In putting together these Review Section notes I often try to link the slate of reviews to current events in the world. In doing so I run the risk that the current events of the day will be completely forgotten by the time the section is published several months later. In this day and age the world feels as if it is moving much more quickly, with political circumstances changing at the latest tweet, pronouncement, or impromptu comments from leadership. The news cycle is brief, and the media seems to rush from old crises to new in record time.
Fortunately, though, this issue’s reviews revolve around a set of topics that are both timely and timeless, at least in my mind. The reviewed books address issues of ethnicity, segregation, gentrification, informal development, international planning, and multimodal transportation. Though the fast-moving world sometimes makes me feel as if the basic foundations of life and work are on shaky ground, I am reminded by great reviews like these that many of planning’s issues, techniques, and solutions persist regardless of the latest news story or tweet.
First out of the blocks is a review by the ever-dependable David P. Varady, professor at the University of Cincinnati (OH) and longtime book review editor of one of my favorite outlets, the Journal of Urban Affairs. Varady is the perfect person to review David H. Kaplan’s Navigating Ethnicity: Segregation, Placemaking, and Difference because he is deeply acquainted with this intellectual space and knows how to write a useful review. The issue of ethnicity and how it is embraced/rejected within society and communities is a key concern for planners, and Varady finds much to like in Kaplan’s book. The book offers an overview of a range of models for navigating ethnicity, although Varady reports that planners are still left to translate these broader ideas into workable local practices.
University of Florida doctoral student Wei Zhai’s review of Peter Moskowitz’s How to Kill a City: Gentrification, Inequality, and the Fight for the Neighborhood is next. A journalist who covers urban issues for a variety of outlets, Moskowitz offers a useful summary of the experience of four American cities as they wrestle with gentrification: Detroit (MI), New Orleans (LA), New York (NY), and San Francisco (CA). As hinted at in Zhai’s review, Moskowitz succeeds in his effort to report on the gentrification process and the outcomes in these cities, detailing the major actors and forces involved. Zhai notes, however, that Moskowitz is less successful in offering up ideas and solutions for mitigating the negative impacts of gentrification on people, households, and neighborhoods.
The next section of reviews revolves around the broader topic of international planning, with reviews of edited volumes that focus on development and planning in Asia and Canada. Katherine Idziorek, a doctoral student at my doctorate-granting institution, the University of Washington, reviews a very intriguing book on development in Asia titled Messy Urbanism: Understanding the “Other” Cities of Asia. Idziorek reports that this book, edited by Manish Chalana and Jeffrey Hou, helps planners in the developing world to understand what are often perceived as the unruly and unplanned cities in the developing world. My own experience suggests that even in the American and European settings there is much messiness in our cities, and this volume helps readers understand the context, history, and function of these places, revealing them to be much less messy than we think.
From the complicated cities of Asia, the section moves its attention to our wonderful neighbor to the north, Canada. Ren Thomas’s edited volume Planning Canada: A Case Study Approach is reviewed by Sheryl-Ann Simpson, professor at the University of California, Davis. Simpson reports that Thomas’s book succeeds on most fronts, providing an overview of the Canadian planning approach, rich case studies of selected communities, and insight into the history and context that shape that country’s communities as well as its planning practices. To this American-educated planner, planning in Canada has long been a mystery, so Planning Canada is likely another book I need to add to my sizable reading pile.
The section closes with a review by my friend and Florida State University colleague Michael Duncan, who tackles the provocatively titled Bike Boom: The Unexpected Resurgence of Cycling by Carlton Reid. In his review Duncan disputes the accuracy of the use of the term bicycle boom and notes that even bicycle activist Reid knows that this term overstates the resurgence in cycling hinted at in the book’s title. Where the book succeeds is in providing a historical overview of bicycling in Britain and the United States as well as insights into how that history might be mobilized to get more people to use bicycles to travel. Though a bike boom remains elusive, this often-overlooked mode of travel receives insightful analysis from Reid.
As always, I welcome suggestions for books, e-books, and apps to be reviewed; offers to complete reviews; and other feedback on the section ([email protected]).