Walkable cities Revitalization, vibrancy and sustainable consumption

Carlos J. L. Balsas, 1971-

Book - 2019

Walkable precincts have become an important component of urban revitalization on both sides of the Atlantic. In Walkable Cities, Carlos J. L. Balsas examines a range of city scales and geographic settings on three continents, focusing on the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal), Latin America (Brazil and Mexico), and the United States (Phoenix and New York City). He explains how this "pedestrianization of Main Street" approach to central locations (downtowns and midtowns) has contributed to strengthening various urban functions, such as urban vitality, pedestrian and bicyclist safety, tourism, and more. However, it has also put pressure on less affluent, peripheral, and fragile areas due to higher levels of consumption and waste... generation. Balsas calls attention to the need to base urban revitalization interventions on more spatially and socially just interventions coupled with sustainable consumption practices that do not necessarily entail high growth levels, but instead aim to improve the quality of city life. --

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Subjects
Published
Albany : State University of New York Press [2019]
Language
English
Main Author
Carlos J. L. Balsas, 1971- (author)
Physical Description
xix, 238 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 201-227) and index.
ISBN
9781438476285
9781438476278
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Abbreviations
  • Acknowledgments
  • Introduction
  • Chapter 1. Commercial Urbanism
  • Part I. Ibero-America
  • Chapter 2. Placemaking
  • Chapter 3. Walkability and Downtown Vibrancy
  • Part II. United States
  • Chapter 4. Revitalization and Homelessness
  • Chapter 5. Commercial Innovations
  • Chapter 6. Redesigning for Walkability
  • Part III. Portugal
  • Chapter 7. Tourism and Consumption
  • Chapter 8. Solid Waste Management
  • Conclusion
  • References
  • Index
Review by Choice Review

Engaging pedestrians, space, and services in counterpoint to car culture and downtown declines concerns urbanists worldwide. Balsas (Univ. at Albany, SUNY) approaches these issues by considering a wide range of cities across the Ibero-American world, from the small Portuguese coastal resort of Figueira da Foz to global metropoles like Mexico City, Phoenix, and New York. While the diversity of case studies and themes may excite the reader, the book ultimately fails to develop a systematic perspective to organize such disparate topics, ranging from downtown malls to airport urbanism, homelessness, and solid waste. Instead, the book reads as a congeries of articles of variable depth loosely linked to analyzing city-center retail. It is thus unable to move beyond basic truisms that planned retail is important and involves multiple stakeholders in commerce, consumption, and governance. Moreover, the lack of a strong connecting thread allows for substantial omissions--class rarely appears beyond a discussion of homelessness in Phoenix, nor are issues of race and migration, so intrinsic to many changing center cities, given space. The volume's broad scope also entails that superficial histories and generalizations may undercut potential interest. Summing Up: Optional. General readers. --Gary Wray McDonogh, Bryn Mawr College

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.