Tumber, Catherine.

Small, gritty, and green : the promise of America's smaller industrial cities in a low-carbon world / Catherine Tumber.

Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, ©2012.

xxxiv, 211 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Urban and industrial environments

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.

9780262016698 (hardcover ; alk. paper)
0262016699 (hardcover ; alk. paper)
9780262525312
0262525313

Urban ecology (Sociology) United States.
Fossil fuels Environmental aspects United States.
Land use, Urban Environmental aspects United States.
Renewable energy sources Technological innovations United States.
Technology Economic aspects United States.
Écologie urbaine États-Unis.
Combustibles fossiles Aspect de l'environnement États-Unis.
Utilisation urbaine du sol Aspect de l'environnement États-Unis.
Énergies renouvelables Innovations États-Unis.
Technologie Aspect économique États-Unis.
Fossil fuels Environmental aspects
Land use, Urban Environmental aspects
Renewable energy sources Technological innovations
Technology Economic aspects
Urban ecology (Sociology)
Erneuerbare Energien
Industriestadt
Kleinstadt
Stadtökologie
United States
USA

Urban and industrial environments.

Localisation: Bibliothèque main 275907
Cote: BIB 210331
Statut: Disponible