Reclaiming American cities : the struggle for people, place, and nature since 1900 / Rutherford H. Platt.

Format:

• Book

Author/Creator:

• Platt, Rutherford H.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

• Urbanization--United States.
• Urbanization.
• United States.
• Urban policy--United States.
• Urban policy.
• City planning--United States.
• City planning.
• Urban ecology (Sociology)--United States.
• Urban ecology (Sociology).

Physical Description:

xii, 298 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Amherst : University of Massachusetts Press, [2014]

Summary:

For most of the past century, urban America was dominated by top-down policies serving the white business and cultural elite, the suburbs, and the automobile. At times these approaches were fiercely challenged by reformers such as Jane Addams and Jane Jacobs. Yet by the 1980s, mainstream policies had resulted in a nation of ravaged central cities, sprawling suburbs, social and economic polarisation, and incalculable environmental damage. In the 1990s, this entrenched model finally yielded to change as local citizens, neighbourhood groups, and other stakeholders, empowered by a spate of new laws and policies, began asserting their own needs and priorities. Though hampered by fiscal crises and internal disagreements, these popular initiatives launched what the author terms a new era of "humane urbanism" marked by a determination to make cities and suburbs greener, healthier, safer, more equitable, more efficient, and generally more people-friendly. In the process, the mayors, architects, engineers, and bureaucrats who had previously dominated urban policy found themselves relegated to supporting roles. As Rutherford H. Platt points out, humane urbanism can take many forms, from affordable housing and networks of bike paths to refurbished waterfronts and urban farms. Often spontaneous, low-tech, and self-sustaining programmes, their shared goal is to connect people to one another and to bring nature back into the city. Reclaiming American Cities examines both sides of this historic transformation: the long struggle against patricians and technocrats of earlier decades and the recent sprouting of grassroots efforts to make metropolitan America more humane and sustainable.

Contents:

• Part I The Patrician Decades, 1900-1940 11
• 1 American Cities in 1900: A Patchwork of Silk and Rags 15
• 2 Competing Visions in the Progressive Era 32
• Part II The Technocrat Decades, 1945-1990 61
• 3 The Central City Renewal Engine 67
• 4 The Suburban Sprawl Engine 97
• 5 Battling the Bulldozer: The Indiana Dunes and Other Sacred Places 115
• 6 Legacies of Sprawl: A Witch's Brew 131
• Part III The (More) Humane Decades, 1990-Present 153
• 7 Replanting Urbanism in the 1990s: A Garden of Acronyms 157
• 8 New Age "Central Parks": Two Grand Slams and a Single 189
• 9 Reclaiming Urban Waterways: One Stream at a Time 203
• 10 Humane Urbanism at Ground Level 223.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

• 9781625340504
• 1625340508
• 9781625340498
• 1625340494

OCLC:

844729416