America's New Downtowns - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook America's New Downtowns write by Larry Ford. This book was released on 2003-07. America's New Downtowns available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. "Larry R. Ford is a professor of geography at San Diego State University who has taught urban geography for thirty years."--BOOK JACKET.
Downtown, Inc.
Downtown, Inc. - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Downtown, Inc. write by Bernard J. Frieden. This book was released on 1991-07-01. Downtown, Inc. available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Pioneering observers of the urban landscape Bernard Frieden and Lynne Sagalyn delve into the inner workings of the exciting new public entrepreneurship and public-private partnerships that have revitalized the downtowns of such cities as Boston, San Diego, Seattle, St. Paul, and Pasadena.
Fragments of Cities
Fragments of Cities - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Fragments of Cities write by Larry Bennett. This book was released on 1990. Fragments of Cities available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle.
Downtown America
Downtown America - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Downtown America write by Alison Isenberg. This book was released on 2009-05-15. Downtown America available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Downtown America was once the vibrant urban center romanticized in the Petula Clark song—a place where the lights were brighter, where people went to spend their money and forget their worries. But in the second half of the twentieth century, "downtown" became a shadow of its former self, succumbing to economic competition and commercial decline. And the death of Main Streets across the country came to be seen as sadly inexorable, like the passing of an aged loved one. Downtown America cuts beneath the archetypal story of downtown's rise and fall and offers a dynamic new story of urban development in the United States. Moving beyond conventional narratives, Alison Isenberg shows that downtown's trajectory was not dictated by inevitable free market forces or natural life-and-death cycles. Instead, it was the product of human actors—the contested creation of retailers, developers, government leaders, architects, and planners, as well as political activists, consumers, civic clubs, real estate appraisers, even postcard artists. Throughout the twentieth century, conflicts over downtown's mundane conditions—what it should look like and who should walk its streets—pointed to fundamental disagreements over American values. Isenberg reveals how the innovative efforts of these participants infused Main Street with its resonant symbolism, while still accounting for pervasive uncertainty and fears of decline. Readers of this work will find anything but a story of inevitability. Even some of the downtown's darkest moments—the Great Depression's collapse in land values, the rioting and looting of the 1960s, or abandonment and vacancy during the 1970s—illuminate how core cultural values have animated and intertwined with economic investment to reinvent the physical form and social experiences of urban commerce. Downtown America—its empty stores, revitalized marketplaces, and romanticized past—will never look quite the same again. A book that does away with our most clichéd approaches to urban studies, Downtown America will appeal to readers interested in the history of the United States and the mythology surrounding its most cherished institutions. A Choice Oustanding Academic Title. Winner of the 2005 Ellis W. Hawley Prize from the Organization of American Historians. Winner of the 2005 Lewis Mumford Prize for Best Book in American Planning History. Winner of the 2005 Historic Preservation Book Price from the University of Mary Washington Center for Historic Preservation. Named 2005 Honor Book from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities.
Cities Back from the Edge
Cities Back from the Edge - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Cities Back from the Edge write by Roberta Brandes Gratz. This book was released on 1998. Cities Back from the Edge available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Gratz takes us on tours of places that are doing better and actually getting somewhere, because, against all odds, they have abandoned conventional wisdom's unworkable and oversimplified formulas and re-embraced new opportunities as complex and rewarding as life itself. It's roll-up-our-sleeves time in America, folks, and now we have no more excuses. Roberta Gratz has assembled the examples worth learning from, and her book is an excellent teacher." — Tony Hiss author of The Experience of Place "Roberta Gratz is wonderful at discovering important things that are going on that most of us have not heard of yet." — Jane Jacobs author of Death and Life of Great American Cities "I read the newspaper differently every day since I read this book." —Anthony Mancini author, professor of journalism at Brooklyn College, and former reporter for the New York Post After decades of decline and decay, scores of downtowns in urban America are coming to life once again. Others continue to languish despite massive public investment. In Cities Back from the Edge, acclaimed author Roberta Brandes Gratz teams up with Main Street expert Norman Mintz to tell us why. Based on their firsthand observations of downtown change throughout the country, this book is filled with stories of urban recovery from Mansfield, Ohio to Los Angeles, from Pasco, Washington to SoHo. Rejecting simplistic cookie-cutter prescriptions for success, Gratz and Mintz instead identify a more flexible and effective approach to downtown rejuvenation: Urban Husbandry. They illustrate how this organic, sustainable process is already producing real-world results. What's more, they show the tremendous advantages of low-cost, modest initiatives over the blockbuster resuscitation efforts of traditional large-scale Project Planning—the budget-busting convention centers, aquariums, stadiums, and other stand-alone solutions that do little to improve the city around them. Throughout this book the authors address the key issues facing the nation's cities and towns today, including transportation planning and sprawl containment, the threat of big-box superstore retailers, and the preservation of the essential downtown components necessary to anchor a thriving, vibrant community. Gratz and Mintz show us that rebuilding authentic places, reconnecting communities, and stimulating innovative change are within everyone's reach. Cities Back from the Edge turns the spotlight on the resurgence of downtown America in a new and insightful way. With proven ideas on how to correct the mistakes of the past several decades, this book offers new hope that our cities will not merely be rebuilt—but reborn.
