Until the late 1970s, Downtown Los Angeles was simply a relic to treasure, a symbol of suburban progress by its own demise. As businesses moved out of what was once the heart of the city, many Downtown buildings suffered the swing of the wrecking ball. But suddenly, up stepped the conservators of history, the people who cared that their city had a vivid past -- and magnificent buildings were saved. Now, through the lens of master photographer/historian Tom Zimmerman we see scores of reasons why. We see the stories the buildings tell, up close, and, yes, very personally. In Downtown in Detail, Zimmerman finds the unique vantage points from which to capture architectural details that are the highlights of buildings, the ones that are often undiscovered. He finds the sculptures, tiles, clock towers, gargoyles and bas-relief panels that historic architects used to define an era.
Annotation Downtown is the first history of what was once viewed as the heart of the American city. Urban historian Robert Fogelson gives a riveting account of how downtown--and the way Americans thought about it--changed between 1880 and 1950. Recreating battles over subways and skyscrapers, the introduction of elevated highways and parking bans, and other controversies, this book provides a new and often starling perspective on downtown's rise and fall.
Pioneering observers of the urban landscape Bernard Frieden and Lynne Sagalyn delve into the inner workings of the exciting new public entrepreneurship and public-private partnerships that have revitalized the downtowns of such cities as Boston, San Diego, Seattle, St. Paul, and Pasadena.
From the 1970s on, Los Angeles was transformed into a center for entertainment, consumption, and commerce for the affluent. Mirroring the urban development trend across the nation, new construction led to the displacement of low-income and working-class racial minorities, as city officials targeted these neighborhoods for demolition in order to spur economic growth and bring in affluent residents. Responding to the displacement, there emerged a coalition of unions, community organizers, and faith-based groups advocating for policy change. In Building Downtown Los Angeles Leland Saito traces these two parallel trends through specific construction projects and the backlash they provoked. He uses these events to theorize the past and present processes of racial formation and the racialization of place, drawing new insights on the relationships between race, place, and policy. Saito brings to bear the importance of historical events on contemporary processes of gentrification and integrates the fluidity of racial categories into his analysis. He explores these forces in action, as buyers and entrepreneurs meet in the real estate marketplace, carrying with them a fraught history of exclusion and vast disparities in wealth among racial groups.
Downtown America was once the vibrant urban center romanticized in the Petula Clark song—a place where the lights were brighter, where people went to spend their money and forget their worries. But in the second half of the twentieth century, "downtown" became a shadow of its former self, succumbing to economic competition and commercial decline. And the death of Main Streets across the country came to be seen as sadly inexorable, like the passing of an aged loved one. Downtown America cuts beneath the archetypal story of downtown's rise and fall and offers a dynamic new story of urban development in the United States. Moving beyond conventional narratives, Alison Isenberg shows that downtown's trajectory was not dictated by inevitable free market forces or natural life-and-death cycles. Instead, it was the product of human actors—the contested creation of retailers, developers, government leaders, architects, and planners, as well as political activists, consumers, civic clubs, real estate appraisers, even postcard artists. Throughout the twentieth century, conflicts over downtown's mundane conditions—what it should look like and who should walk its streets—pointed to fundamental disagreements over American values. Isenberg reveals how the innovative efforts of these participants infused Main Street with its resonant symbolism, while still accounting for pervasive uncertainty and fears of decline. Readers of this work will find anything but a story of inevitability. Even some of the downtown's darkest moments—the Great Depression's collapse in land values, the rioting and looting of the 1960s, or abandonment and vacancy during the 1970s—illuminate how core cultural values have animated and intertwined with economic investment to reinvent the physical form and social experiences of urban commerce. Downtown America—its empty stores, revitalized marketplaces, and romanticized past—will never look quite the same again. A book that does away with our most clichéd approaches to urban studies, Downtown America will appeal to readers interested in the history of the United States and the mythology surrounding its most cherished institutions. A Choice Oustanding Academic Title. Winner of the 2005 Ellis W. Hawley Prize from the Organization of American Historians. Winner of the 2005 Lewis Mumford Prize for Best Book in American Planning History. Winner of the 2005 Historic Preservation Book Price from the University of Mary Washington Center for Historic Preservation. Named 2005 Honor Book from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities.
Today, women in both business and leisure, have a critical influence on the success of a downtown area. What are the factors that should be considered when designing or re-inventing your downtown so that this important demographic feels welcome, safe and included? This book explores the factors that influence their desire to do business, travel to, and stay in your downtown. Through the eyes of many subject matter experts, we explore everything from parking, lighting and nightlife to marketing, color and retail. You will see your downtown through a different lens after reading what these experts have come to learn.
"A love song for the city . . . [this] volume, attractivelypackaged and richly illustrated, is really a cookbook for downtownrevitalization." --Wall Street Journal In this pioneering book on successful urban recovery, two urbanexperts draw on their firsthand observations of downtown changeacross the country to identify a flexible, effective approach tourban rejuvenation. From transportation planning and sprawlcontainment to the threat of superstore retailers, they address ahost of key issues facing our cities today. Roberta Brandes Gratz (New York, NY), an award-winning journalistand urban critic, is author of the urban design classic The LivingCity. A former staff reporter for the New York Post, Gratz haswritten for the New York Times Magazine and other publications.Norman Mintz (New York, NY) has played a leading role in the fieldof downtown revitalization for more than twenty-five years. He isDesign Director at the 34th Street Partnership in New York City anda consultant on downtown revitalization across the country.
From the palace hotels of the elite to cheap lodging houses, residential hotels have been an element of American urban life for nearly two hundred years. Since 1870, however, they have been the target of an official war led by people whose concept of home does not include the hotel. Do these residences constitute an essential housing resource, or are they, as charged, a public nuisance? Living Downtown, the first comprehensive social and cultural history of life in American residential hotels, adds a much-needed historical perspective to this ongoing debate. Creatively combining evidence from biographies, buildings and urban neighborhoods, workplace records, and housing policies, Paul Groth provides a definitive analysis of life in four price-differentiated types of downtown residence. He demonstrates that these hotels have played a valuable socioeconomic role as home to both long-term residents and temporary laborers. Also, the convenience of hotels has made them the residence of choice for a surprising number of Americans, from hobo author Boxcar Bertha to Calvin Coolidge. Groth examines the social and cultural objections to hotel households and the increasing efforts to eliminate them, which have led to the seemingly irrational destruction of millions of such housing units since 1960. He argues convincingly that these efforts have been a leading contributor to urban homelessness. This highly original and timely work aims to expand the concept of the American home and to recast accepted notions about the relationships among urban life, architecture, and the public management of residential environments.
In real-life, happily ever after can be hard to come by Pete Greenwood loves history. Any era or country will do as long as the books are lengthy and full of the past. But that may be because Pete’s own history is a work of fiction. For the last eight years, he’s lived with his uncle Gene under an assumed name. He’s had to keep his parents’ existence a secret ever since they committed an act of political protest that went tragically wrong. Living a double life makes Pete feel isolated and alone until he meets the cool and collected Cary Longstreet. Cary’s playing a role too—looking perfect on the outside to hide secrets of her own. Slowly learning to trust each other, Pete and Cary start to share their truths, both of them dreaming of happy endings to their stories and the chance to let go of all their worries. But real life doesn’t always wrap itself up as neatly as we’d like.
EXCERPT FROMWelcome to New York!He shook my hand outOn the sidewalkA thumb-to-thumb shakeThat felt like I wasIn on somethingWith him, he smiledAnd said, Hey man IWork in the neighborhoodToo, and so on, butKnow what manI'm kind of stuckI just need like fiveBucks to get outTo my family inNew Jersey I'mNot bullshitting youMan and I'll evenLeave my work shirtSee that's my nameLou above thePocket that's meI work right overHere on ChambersMan and if you canFront me like fiveBucks I swear I'llBring you back tenTomorrow I'mNot fucking withYou man honest toGod I lost my walletAnd just need someHelp you knowMan?That shirt hung in myCloset for a whileAnd then I started wearingIt around the buildingWhen I was moppingThe floor or downTo the Raccoon LodgeAt night on Warren StreetSo that some of the guysI knew used to look upAnd smile when I cameWalking in for a beer"DAN HUBBS plays two-finger banjo and writes songs that sound like they might have been favorites a hundred years ago." -- Sarah Craig, Executive Director Caffè Lena
