Confronting Suburban Decline: Strategic Planning For Metropolitan Renewal

Book Description

Sprawling commercial and residential development in outer suburbs and exurban areas has for a number of years masked increasingly severe socioeconomic problems in suburban America. In recent decades, income declines, crime increases, and tax base erosion have affected many suburbs to an extent previously seen only in central cities.

In Confronting Suburban Decline, William H. Lucy and David L. Phillips examine conditions and trends in cities and suburbs since 1960, arguing that beginning in the 1980s, the United States entered a "post-suburban" era of declining suburbs with maturation of communities accompanied by large-scale deterioration. The authors examine:

why suburban decline has become widespread
how the "tyranny of easy development decisions" often results in new housing being built outside of areas that people prefer
how strategic planning can help assess dangers
how some suburbs have stabilized or revived
how interactions between residential mobility and the age, size, and location of housing can help policy makers anticipate dangers and opportunities facing neighborhoods and jurisdictions

Making the case that a high quality natural and built environment is key to achieving economic stability, the authors set forth a series of policy recommendations with federal, state, regional, and local dimensions that can help contribute to that goal.

In-depth case studies are provided of Richmond, Virginia and Washington, D.C., along with examples from Minnesota, Oregon, Maryland, Tennessee, and other locations. In addition, the book offers information and statistics on income, population, and racial transitions in 554 suburbs in the nation's twenty-four largest metropolitan areas.

Confronting Suburban Decline provides a detailed look at the causes of and responses to urban and suburban decline. Planners and policymakers as well as students and researchers involved with issues of land use, economic development, regional planning, community development, or intergovernmental relations will find it a valuable resource.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent overview of neglected problem.......2005-03-31

This book has tons of statistics gathered in one place on the impacts of sprawl on older communities, and how shifts in development (including mushrooming house sizes) have put older suburbs and their smaller homes at a disadvantage. This is the best book on outlining the problems faced by older suburbs and why decline is happening. Perhaps the most intriguing finding is that communities with older homes don't necessarily decline, but that homes built between 1940 and 1970 are most vulnerable. Home renovation expenditures are not keeping pace with the rate at which homes depreciate and need major systems replacements. Urbanists should be paying more attention to these neighborhoods, which are often neither the stereotypical exclusionary privileged suburbs, nor are they usually filled with the poorest of the poor (though they may have concentrations of poverty). They face perhaps a more challenging road to recovery than more urban neighborhoods closer to various city amenities-- unless their decline can be addressed sooner rather than later. Current public policies are not structured to tackle these communities, and jurisdictions may be in denial or challenged by a limited tax base and sentiment against raising taxes.

great work.......2002-01-24

Some think of sprawl as a simple zero sum game: suburbs win, cities lose. But this book explains (with quantitative analysis from numerous regions) that sprawl, like the French Revolution, devours its own children: that older suburbs decline as newer suburbs suck away their elites. That fact is of course common knowledge in the Rust Belt. But Lucy and Phillips add another level of detail, explaining how some places have survived the rising tide of sprawl while others go into meltdown. Suburbs (and city neighborhoods) with historic housing and pedestrian-friendly features have often managed to keep up with the rest of their metro areas, while typical 1950s suburbs are the biggest losers from sprawl because they are stuck with the worst of both worlds: their housing is too small for 21st century tastes, yet they lack the urban amenities that lead to gentrification.

Book Description

In 1936, a 20-year-old artist using the name Willis B. Rensie jump-started the comic-book medium. Writing and illustrating an action-packed weekly serial called Hawks of the Seas-a pirate adventure series set in the 18th-century Caribbean-the artist created one dynamic strip after another, honing his storytelling craft and shaping the comics medium with each one. That artist was none other than comics grand master Will Eisner! From 1936 to 1938, Eisner's Hawks of the Seas weekly stories were translated into several different languages and distributed all over the world, and now they're collected here in this handsome hardcover edition. The stories themselves stand the test of time, as thrilling and exciting as they were almost 70 years ago. Featuring an introduction by comics veteran Al Williamson and a new foreword by Eisner himself.

Customer Reviews:

High-Impact Bus Reports.......2007-01-03

An excellent review book for professionals wanting to improve their communication skills.

How to create high-impact reports and proposals: Dozens of step-by-step examples to help you convey the right information in your reports and proposals

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How to create high-impact reports and proposals: Dozens of step-by-step examples to help you convey the right information in your reports and proposals
Pat Cramer
Manufacturer: CareerTrack
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Spiral-bound
ASIN: 1559775793

Book Description

Offering a thorough examination of the developments and elements which impact on womens equal participation in the workplace, this book is an invaluable guide to policy and action for the international community, policy-makers, researchers, lobbyists and scholars interested in gender issues. Twelve experienced gender specialists explore the impact of recession, globalization, structural adjustment programmes and economic transition in Eastern Europe on women workers. They also look at a wide variety of micro factors, including legal frameworks and the role of trade unions in promoting equality, sexual harassment at work, AIDS, and wage differentials.

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Fun Family Traditions: Over 100 Fun Activities to Bring Your Family Closer Together
Cynthia MacGregor
Manufacturer: Meadowbrook
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Family Activities | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books
General | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Book of New Family Traditions: How to Create Great Rituals for Holidays & Everydays

Accessories:

Braun IRT 4020 ThermoScan Ear Thermometer

ASIN: 0671318160

Book Description

The Family That Plays Together Stays Together

This book is packed with fun activities designed to strengthen families and help instill feelings of love, belonging, and family pride in all family members -- yes, even teenagers!

Fun Family Traditions contains arts and crafts, games and contests, musical and dramatic projects, family publishing ventures, celebration ideas, and community activities, including:

* Creating a time capsule to celebrate each child's birth
* Mapping a family tree or timeline
* Designing a family crest, flag, motto, or stationery
* Publishing a family newsletter, recipe book, or book of favorite songs or games
* Hosting family tournaments and musical or theatrical events
* Cultivating a family garden
* Adopting a street or neighborhood or helping a community organization
* Bringing the family together for holidays and other special occasions

Book Description

Here for the first time from the German viewpoint and with a great deal of hitherto unpublished material is the complete story of one of the most bitterly fought, exciting campaigns in modern warfare. Foxes of the Desert is the definitive work on the Afrika Korps and the other German forces who served in the Western Desert and Tunisia during World War II. Dominating the story are the personality and the brilliant strategy and tactics of the wily, fast-thinking and hard-hitting "Desert Fox," Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. In fascinating detail the author tells the full story of the great German master of desert armored warfare and his men and the other German forces in North Africa, during their many months of bitterly contested fighting against the pick of Britain's forces under such commanders as Wavell, Auchinleck, and finally Montgomery, and the Americans under Eisenhower. Here are the famous siege of Tobruk; Rommel's celebrated surprise push in the early spring of 1941 when the Afrika Korps captured Mersa el Brega and Agedabia and rolled on far eastward into Bardia and Sollum; the battle of Halfaya ("Hellfire") Pass; the great tank battle on the Gazala front; the Germans' capture of Tobruk, with 33,000 prisoners and vast booty; the fateful battles of Alam Halfa and El Alamein; and the bloody campaign in Tunisia. Interwoven are fascinating accounts of the work of the German Secret Service; of the British Long Range Desert Group, and of its German counterpart, the Brandenburg Group. Numerous other commando operations and exciting exploits of espionage and sabotage are described in detail for the first time. As a result of personal interviews with over a thousand combatants, tireless reading, and painstaking research, Paul Carell has skillfully blended a mass of new and exciting information into a dramatic and completely authentic narrative. As a story of strategy and battle, Foxes of the Desert is both exhaustive and engrossing, and, as authorative history, it cannot be overlooked by anyone wishing a full understanding of World War II. This edition contains a new preface by Paul Carell who is also the author of Invasion! They're Coming!, Scorched Earth, Hitler Moves East, Stalingrad: The Defeat of the German 6th Army, and Operation Barbarossa in Photographs., b/w photographs, maps, 5 3/4" x 8 1/2", index

Customer Reviews:

Somehow dated. It's more a collection of personal stories........2006-05-23

Although this book is fine for the layman who wants to learn something about the North African campaign of 1941-43 it is not good for the scholars or anyone who wants to study the battles in that theater in greater depth. Carell uses many personal histories to color his account but he often loses the great picture. I would recommend instead Mitcham's book "Rommel's Greatest Victory", Heckmann's "Rommel's War in Africa", Irving's "The Trail of the Fox", Massignani's "Rommel's North Africa Campaign" or even the excellent Time-Life volume "Afrikakorps" from the "Third Reich" series.

Desert Reigns.......2006-01-04

This is the first of Paul Carrell's books I have read. I liked the information and stories contained therein, however, I only give this four stars because Herr Carrell's writing style, especially in the first third of the book, I found very distracting. He has a tendency of re-emphasizing things multiple times in multiple subsequent paragraphs, which takes up room, but adds no real content to the chapter(s). He will repeatedly illustrate a point about a person, or subject, over and over, in a sentence, in a paragraph, in a follow-up sentence (yes, I got it the first time, thanks; no, really, I did :-/ ). He also on occassion goes off on tangents about things, discussing at length these topics as they applied elsewhere in the war, or earlier in history (e.g., traitors and betrayal) before obliquely coming to the point as to how it might be a concern of/to the DAK or British. He might have saved a bit of room here and there by being more focused on these points.

Now, these aspects aside, there are a lot of good stories contained within the books. I don't have access to the materials Herr Carrell does, so I can't say how much is literary license exaggeration and how much is actual events clothed in a story-telling narrative (Paul Carrell's real name is Karl Schmidt, a well-known German propaganda writer during WWII, so take the stories to what level you will). However, I still enjoyed the stories within the book (Rommel's passing visit of a New Zealand field hospital, Lieutenant-General Bayerlein's account of his and General Cruwell being surrounded by British tanks while in a captured British armoured car, and being mistaken for being Brits not Germans), and appreciate the information given as it helped me flesh out details that I had not known about from other books on the subject of the war in North Africa (i.e., the tonnage of shipping Germany lost to the RAF trying to resupply Rommel) or learn something entirely new (i.e., the Oasis Companies).

In addition, he does have a few pages of photos from the war in North Africa that I had not yet seen elsewhere (not that I have every North Africa WWII book, mind you!). Some of them were quite cool.

If you can get past or through Carrell's writing style, and not be distracted by his tangents and repeat emphasis items, you should be able to at the very least enjoy the stories contained within. And maybe learn a tidbit or two about something from that part of the war you didn't know before.

One of the best books on the DAK.......2004-11-10

This book covers Rommel and the exploits of his Afrika Korps and Panzer Armee Afrika in Libya and Tunisia and is one of the best ever on the battles won and lost there.

The narrative is involving, and soldiers and generals come alive in Carrell's words.

A must buy.

An Excellent North African Campaign Description.......2003-05-10

This was the last of Carell's books for me to read, so finishing it was bittersweet. Once again Herr Carell has produced a masterful historical piece laced with many eyewitness accounts that keep it interesting to read. Overall coverage is good, especially from the german point of view. This campaign was always a relatively small time sideshow to the germans due to their preoccupation with the Ost Front. Logistics eventually won the campaign for the allies, though Afrika Korps fought with great daring and elan for over 2 years, giving the Brits the fits! Small unit actions are covered as well as the more strategic picture. I recommend this book to persons wanting a thourough review of this excing and exotic campaign and devotees of Herr Carell. It is,of course, somewhat slanted to the German point of view. This should not dissuade you from enjoying this wonderful African campaign overview.

A qualified 5 stars.......2001-05-11

I must say that after reading several very dry battle and war Histories ('Assault on Moscow', by Werner Haupt comes to mind)this book was very appreciated. Whereas the current (ie. the last ten or fifteen years) trend is to throw in a few personal accounts of a battle by someone who was there in order to make the book a bit more interesting, Mr. Carell worked/works from these accounts much more heavily. Because of this, his story of the African campaign is much more readable than the vast majority out there. I must say though that the book is somewhat dated and perhaps also a bit jaded in some aspects. For instance he gives only slight credit to the French resistance of the American landings in Algieria in Nov.42 when in reality the French in this case were generally loyal to their German allies and fought as tenaciously as humanly possible. Finally there is the question of Carells sympathies. The simple fact is that Paul Carell was known as Paul Karl Schmitt during WWII and was a writer for Joseph Goebbels, even covering a 'Jewish action' in Hungary towards the end of the war. which can be verified quite easily with a working knowledge of German and just about any search engine. Overall, even with Carell's quite unsavory background admitted, I must say that I very much enjoyed this book.

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Biological Conservation, published by Elsevier in 2005. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
Singapore Island suffered one of the highest known deforestation rates in the tropics from the mid-to-late 19th century when over 95% of its native lowland forest was cleared. We compared the current bird community structure and composition among three habitat types, i.e., old (>50 years, 7-935 ha) and young (= <50 years, 29-49 ha) naturally regenerating secondary forests and abandoned wooded plantations (27-102 ha) dominated by exotic species. Forest patch area had the strongest influence on the current species richness. The overall bird richness was not greater in most mature forest patches, but 20 species were only found in the old secondary forests and five of these were found in <50% of these patches. The rapid decrease in the number of forest species in plantations was offset by an increase in the number of open habitat species. Comparisons with current bird communities in nearby mainland forest sites (Peninsular Malaysia) suggest that the forest avifauna of Singapore is depauperate. The preservation of larger mature and maturing forests is therefore required for conserving the extant forest avifauna in Singapore. Connecting isolated patches can also be envisioned to facilitate movements of forest birds that have low densities and restricted distribution.

Effects of habitat disturbance on mixed species bird flocks in a tropical sub-montane rainforest [An article from: Biological Conservation]

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Effects of habitat disturbance on mixed species bird flocks in a tropical sub-montane rainforest [An article from: Biological Conservation]
T.M. Lee , M.C.K. Soh , N. Sodhi , L.P. Koh , and S.L Lim
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Elsevier | By Publisher | e-Docs | Formats | Books
ASIN: B000RR3L3E

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Biological Conservation, published by Elsevier in 2005. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
Despite their vulnerability to forest disturbances in the Neotropics, the consequences of forest perturbation on mixed species flocks are poorly understood in the threatened Southeast Asian rainforests. We examined the effects of local-scale habitat disturbance on mixed species flocks along an escalating gradient of anthropogenic modification (i.e., forest interior, forest edge, and urban) in a sub-montane tropical rainforest in Peninsular Malaysia that is presently experiencing low intensity development. Mixed species flocks in the forest interior and forest edge habitats (9.3+/-2.3 and 8.4+/-2.3, respectively) had significantly higher number of species than those observed in the urban habitat (5.1+/-1.7). Flock participation was influenced by environmental characteristics (e.g., canopy cover). Flocking species sensitive to habitat disturbance were likely to be from the Families Corvidae, Nectariniidae, and Sylviidae; had narrow to restricted altitudinal ranges; and were exclusively dependent on primary forest and understory microhabitats. We conclude that sub-montane mixed species flocks are affected by even small scale urbanization and that they, particularly with species richness as a parameter, can be used as effective ecological indicators. With the looming development pressure on the sub-montane/montane habitats in Peninsular Malaysia and the Southeast Asian region, urgent conservation actions are needed for the preservation of their biotas.

Land use and conservation value for forest birds in Central Sulawesi (Indonesia) [An article from: Biological Conservation]

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Land use and conservation value for forest birds in Central Sulawesi (Indonesia) [An article from: Biological Conservation]
N.S. Sodhi , L.P. Koh , D.M. Prawiradilaga , and Darjono
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000RR3LNO

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Biological Conservation, published by Elsevier in 2005. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
Unprecedented deforestation is currently underway in Southeast Asia. Since this trend is likely to continue, it is critical to determine the value of human-modified habitats (e.g., mixed-rural habitat) for conserving the regional native forest avifauna. The impacts of ongoing deforestation on the highly endemic avifauna (33%) of Sulawesi (Indonesia) are poorly understood. We sampled birds in primary and secondary forests in the Lore Lindu National Park in central Sulawesi, as well as the surrounding plantation and mixed-rural habitats. Species richness, species density and population density of forest birds showed a consistent decreasing trend in the following order: primary forests>secondary forests>mixed-rural habitat>plantations. Although primary forests contained the highest proportion (85%) of a total of 34 forest species recorded from our point count surveys, 40-yr old secondary forests and the mixed-rural habitat showed high conservation potential, containing 82% and 76% of the forest species, respectively. Plantations recorded only 32% of the forest bird species. Fifteen forest species had the highest abundance in primary forests, while two species had higher abundance outside primary forests. Our simulations revealed that all forest birds that were sensitive to native tree cover could be found in areas with at least 20% continuous native tree cover. Our study shows that although primary forests have the highest conservation value for forest avifauna, the potential of degraded habitats, such as secondary forests and the mixed-rural habitat, for conserving forest species can be enhanced with appropriate land use and management decisions.

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