is terrific because William Whyte doesn't relie on any theory. Instead, he logged countless hours watching street corners, public parks and plazas to see how people actually use them, and draws conclusions on how to make them better, safer, and useable. His ideas of planning public areas were first used to a great extent in redeveloping Bryant Park in NYC. Formally a haven for drug users, the city used his findings from this book and turned it into one of the city's most livable and exciting public areas. If only we could design all our streets and plazas with such good common sense!

Excellent 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 5 people found this review helpful.

I'd give it five stars as an urban planning book, but only four stars in comparison to Whyte's landmark The Organization Man, a truly great, but nearly forgotten book of the fifties.

The analysis of corporations moving from Manhattan to the suburbs, wherein Whyte plots distance from the CEOs home to the new headquarters is priceless.

Editorial Review:

The result of William Whyte's research is an extremely human, often amusing look at what goes on in our cities' streets. Illustrated.

The Social Construction of Ancient Cities

Monica I. Smith

List Price: $45.00 By: Smithsonian Amazon Marketplace: 34 new & used starting at $6.35

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Editorial Review:

A fresh new perspective on ancient cities and the social networks and relations that built and sustained them

This book marks a dramatic change in direction for the archaeology of ancient cities. Previous investigations have tended to focus largely on either monuments, palaces, and other large structures or on cities’ hinterlands and territories, and were preoccupied with topics such as settlement patterns and long-distance exchanges of material goods and cultural practices. The archaeologists who contributed to this book return their attention to the heart of ancient cities, examining urban centers in countries around the world, including Mexico, Africa, India, and China. Their research and analysis demonstrate how complex networks of social relations and structures gave rise to the formation of ancient cities, contributed to their cohesion, and sustained their growth, much as they do in modern urban centers.

Trends and Innovations in Master-Planned Communities

Adrienne Schmitz, Lloyd W. Bookout

List Price: $39.95 By: Urban Land Institute Amazon Marketplace: 4 new & used starting at $200.00

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The New Urban Sociology

Mark Gottdiener

List Price: $80.60 By: Mcgraw-Hill College Amazon Marketplace: 22 new & used starting at $0.01

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

This is the old edition -- get the new edition from Perseus Books 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This is the old (now very old) edition of the textbook. There is a new Third Edition published by Perseus Books, with a new Fourth Edition coming out in 2009. Both have substantive revisions from the McGraw-Hill Second Edition (and at less than half the cost).

decent 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 18 people found this review helpful.

the book was in good condition aside from a lot of highlighting and underlining. the delivery was prompt and the price was fair.

Editorial Review:

This is a major breakthrough text for the urban sociology course offered at two- and four-year schools. A secondary market also exists in urban planning programs. Written from a postmodernist perspective, this book looks at urban regions as built environments and goes beyond traditional social variables to examine economic and political dimensions of urban development and change.

Clans and Families of Ireland and Scotland: An Ethnography of the Gael, A.D. 500-1750

C. Thomas, Ph.D. Cairney

List Price: $34.50 By: McFarland & Company Amazon Marketplace: 5 new & used starting at $74.86

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

What a find! 5 out of 5 stars.
14 of 18 people found this review helpful.

What pleasure from this book! I live in USA and meet lots of people with Scottish or Irish backgrounds. They are just thrilled to read about their heritage. Personally, I have always wondered about my own surname - now the mystery has been solved. You know, it's a real gift to discover your roots!

Amazing & useful 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

For anyone with Irish or Scottish ancestry, and interested in the depth of clan and family relationships, I highly recommend this small volume. Brief, succinct, and to-the-point, it steers clear of some of the mythological baggage that often shows up in this arena.

America Becomes Urban: The Development of U.S. Cities and Towns, 1780-1980

Eric H. Monkkonen

List Price: $45.00 By: University of California Press Amazon Marketplace: 12 new & used starting at $14.75

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Editorial Review:

America's cities: celebrated by poets, courted by politicians, castigated by social reformers. In their numbers and complexity they challenge comprehension. Why is urban America the way it is? Eric Monkkonen offers a fresh approach to the myths and the history of US urban development, giving us an unexpected and welcome sense of our urban origins. His historically anchored vision of our cities places topics of finance, housing, social mobility, transportation, crime, planning, and growth into a perspective which explains the present in terms of the past and ofers a point from which to plan for the future.

New Age Business: Community Corporations That Work

Greg MacLeod

Amazon Price: $15.50 List Price: $15.50 In stock soon. Order now to get in line. First come, first served. By: Lorimer Amazon Marketplace: 7 new & used starting at $12.29

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Editorial Review:

New Age Business takes us on a journey from Cape Breton to Eastern Quebec and the Basque country of Northern Spain, areas that have all suffered from underdevelopment and responded by forming new structures for economic growth.

The common objective in these regions is community improvement through the use of modern business methods. These are not one-shot, make-work efforts; they are long-term development strategies. The desire is to be autonomous and self-sustaining and, most of all, to promote local self-help based upon the history and traditions of particular groups of people.

First published in 1986, New Age Business is a pioneering exploration of the economic model known as the "community development corporation."

The Urban Challenge in Africa: Growth and Management of Its Large Cities (Mega-city)

Amazon Price: $37.58 List Price: $40.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: United Nations University Press Amazon Marketplace: 26 new & used starting at $21.75

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Editorial Review:

Scholars from a range of national and disciplinary backgrounds examine the growth of the largest cities in Africa--their characteristics, their dynamism despite economic crisis, and the results of attempts to manage them.
The introductory chapters consider the effects of global forces on Africa and its major cities, revealing that the new phase of globalization has reinforced the continent's marginalization, impoverishment, indebtedness, and lack of policy autonomy, rather than leading to economic growth and diversification. Case studies of Cairo, Lagos, Johannesburg, Kinshasa, Abidjan, and Nairobi reflect the experience of the largest urban agglomerations; northern, southern, western, and eastern Africa; anglophone and francophone Africa; cities with an essentially domestic role and those with wider regional or continental roles; and cities on a continuum from relatively tight management to virtual collapse of public sector institutions. Each examines economic and demographic trends; political, social, and physical characteristics; and arrangements for planning and management. The experiences of these and other cities are drawn upon in thematic chapters dealing with the characteristics of city economies, property markets, politics, governance, and social organization, and the lives of urban people, including migration patterns and the effects of impoverishment.
The book shows that Africa's largest cities, even those in countries experiencing economic and state breakdown, will continue to grow and have vital economic roles. And while administrative systems have failed to cope and the institutional and financial capacity to deal with future growth is lacking, some more realistic and promising approaches to urban policy, planning, and management have emerged in recent years. The final chapters, therefore, are not entirely pessimistic about the continent's ability to rise to the urban challenge.