Archive for April, 2013

Considered one of the best examples of industrial archaeology in Rome of 19th century civil engineering, in the seventies it was dismissed, going since then under different refurbishments for new temporary uses. Nowadays the property of the area is shared between the Municipality and the Roma 3 University.

The Promise of America’s Smaller Industrial Cities in a Low-Carbon World
By Catherine

Overview

America’s once-vibrant small-to-midsize cities–Syracuse, Worcester, Akron, Flint, Rockford, and others–increasingly resemble urban wastelands. Gutted by deindustrialization, outsourcing, and middle-class flight, disproportionately devastated by metro freeway systems that laid waste to the urban fabric and displaced the working poor, and struggling with pockets of poverty reminiscent of postcolonial squalor, small industrial cities–as a class–have become invisible to a public distracted by the Wall Street (big city) versus Main Street (small town) matchup. These cities would seem to be part of America’s past, not its future. And yet, journalist and historian Catherine Tumber argues in this provocative book, America’s gritty Rust Belt cities could play a central role in a greener, low-carbon, relocalized future.

As we wean ourselves from fossil fuels and realize the environmental costs of suburban sprawl, we will see that small cities offer many assets for sustainable living not shared by their big city or small town counterparts: population density (and the capacity for more); fertile, nearby farmland available for local agriculture, windmills, and solar farms; and manufacturing infrastructure and workforce skill that can be repurposed for the production of renewable-energy technology.

Tumber, who has spent much of her life in Rust Belt cities, traveled to twenty-five cities in the Northeast and Midwest–from Buffalo to Peoria to Detroit to Rochester–interviewing planners, city officials, and activists, and weaving their stories into this exploration of small-scale urbanism. Smaller cities can be a critical part of a sustainable future and a productive green economy. Small, Gritty, and Green will help us develop the moral and political imagination we need to realize this.

About the Author
Historian and journalist Catherine Tumber is a Visiting Scholar at Northeastern University’s School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs, a Fellow of the Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth’s Gateway Cities Innovation Institute, and a former Research Affiliate with the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning’s Community Innovators Lab.

Reviews
“[Tumber’s] excellent new book finds potential in many busted and booming-again cities.” Scott Carlson, Urbanite

“Small, Gritty, and Green is indeed an eye-opener, and it’s exciting, after reading so many recent books about the virtues of great cities, to learn about the creative, environmentally sustainable development projects happening in less celebrated towns…[H]er argument is provocative and serious, and everyone searching for a more sustainable urban future should consider it.” Eric Klinenberg, Bookforum

“Recommended for anyone interested in city planning or studying the socioeconomic challenges of the Midwest and Northeast regions.” Library Journal

“Plucking ideas from 25 small cities in the US Rust Belt, Tumber outlines a plausible route to a ‘repurposed’ future.” Nature

“Small, Gritty, and Green offers inspiration and hope for older manufacturing cities that have been written off by the rest of the country as casualties of globalization…[T]heir best years may be yet to come.” Patrick Piuma, Wilson Quarterly

“[Tumber’s] distaste for municipal defeatism and community apathy in these cities spurs a short, energetic text which argues for their role as critical to the future economic success of the US, particularly in relation to the emerging green economy.” New Start magazine, Tom Stannard

“Catherine Tumber’s hopeful new book, Small, Gritty, and Green: The Promise of America’s Smaller Industrial Cities in a Low-Carbon World, should be required reading for every community conversation about the future of Rust Belt cities.” Bruce Fisher, Artvoice

“Tumber sends the message to local officials and activists that these small cities still possess the resources and talent, as well as certain advantages, necessary to carve out a future in a viciously competitive global economy.” Journal of the American Planning Association