The Suburbanization of New York: Is the World's Greatest City Becoming Just Another Town? - Softcover

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42 ratings by Goodreads

9781568986784: The Suburbanization of New York: Is the World's Greatest City Becoming Just Another Town?

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1568986785 ISBN 13: 9781568986784

Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press, 2006

The city that never sleeps also never stops changing. And while New Yorkers are renowned for their trendsetting, this thought-provoking book argues that New York City itself has become a follower rather than a leader. Once-distinctive streets and neighborhoods have become awash in generic stores, apartment boxes, and garish signs and billboards. Legendary neighborhoods (Little Italy, Hell's Kitchen, Harlem, the Lower East Side) have been smoothed over with cute monikers, remade for real-estate investment and for sale to the highest bidder.

What does the future hold for the legendary metropolis, gateway to immigrants and strivers, magnet for builders and dealers, muse for artists and dreamers? Will the current political, economic, and social influences dull its once-famous creative edge and culture of opposition? What will become of the special allure of New York? The Suburbanization of New York presents fourteen timely, provocative articles that explore the radical transformation unfolding in New York City and raise serious questions about the future of any metropolis struggling to maintain its unique identity. It is essential reading for anyone interested in the field of urban studies or the forces shaping our cities today.

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About the Author:

Martha Cooper is the director of photography for City Lore: The New York Center for Urban Folk Culture.

Jerilou Hammett is the co-founder and managing editor of DESIGNER/Builder magazine. She was born and raised in New York City.

Kingsley Hammett is the publisher of DESIGNER/Builder magazine. He was born and raised in New York.

Review:

A confrontational collection of essays by scholars, writers and activists who ask whether the gentrification that has overtaken the city is a blight or a blessing. Some essays are coolheaded, some shake with hysteria, some are memoirish, others didactic. But all of them provide great fodder for argument if you're looking to inflame your next dinner party. -- New York Times, March 25, 2007

A confrontational collection of essays by scholars, writers and activists who ask whether the gentrification that has overtaken the city is a blight or a blessing. Some essays are coolheaded, some shake with hysteria, some are memoirish, others didactic. But all of them provide great fodder for argument if you're looking to inflame your next dinner party. -- The New York Times, Sunday, March 25, 2007

In The Suburbanization of New York, fourteen writers consider the changing face of the city. . . . Nostalgia, however, is not the currency of this collection. Although the authors are hardly in agreement on the best way to reconcile the city's past with it's future, each makes a case for careful, conscious decision-making in urban planning. -- Metro New York, March 26, 2007

Is New York City becoming a massive, overpriced suburb-a sanitized urban Disneyland for tourists and the wealthy elite? Short answer: yes. At least that's the overwhelming impression one gets from the 14 essays collected here. Fortunately, the writers are interested in exploring the historical and political forces behind this transformation and not just complaining about how many Starbucks there are in the East Village (three, if you're wondering). Still, it's hard not to feel nostalgic for the gritty 1980s downtown Manhattan that Maggie Wrigley recalls in her introductory essay: "all color and personality, unpredictability, and yes, some peril." And now? "You cannot legally smoke in a bar." -- Metropolis, May 2007

Smart, fact-based essays that tackle a particular aspect of the city's transformation, such as the loss of industrial jobs. -- New York Observer, March 15, 2007

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