An Unnatural Metropolis

2006-09 History

Author : Craig E. Colten
Release : 2006-09
Genre : History
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 818/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis An Unnatural Metropolis by : Craig E. Colten

Download or read book An Unnatural Metropolis written by Craig E. Colten. This book was released on 2006-09. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Strategically situated at the gateway to the Mississippi River yet standing atop a former swamp, New Orleans was from the first what geographer Peirce Lewis called an "impossible but inevitable city." How New Orleans came to be, taking shape between the mutual and often contradictory forces of nature and urban development, is the subject of An Unnatural Metropolis. Craig E. Colten traces engineered modifications to New Orleans's natural environment from 1800 to 2000 and demonstrates that, though all cities must contend with their physical settings, New Orleans may be the city most dependent on human-induced transformations of its precarious site. In a new preface, Colten shows how Hurricane Katrina exemplifies the inability of human artifice to exclude nature from cities and he urges city planners to keep the environment in mind as they contemplate New Orleans's future. Urban geographers frequently have portrayed cities as the antithesis of nature, but in An Unnatural Metropolis, Colten introduces a critical environmental perspective to the history of urban areas. His amply illustrated work offers an in-depth look at a city and society uniquely shaped by the natural forces it has sought to harness.

Citizens Without a City

2022-02 History

Author : Jan-Jonathan Bock
Release : 2022-02
Genre : History
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 872/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Citizens Without a City by : Jan-Jonathan Bock

Download or read book Citizens Without a City written by Jan-Jonathan Bock. This book was released on 2022-02. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2009, after seismic tremors struck the Italian mountain town of L'Aquila, survivors were subjected to a "second earthquake"—invasive media attention and a relief effort that left them in a state of suspended citizenship as they were forcibly resettled and had to envision a new future. In Citizens without a City, Jan-Jonathan Bock reveals how a disproportionate government response exacerbated survivors' sense of crisis, divided the local population, and induced new types of political action. Italy's disenfranchising emergency reaction relocated citizens to camps and sites across a ruined townscape, without a plan for restoration or return. Through grassroots politics, arts and culture, commemoration rituals, architectural projects, and legal avenues, local people now sought to shape their hometown's recovery. Bock combines an analysis of the catastrophe's impact with insights into post-disaster civic life, urban heritage, the politics of mourning, and community fragmentation. A fascinating read for anyone interested in urban culture, disaster, and politics, Citizens without a City illustrates how survivors battled to retain a sense of purpose and community after the L'Aquila earthquake.

Crisis Cities

2014 Political Science

Author : Kevin Fox Gotham
Release : 2014
Genre : Political Science
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 214/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Crisis Cities by : Kevin Fox Gotham

Download or read book Crisis Cities written by Kevin Fox Gotham. This book was released on 2014. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gotham and Greenberg contend that New York and New Orleans have emerged as paradigmatic crisis cities, representing a free-market approach to post-disaster redevelopment that is increasingly dominant for crisis-stricken cities around the world. Crisis Cities questions the widespread narrative of resilience and reveals the uneven and contradictory effects of redevelopment activities in the two cities.

The Trouble with City Planning

2009-10-27 Political Science

Author : Kristina Ford
Release : 2009-10-27
Genre : Political Science
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 772/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis The Trouble with City Planning by : Kristina Ford

Download or read book The Trouble with City Planning written by Kristina Ford. This book was released on 2009-10-27. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After the vast destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans faces a rare chance to rebuild, with an unprecedented opportunity to plan what gets built. As the cityʹs director of planning from 1992 until 2000, Kristina Ford is uniquely placed to use these opportunities as a springboard for an eye-opening discussion of the intransigent problems and promising possibilities facing city planners across the nation and beyond. In The Trouble with City Planning, Ford argues that almost no part of our usual understanding of the phrase "city planning" is accurate: not our conception of the plan itself, nor our sense of what city planners do or who plans are made for or how planners determine what citizens want. Most important, our conventional understanding does not tell us how a plan affects what gets built in any city in America. Ford advances several planning innovations that, if adopted, could be crucial for restoring New Orleans, but also transformative wherever citizens are troubled by the results of their cityʹs plan. This keenly intelligent book is destined to become a classic for planners and citizens alike. -- Publisher description.

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An Unnatural Metropolis

Citizens Without a City

Crisis Cities

The Trouble with City Planning

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