Customer Reviews

The Wealth Of Cities: Revitalizing The Centers Of American Life

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Norquist's guide to the "urban crisis" is both unusual and useful, not because it criticizes suburban sprawl (lots of people have done that) but because it rebuts the "Big Lie" that both sides of the debate often embrace: that sprawl and urban decay are the natural result of the free market, and that sprawl can be reduced only through bigger government and more regulation.

Norquist explains that sprawl is not the free-market American dream, but the (sometimes intended, sometimes unintended) result of Big Government gone amok: the government-built highways that subsidized migration from cities, the government schools that drive people away from cities, the government zoning regulations that shape new development into the conventional suburban mold.

All of the self-styled libertarians who swoon for the road lobby should read this book.

Having said that, I only gave this book four stars because it is written at a rather elementary level--great for teenagers, not so good as a scholarly resource. I would have liked more footnotes, more elaboration of key points (e.g. why government-run schools do so badly in urban areas)A.

Anyone with an interest in cities and a disinterest in the suburban monotony that is rapidly devouring most parts of this country will rally behind this book. Anyone who's not sure why cities are imporntant or who thinks that maybe the best thing would be to just let our suffering cities whither away will gain a new understanding of why cities can be (should be!) wonderful places to live, work, and prosper. The chapter on the development of the superhighway system will enrage you, no matter what your current opinion on this issue of the 21st century.

Don't be mislead into thinking that Norquist is just another liberal with his hand out for the needy and distressed inner-city residents. Quite the opposite. In fact, one of his cenral points is that cities' addiction to public handouts has rendered them nearly incapable of taking care of themselves. He urges tough measures, such as radically scaling back welfare and public housing. He argues for school choice and tougher sentencing for criminals.

Norquist, the current mayor of Milwaukee, may well be at the forefront of a new centrist political movement in this country - a movement that is fiscally conservative, tough on crime, strong on the environment, and not beholden to special interests on either the right or the left.

The first several chapters of the book do suffer from a bit too many "here's what we did in Milwaukee" annecdotes. Non-policy wonks may be put to sleep by discussions of sidewalk repair schedules and city budgets. Once you get to chapter five, though, the book becomes much more universal in its scope.

Mayor Norquist's book is one of many refutations of the inaccurate idea that the New Urbanism movement would better be called the New Suburbanism. Norquist is a Director of the Congress for the New Urbanism, the host for the seventh Congress, which will meet in Milwaukee in 1999, and a committed spokesman for New Urbanism. Those who heard him in July during Nightline's special about New Urbanism heard him say exactly what New Urbanists have been saying for more than ten years.

Amazon's list of related books should include books like Peter Katz's The New Urbanism, Towards an Architecture of Community and James Howard Kunstler's Geography of Nowhere and Home From Nowhere.

John Montague Massengale AIA CNU

Norquist, the former mayor of Milwaukee, presents a strong argument in favor of policies that promote cities as living, breathing places, instead of just a collection of people who all live in a geographic area. He rails hard against cities clamoring for handouts, wasting money, expanding bureaucracies, and all the things that some of our former mighty bastions of citizenship have succumbed to during the past 50 years.

Norquist outlines the ways that cities, and the people in them, can create successful development, revitalize their economic fortunes, and bring people back from the suburbs. I really appreciated his practical approach to running a city - cut costs, increase services, and people will want to live there. It's too easy for civic leadership to continuously raise taxes - not the solution to the problem, and it just exacerbates the issues facing most of our cities today.

He's a democrat, but not a handout liberal. Norquist presents the businessman's view on running a city - one that many mayors and civic leaders could handle reading and understanding.

This is a wonderful account of life in out urban areas and how they need to be maintained. Our government leaders could learn a lot from the author. He has lived the gospel he preaches. Make our elected official responsible for their actions and our money.