Author: Alison Isenberg
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226385094
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 462
Book Description
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.
Downtown America
Downtown
Author: Robert M. Fogelson
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300098278
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 505
Book Description
Annotation Downtown is the first history of what was once viewed as the heart of the American city. Urban historian Robert Fogelson gives a riveting account of how downtown--and the way Americans thought about it--changed between 1880 and 1950. Recreating battles over subways and skyscrapers, the introduction of elevated highways and parking bans, and other controversies, this book provides a new and often starling perspective on downtown's rise and fall.
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300098278
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 505
Book Description
Annotation Downtown is the first history of what was once viewed as the heart of the American city. Urban historian Robert Fogelson gives a riveting account of how downtown--and the way Americans thought about it--changed between 1880 and 1950. Recreating battles over subways and skyscrapers, the introduction of elevated highways and parking bans, and other controversies, this book provides a new and often starling perspective on downtown's rise and fall.
Downtowns
Author: Michael A. Burayidi
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134573391
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 313
Book Description
This collection evaluates the various strategies that different cities have used when attempting to economically revitalize downtown areas.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134573391
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 313
Book Description
This collection evaluates the various strategies that different cities have used when attempting to economically revitalize downtown areas.
The Heart of the City
Author: Alexander Garvin
Publisher: Island Press
ISBN: 1610919491
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 266
Book Description
Downtowns are more than economic engines: they are repositories of knowledge and culture and generators of new ideas, technology, and ventures. They are the heart of the city that drives its future. If we are to have healthy downtowns, we need to understand what downtown is all about; how and why some American downtowns never stopped thriving (such as San Jose and Houston), some have been in decline for half a century (including Detroit and St. Louis), and still others are resurging after temporary decline (many, including Lower Manhattan and Los Angeles). The downtowns that are prospering are those that more easily adapt to changing needs and lifestyles. In The Heart of the City, distinguished urban planner Alexander Garvin shares lessons on how to plan for a mix of housing, businesses, and attractions; enhance the public realm; improve mobility; and successfully manage downtown services. Garvin opens the book with diagnoses of downtowns across the United States, including the people, businesses, institutions, and public agencies implementing changes. In a review of prescriptions and treatments for any downtown, Garvin shares brief accounts—of both successes and failures—of what individuals with very different objectives have done to change their downtowns. The final chapters look at what is possible for downtowns in the future, closing with suggested national, state, and local legislation to create standard downtown business improvement districts to better manage downtowns. This book will help public officials, civic organizations, downtown business property owners, and people who care about cities learn from successful recent actions in downtowns across the country, and expand opportunities facing their downtown. Garvin provides recommendations for continuing actions to help any downtown thrive, ensuring a prosperous and thrilling future for the 21st-century American city.
Publisher: Island Press
ISBN: 1610919491
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 266
Book Description
Downtowns are more than economic engines: they are repositories of knowledge and culture and generators of new ideas, technology, and ventures. They are the heart of the city that drives its future. If we are to have healthy downtowns, we need to understand what downtown is all about; how and why some American downtowns never stopped thriving (such as San Jose and Houston), some have been in decline for half a century (including Detroit and St. Louis), and still others are resurging after temporary decline (many, including Lower Manhattan and Los Angeles). The downtowns that are prospering are those that more easily adapt to changing needs and lifestyles. In The Heart of the City, distinguished urban planner Alexander Garvin shares lessons on how to plan for a mix of housing, businesses, and attractions; enhance the public realm; improve mobility; and successfully manage downtown services. Garvin opens the book with diagnoses of downtowns across the United States, including the people, businesses, institutions, and public agencies implementing changes. In a review of prescriptions and treatments for any downtown, Garvin shares brief accounts—of both successes and failures—of what individuals with very different objectives have done to change their downtowns. The final chapters look at what is possible for downtowns in the future, closing with suggested national, state, and local legislation to create standard downtown business improvement districts to better manage downtowns. This book will help public officials, civic organizations, downtown business property owners, and people who care about cities learn from successful recent actions in downtowns across the country, and expand opportunities facing their downtown. Garvin provides recommendations for continuing actions to help any downtown thrive, ensuring a prosperous and thrilling future for the 21st-century American city.
America's New Downtowns
Author: Larry Ford
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 9780801871634
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 360
Book Description
"Larry R. Ford is a professor of geography at San Diego State University who has taught urban geography for thirty years."--BOOK JACKET.
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 9780801871634
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 360
Book Description
"Larry R. Ford is a professor of geography at San Diego State University who has taught urban geography for thirty years."--BOOK JACKET.
Resilient Downtowns
Author: Michael A. Burayidi
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134071264
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 204
Book Description
Resilient Downtowns provides a guide to communities in reviving and redeveloping their core districts into resilient, thriving neighborhoods. While the National Main Street program’s four-point approach of organization, promotion, economic restructuring, and design has been standard practice for cities seeking to rejuvenate their downtowns for decades there is disquiet among downtown managers and civic leaders about the versatility of the program. Resilient Downtowns provides communities with the "en-RICHED" approach, a four-step process for downtown development, which focuses on residential development, immigration strategies, civic functionality, heritage tourism, and good design practice. Examples from fourteen small cities across the US show how this process can revitalize downtowns in any city.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134071264
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 204
Book Description
Resilient Downtowns provides a guide to communities in reviving and redeveloping their core districts into resilient, thriving neighborhoods. While the National Main Street program’s four-point approach of organization, promotion, economic restructuring, and design has been standard practice for cities seeking to rejuvenate their downtowns for decades there is disquiet among downtown managers and civic leaders about the versatility of the program. Resilient Downtowns provides communities with the "en-RICHED" approach, a four-step process for downtown development, which focuses on residential development, immigration strategies, civic functionality, heritage tourism, and good design practice. Examples from fourteen small cities across the US show how this process can revitalize downtowns in any city.
Walkable City
Author: Jeff Speck
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0865477728
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 321
Book Description
Presents a plan for American cities that focuses on making downtowns walkable and less attractive to drivers through smart growth and sustainable design
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0865477728
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 321
Book Description
Presents a plan for American cities that focuses on making downtowns walkable and less attractive to drivers through smart growth and sustainable design
America's Downtowns
Author: Richard C. Collins
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 9780471144991
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 164
Book Description
America’s Downtowns Growth, Politics & Preservation Policies that shape urban growth are critical to the future of the American preservation movement and America’s cities. America’s Downtowns explores local growth management policies and preservation issues in 10 major cities across America — Atlanta, Boston, Cincinnati, Denver, Jersey City, Philadelphia, Roanoke, St. Paul, San Francisco, and Seattle. Each of these cities has experimented with goals and strategies designed to help it increase the attractiveness of its downtown through historic preservation. This book provides an in-depth look into ways preservation values can be integrated into local policies that shape growth and development.
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 9780471144991
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 164
Book Description
America’s Downtowns Growth, Politics & Preservation Policies that shape urban growth are critical to the future of the American preservation movement and America’s cities. America’s Downtowns explores local growth management policies and preservation issues in 10 major cities across America — Atlanta, Boston, Cincinnati, Denver, Jersey City, Philadelphia, Roanoke, St. Paul, San Francisco, and Seattle. Each of these cities has experimented with goals and strategies designed to help it increase the attractiveness of its downtown through historic preservation. This book provides an in-depth look into ways preservation values can be integrated into local policies that shape growth and development.
Recast Your City
Author: Ilana Preuss
Publisher: Island Press
ISBN: 1642831921
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 194
Book Description
Community development expert Ilana Preuss explains how local leaders can revitalize their downtowns or neighborhood main streets by bringing in and supporting small-scale manufacturing. Small-scale manufacturing businesses help create thriving places, with local business ownership opportunities and well-paying jobs that other business types can't fulfill.
Publisher: Island Press
ISBN: 1642831921
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 194
Book Description
Community development expert Ilana Preuss explains how local leaders can revitalize their downtowns or neighborhood main streets by bringing in and supporting small-scale manufacturing. Small-scale manufacturing businesses help create thriving places, with local business ownership opportunities and well-paying jobs that other business types can't fulfill.
Downtown, Inc.
Author: Bernard J. Frieden
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262560597
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 444
Book Description
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.
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262560597
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 444
Book Description
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.