Regional Visionaries and Metropolitan Boosters: Decentralization, Regional Planning, and Parkways During the Interwar Years [Hardcover]

Matthew Dalbey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 30, 2002

The debate between Lewis Mumford and Thomas Adams over the Regional Plan of New York and Its Environs (RPNY) often stirs intellectual debate among planning professionals, academics, and students. Recent scholarship has been primarily concerned with the theoretical underpinnings of Mumford's `regionalists' and Adams' `metropolitanists'. Mumford, as well as Benton MacKaye and other members of the Regional Planning Association of America (RPAA), were heavily influenced by their vision of regional planning as a method for progressive social change. At the same time, Adams and the metropolitan planners associated with the RPNY saw regional planning as a tool by which to minimally tweak the underpinnings of the market and thereby provide for a minimum amount of congestion and economic hardship for the maximum number of citizens. The debate between these two traditions helps to inform on current planning issues, including sprawl, sustainable development, and the new urbanism. This book analyzes one of the only instances where the theoretical debate between the regionalists and the metropolitanists moved from intellectual polemic to planning practice. As our metropolitan areas continue to grow and consume land, regional planning must find a way to consider the uniqueness of regional economies and culture without succumbing to metropolitan sameness.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Springer; 1 edition (June 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1402071043
• ISBN-13: 978-1402071041
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,243,414 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Book on Parkways EVER!!!!, July 26, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Regional Visionaries and Metropolitan Boosters: Decentralization, Regional Planning, and Parkways During the Interwar Years (Hardcover)

Dalbey writes the best book on parkway development ever. He is a modern day E. Howard. He put's the "green" in green-belts. I recommend this book to everyone interested in regional planning and parkway development.