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Governing Magazine - Placemaker Profile: Allan Jacobs
The Great Neighborhood Book
A Do-it-Yourself Guide to Placemaking |
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Jay Walljasper has given us nothing less than a manual for how to rebuild community, one practical step at a time, and in the process recover much of the joy of day-to-day life. What a gift!
- Bill McKibben
author of Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future
Need ideas for how to improve your own neighborhood?
Download--free--the Great Neighborhood Party Kit for tips on how to kick-start a memorable neighborhood event in your own community!
Here at PPS, we see The Great Neighborhood Book as a spring-board for people to gather together and work on improving their own neighborhoods. What better way to kick things off than by throwing your own neighborhood party!
Join the Great Neighborhood Discussion Forum!
Connect with people all over the world and share ideas about how to transform your neighborhood at this new PPS Discussion Forum.
Neighborhoods decline when the people who live there lose their connection and no longer feel part of their community. Recapturing that sense of belonging and pride of place can be as simple as planting a civic garden or placing some benches in a park.
The Great Neighborhood Book explains how any community can be improved and enlivened, not by vast infusions of cash, not by government, but by the people who live there. Through real-life stories, this book addresses such challenges as traffic control, crime, comfort and safety, and developing economic vitality. Offering compelling evidence of how people in communities have enhanced their own neighborhoods through "Placemaking" -- the PPS term for the process of transforming public space -- this exciting guide offers inspiring real-life examples that show the magic that happens when individuals take small steps, and motivate others to make change. It joins The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces and How To Turn a Place Around in the PPS library of publications that explore a place-based approach to improving neighborhoods.
This book is a must-read not only for neighborhood activists and concerned citizens but also for urban planners, developers and policy-makers.
What people are saying about The Great Neighborhood Book:
"Here's a Declaration of Independence for America's neighborhoods. It shows how it hardly matters how rich or poor you are, or whether City Hall recognizes your zip code or not. The building blocks for great place-making are revealed and explained -- for you to build on."
- Neal Peirce, Citistates Group and Washington Post Writers Group
"We're often told that regular people have no power anymore. But when they get together with their neighbors to work on important issues in their own backyard, anything is possible. Jay Walljasper regales us with stories of folks all over the country who have rolled up their sleeves to make big changes to their neighborhood -- and the world. So, read on, get riled up, roll up your sleeves...and take power."
- Jim Hightower, author of Thieves in High Places and The Hightower Lowdown
"The willful destruction of public life in America has been so stupendous that heroic efforts must now be mounted to restore it. This includes especially the actual places where public life may dwell and thrive. The Great Neighborhood Book is a superb manual for this campaign -- to take back the places where our buildings meet the street."
- James Howard Kunstler, author of The Long Emergency and The Geography of Nowhere
"With each passing day our world becomes more urban and our cities grow larger. It is therefore ever more important that we focus more intensely and with greater energy on the smallest parts of our cities, our neighborhoods, where our citizens live and where their lives are shaped. The Great Neighborhood Book is a treasure. It will help all who care about their towns and cities make their neighborhoods more special places."
- Joseph P. Riley, Jr, Mayor of Charleston, South Carolina and founder of the Mayors' Institute on City Design
The Great Neighborhood Book is available through our secure online form, or you can order over the phone: (212) 620 5660. We accept MasterCard, Visa, checks and money orders.
