1 comments about Greenways for America (Creating the North American Landscape).

1. This is a great work by Mr. Little. I have learned something each time I have read it (3 or 4)! He does an excellent job of dealing with technical subjects in a very readable narrative manner.

   His way of telling the story of the history of modern trails and greenways is inspirational in that it makes you want to go out and really do something in your community. He chronicles several projects with very different origins that all have been successful.

   If you are remotely interested in greenways and trails and how projects come together I highly recommend this book.

No comments about Anonymous (20th century).

No comments about Skyline: The Narcissistic City (Cultural Memory in the Present).

3 comments about Phoenix in Perspective: Reflections on Developing the Desert.

1. Its hard to take Grady Gammage seriouly in this book. As a real estate lawyer, he has done little else besides acting as state cheerleader for the development industries.

   While providing a pretty good history lesson on the city of Phoenix (thus the one star), this book does little but glorify and exaggerate the contributions the developement industry has had on the growth and prosperity of the Valley of the Sun (he credits the low-cost housing industry on the population boom...oh yeah...and air conditioning).

   He discounts the notions of "sprawl" and blames any negative aspects on Phoenix's growth to market demand and a wonderful climate. He finds a way to absolve the develpment industry from any of the poor planning, tract housing, and characterless suburbs that blanket the Sonoran landscape.

   While agreeing that there will someday be a limit to how large Phoenix and its outlying suburbs can get, he sees little use for any type of growth management and describes growth boundaries as "draconian." Portland is proof enough that growth boundaries do in fact work, and that they are hardly "draconian."

   Gammage's solution to growth issues in Phoenix relates to water supply. Yet he fails to see that dealing with growth management via the water supply is like realizing that its time to go on a diet once you've already reached 400 pounds. By that time its too late. How do you tell a city of 5 million that the water supply has dried up, and now its time to start conserving....or limiting population? If growth boundaries are draconian, how does Gammage describe stopping growth because of a lack of water?

   This book offers a neat history lesson on the Valley of the Sun, but outside of that, it offers little in the form of solutions to Phoenix's problems related to growth, pollution, traffic and its now characterless landscape. I'd give it a half star if I could.




2. This is truly a disappointing and shocking book; and, for that reason, a must read in any city where residents want to stop or at least curtail the destruction of their community by developers whose only motive is greed.

   Grady Gammage Jr. is the son of one of Arizona's great families; Gammage auditorium at Arizona State University, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, honors decades of contributions by his family. Instead of community service, he became a wealthy lawyer for developers and was instrumental in creating the urban blight he so skillfully outlines in this book.

   A hundred years ago, Phoenix was the smallest of the four major Southwestern cities (the others are Tucson, Albuquerque and El Paso). Now it is the largest, and is growing by an acre of new homes per hour. At that rate, as Gammage notes, growth can continue uninterrupted for another 672 years.

   What is the new Phoenix? In Gammage's words, "A small narrow lot, a relatively large house, and a two- or three-car garage combine to produce neighborhoods with a different feel than those of even ten years ago. Houses seem squeezed together by non-existent side yards. Garage doors, lined up to a mandatory setback line, become the dominant feature of the streetscape. Front yards are shallower, with less grass . . . the desert is covered by acres of concrete tile."

   Everything is geared to growth, at the lowest possible cost to developers. When the first Interstate freeway was built through Phoenix in the 1960's, it went below ground in elite neighborhoods and then soared to 25 feet above ground in low income areas. The elevated portion was often called "our Berlin Wall" and it destroyed poorer neighborhoods, providing cheap land for "slum clearance" and industrial space. No interchange was ever built to serve Guadaloupe, a low-income Yaqui village on the freeway; but, when a developer was appointed to the highway commission, bulldozers were at work within six months building an interchange for his speculative subdivision.

   Obviously, as an attorney for developers, Gammage doesn't highlight problems. Yet, two out of three new residents to Arizona leave the state within five years. The Phoenix downtown crime rate is five times the national average. Arizona has the highest percentage of children without adequate medical care of any state, including Texas. It has the second-highest high school dropout rate. Believe it or not, here in the Sonoran Desert, it's against the law to grow sagebrush in your front yard.

   It's what makes this book so worth reading. It's a lesson in every sweet-talkin' word that you'll ever hear from developers and their lawyers. Read it in conjunction with `The Death and Life of Great American Cities" by Jane Jacobs, often regarded as one of the great urban thinkers of the past 40 years. This book clearly and proudly offers the opposite of everything Jacobs advocates.

   For Phoenix residents, it's a chilling account of change from "the city that Los Angeles wishes it could be" into a mass of urban sprawl that even LA wouldn't tolerate. Gammage does an excellent job; he is articulate, knowledgeable and one of the best lawyers developers can hire. As one of the local asphalt companies proudly says on its billboards, "We really lay it on thick." So does Gammage.

   For outsiders, it explains why two of every three newcomers flee within five years, most within a year. Read it, then decide if you're safe to assume in your city, "It can't happen here."




3. Grady Gammage provides readers with an accurate and insightful account of the development of the Phoenix metropolitan area. More important his book presents a sensible review of the problems of urbanization and suburban growth. Most important it avoids uninformed theories, irrelevant Utopian visions, or public action action that has neither political support nor financial justification.

5 comments about Gaining Ground : Dramatic Landscaping Solutions to Reclaim Lost Garden Spaces.

1. I would highly recommend this book. It has great pictures and wonderful ideas. I see one person commented that the concepts were too broad; my feeling is, with any design book, these are ideas. No one buys a design book, takes it home and does exactly what is pictured. This book gets the creative juices flowing. Enjoy!



2. This book may appeal to a small niche audience: folks with sub-urban homes in planned communities who have a great deal of money and want "instant beauty." No doubt, the pictures are lovely and the spaces shown have been creatively transformed, but I found the examples out of reach for one with a mortal-size wallet. The authors have suggestions in getting around CC&R's in planned communities, which are helpful. However, this book seems to be a portfolio of Glassman's work, rather than a plantsman's book. In an early edition I had, the index was non-existent and some of the plant labeling was incorrect. The title held such promise (good job, editor!), but the book failed to do its job.



3. Michael Glassman's landscaping ideas, which are presented in this book, take their inspiration from very classical sources. There is nothing kitschy or trendy here, so if dramatic to you means 'funky' you should look to other sources. The designs show immense skill and judgment. The examples for seemingly hopeless spaces are a joy to behold, and the problem yards are both small and large. If you can't afford a landscape designer of Glassman's stature (and many of us can't) you will still enjoy reading the book many times over, and probably will find at least one or two ideas that you can adapt for your own yard.



4. In northern California -- where we pay a fortune for a small plot of land -- we want to maximize every inch, regardless of the cost. I found "Gaining Ground" inspirational and extremely useful for maximizing my tiny little plot. The pictures are beautiful and the text does a good job describing the design and the use of the different objects in the design. These are not inexpensive gardens, but they are beautiful!



5. I was inspired by past reviews and the great title to order this book. I was disappointed, and, sadly, have to agree at least in part with the critic from Rochester MN. Whether this book appeals to you may depend ultimately on what you think of as gardening, or, perhaps, what you think of as "Ground." This is a book with suggestions on how to make your garden more usable by filling it with stuff--tables, pots, statues, etc. My own idea of gardening is filling it with plants.

No comments about An Organic Architecture: The Architecture of Democracy.

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No comments about Urbanizing the Mojave Desert: Las Vegas.

1 comments about Modeling the World in a Spreadsheet: Environmental Simulation on a Microcomputer.

1. This is one of best books I've read on the art and craft of building simulation models. It stands head and shoulders above the current crop of spreadsheet simulation books. Mr. Cartwright not only introduces the background to each topic, he provides the mathematics behind the approach prior to launching into the implementation into a spreadsheet. The modelling summary at the end of the book remains outstanding after more than a decade.

No comments about Fun! Leisure and the Landscape.