Product Description

America's preservation movement has long fought the destructive force of so- called urban renewal, where highways and shopping malls rise up on the rubble of former thriving downtowns. Now communities are in the fight of their lives against urban sprawl- boundless development that devours the countryside and leaves cities and small towns in ruins-a fight that is as much about preserving our civic space as our landscape.

In Changing Places, authors Richard Moe and Carter Wilkie give examples of how America's embattled towns are defending themselves against corporate giants and depressed economies, from community activists restoring pride in their innercities to municipalities breathing life back into historic downtowns. At once cautionary and redemptive, Changing Places has been hailed by David McCullough as "a call to arms that should be read by everyone alarmed by the rampant devastation of our cities, our towns, our history, and our way of life."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1116433 in Books
• Published on: 1999-04-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

From Kirkus Reviews
An eloquent, convincing argument for the preservation of city centers in a time of ex- and suburbanization. Moe (The Last Full Measure, 1993) is a Civil War historian and president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation; Wilkie is a former White House speechwriter. Their talents mesh well in this survey/sermon, which warns of the dangers of ``losing the physical manifestations of our history--not just the great monuments but also the significant structures and entire neighborhoods that anchor our communities.'' That loss has many causes, among them white flight and the relocation of downtown businesses to far-flung peripheries. When this happens, assert the authors, and when city residents' income drops with the evaporation of economic enterprise, the result is inevitably ``a perpetual slum.'' Such latter-day slums have been a long time in the building, but the authors lay particular blame on the legendary urban planner and superhighway builder Robert Moses, who ``became the nation's most consulted expert on how to tear historic sections of cities apart to accommodate the automobile.'' The perspective of Moe and Wilkie is resolutely urban and East Coast, but in advancing their call for an intelligent, admittedly expensive nationwide program of inner-city restoration, they also look westward to Denver and Portland, Ore., where, despite some Moses-era setbacks, downtowns have grown newly friendly to pedestrians and respectful of history. The authors also sound alarms over the likely fate of eastern cities like Pittsburgh, which, despite a massive commitment to downtown revitalization, has lost jobs and businesses and faces an ever-aging population as younger residents move to suburban sanctuaries. A thoughtful book that merits both a wide audience and a place alongside the work of Jane Jacobs and Lewis Mumford. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review
"A hard-nosed and historically based critique. More than a jeremiad against sprawl, Changing Places suggests alternatives." -- The New York Times Book Review

"Inspiring, thought-provoking, persuasive-a book you put down wishing everyone in public life would read." -- The Philadelphia Inquirer

Review

Customer Reviews

A passionate, well-argued statement against urban sprawl.
The authors offer a very articulate, well-documented argument that presses for a more preservation-oriented urban planning that respects the nation's architectural treasures. Of course, we have all heard this argument so many times before--- one that often falls on deaf ears because federal policy, urban political priorities, and powerful development interests work against it. With this hard reality in mind, the major contribution of this work is that the authors suggest that preservation is not only about saving historic architecture and historic places, it is also about restoring and rebuilding our nation's shattered urban communities. As they state it so well, "(p)reservation is the business of saving special places and the quality of life they support. It has to do with more than bricks, balustrades, columns, and cobblestones. It has to do with the way individuals, families, and communities come together in good environments" (p. 240).

Beyond the planni! ! ng rhetoric, the authors provide a number of detailed case studies of New Orleans, Memphis, Pittsburg, and snapshots of other towns both big and small that illustrate well exactly how this connection between historic preservation and community can be made. With all of the current attention on "community" as the critical factor in restoring a hospitable environment in urban America, this book necessarily becomes very relevant and useful.

This book is so well written and interesting! I do not hesitate to recommended it to all audiences.

What have we done to our cities?
Moe and Wilkie describe what has gone wrong with the planning of urban and suburban America, and discuss their solution: a combination of historic preservation, community activism, and more intelligent zoning regulations. Their book is very much in the spirit of New Urbanism - that cities should be looking backward to traditional planning approaches that served us so well before World War II. Memphis gets the most attention in this book, as both a positive and negative example; the authors also focus on New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Denver, St. Paul, Portland (Ore.), and several small towns that revitalized their main streets. Moe and Wilkie write with a journalistic balance that I found refreshing, in contrast to the rabid ranting of certain other books. Even when describing Disney's failed effort to build a theme park in northern Virginia, the authors resist the trap of making Disney sound like the heart of evil, and allow the reader to understand the situation from Disney's perspective. The only drawback is that even though the book is about historic preservation and urban planning, there are only 20 illustrations.

An in-depth diagnosis of urban sprawl.
Another book on urban sprawl can understandably be met with diminished expectations. But don't allow your expectations to languish when you pick up Changing Places. Get ready for the passion of two preservationists. And no one is exempt from their stern gaze; not the press, not the politicians, not the professional planners, not the building industry, and not even you and me. Richard Moe has been the president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation since 1992. His attention to detail conspires with his affinity for root causes in the aptly titled Changing Places. Carter Wilkie was a White House speech writer. Moe and Wilkie observe we have abandoned the art of place making. As we are products of our created settings, the disintegration of historic communities leaves us with a loss of identity as a people. We become historically illiterate. This book isn't for everyone. If you have never walked into a traditional urban setting and asked yourself: "How in the world did they ever let this happen?" then you'll find this book unsatisfying. If you've never wondered how to restore the historic, civic, cultural and economic center of a community, then you'll be mystified by the authors' flair for detail in successful plans for reclamation. If you've never sensed the hopelessness in the eyes of our children in urban settings, then you'll have little use for the authors' thoughtful choice of words in defining our loss. If, on the other hand, you perceive the loss and think there is still something worth preserving, something to salvage, then this is a must-read. John F. Rohe (rohe@freeway.net), the reviewer, is an attorney in Petoskey, Michigan and is the author of A Bicentennial Malthusian Essay (ISBN 1-890394-00-9).