After decades of abandonment, cities across North America are experiencing a renaissance. A new generation is seeking greater excitement and diversity than the typical suburban subdivision offers and many people are instead looking to make their homes in lively urban environments. In Intown Living, authors Ann Breen and Dick Rigby document this movement, arguing that if properly nurtured, it could help slow current patterns of sprawling development and help revitalize America's cities. They illustrate the many benefits of city living and offer strategies and encouragement for public officials and private developers to team up and expand central city housing opportunities. The authors present in-depth studies of eight cities--Atlanta; Dallas; Houston; Memphis; Minneapolis; New Orleans; Portland, Oregon; and Vancouver, British Columbia--that are experiencing this type of renaissance, and consider common elements shared by the cities, as well as their differences. Intown Living is an important new resource for a wide audience of professionals involved with urban design and planning. It will also be of interest to the many people concerned with historic preservation or smart growth, and for students and researchers involved with urban studies and related fields.
More than any other major U.S. city, Atlanta regularly reinvents itself. From the Civil War’s devastation to the 1996 Olympic boom to the current housing crisis, the city’s history is a cycle of rise and fall, ruin and resurgence. In Planning Atlanta, two dozen planning practitioners and thought leaders bring the story to life. Together they trace the development of projects like Freedom Parkway and the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library. They examine the impacts of race relations on planning and policy. They explore Atlanta’s role as a 19th-century rail hub—and as the home of the world’s busiest airport. They probe the city’s economic and environmental growing pains. And they look toward new plans that will shape Atlanta’s next incarnation. Read Planning Atlanta and discover a city where change is always in the wind.