Brooklyn's Bushwick - Urban Renewal in New York, USA

This book offers an extended case study of the urban community of Bushwick, located in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. The authors begin with a broad review of the history of Bushwick and Brooklyn, from before the earliest European settlements of the 1600s, through the 18th and 19th centuries and up the 1960s. Chapter Two begins by tracing the steep decline of the community, which culminated in catastrophic fires and looting in the wake of New York's electrical blackout of 1977 and goes on to describe the beginnings of urban planning and renewal efforts which launched the recovery of Bushwick in the 1980s to early 2000s. Chapter Three steps back from the immediacy of the community to discuss urban change from a theoretical perspective. The authors outline advances in 'sustainable urban planning' and describe how these apply to Bushwick and the wider Brooklyn community.

Chapter Four offers a detailed examination of the intent and function of New York's community board planning system, known as the Charter 197-a program. In Chapter Five the authors examine the 197-a planning process and its application in the areas of Bushwick, Williamsburg and Greenpoint in Northeast Brooklyn; Brooklyn Downtown and in Southeast Brooklyn including Coney Island. The following chapter examines a number of innovative Bushwick high schools that offer practical experience in urban planning. Drawing the urban planning experiences together, the book concludes with a look at future directions in city renewal. Emphasis here is placed on 'sustainable urban planning' and the lessons to be learned from the experience of Bushwick and Brooklyn.

The specifics of urban planning and renewal are illustrated with tables and figures. The details of planning are informed by an overarching sense of history, beginning with the dedication of the book to the memory of six Universalist writers associated with New York: Henry Thoreau, Helena Blavatsky, Henry George,Henry Miller, Arthur Miller and Walt Whitman. A rich trove of historical materials, ranging from family sketches to school rosters to rarely seen photographs, helps to keep the survey and analysis of urban planning grounded in the lives of Bushwick's residents, past, present and future.

Offers a highly detailed examination of New York's urban renewal efforts, in planning and in practice Historical material connects the science of urban planning to the lives of residents Details the advent and application of contemporary frameworks for sustainable urban planning Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Autorentext

Raymond Charles Rauscher I have always been interested in town planning, being born in Brooklyn, New York City (1943) and graduating from the City College of New York (Bachelor of Engineering, Civil 1966). I later completed a first part of a masters degree at the Univ of Michigan (research submission on Detroit entitled A Solution to the Urban Crisis: Proposal for the Creation of Region Serving New Cities (unpublished 1969). The Masters of Town and Country Planning was completed at Sydney University (1971) with a thesis Community Response to a Redevelopment Proposal (University of Sydney Library Microfilm Dept). The thesis covered planning conflicts in Erskineville and measures to resolving these. Chapter 7 of this book refers back to the planning of Erskineville in 1971, and lessons learned. Delving into the subject of sustainable urban planning, I completed a PhD (2009) at the University of Newcastle, including the thesis Sustainable Area Planning Framework for Ecologically Sustainable Development: Case Study Wyong Shire, NSW, Australia. Wanting to research further the subject of sustainable urban planning, I published (with co-author Salim Momtaz) Sustainable Communities: A Framework for Planning - Case Study of an Australian Outer Sydney Growth Area (Springer 2014). Over the years I continued to study urban change in my birth place Brooklyn (New York). My interest was drawn to Bushwick (my old neighborhood), an area of Brooklyn that met its low point of urban slide in the 1977 arson fires. I did field work over several years, from 1979 onwards, to better understand reasons for USA style urban decline and renewal. This culminated in the book (with co-author Salim Momtaz) Brooklyn's Bushwick - Urban Renewal in New York, USA (Springer 2014). Still wanting to understand the urban changes in inner city neighbourhoods (beyond Erskineville of 1971), I continued (over a number of years) to monitor planning and development of the City of Sydney inner city areas. This monitoring focused on the question of how sustainable were the urban changes taking place in these Sydney neighbourhoods (given the rapid growth of Sydney into a global city). To prepare this book I spent five years (2009-2014) on the ground in the inner city of Sydney doing qualitative research field work, including photographing changes in City of Sydney neighbourhoods. During this research I recalled my involvement with community groups at the time of my earlier research in Erskineville noted above. At the time (1971-1973), neighbourhood associations were successful in calling on the New South Wales (NSW) Builders Labourers' Federation (BLF) to impose 'green bans' to stop NSW State or developer proposed developments which residents felt were inappropriate. This led to a number of 'green bans' imposed in inner city communities covered in this book, including Woolloomooloo (Chapter 3), Victoria St, Kings Cross (Chapter 4), Waterloo (Chapter 6), and Glebe (Chapter 10). Since 1973 I have been a member of the Australian based Social Developers Network (SDN) The Network commenced at the time of PM Gough Whitlam (1972-1975) (currently 98 years old, living in Sydney). As prime minister Whitlam (and Minister for Planning and Regional Development, Tom Uren) promoted and instituted programs in urban planning, regional development and community development. A number of those initiatives are included in the book (Woolloomooloo in Chapter 3, Kings Cross in Chapter 4, and Glebe in Chapter 9). I am currently a Conjoint Lecturer at the University of Newcastle, Australia. I am also a director of Habitat Association for Arts and Environment Inc. Under this body I continue to work on 'Visions Inner Sydney' (VIS). This is a program recording the changes in the inner city local government areas of the City of Sydney, and Municipalities of Leichhardt, Marrickville and Ashfield. Salim Momtaz Dr Salim Momtaz is a senior lecturer at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He teaches in

Inhalt
Chapter 1: Bushwick and Northeast Brooklyn: Formative Years to 1960's.- Chapter 2: Bushwick: Planning in 1970s to Current Times.- Chapter 3: Planning for Sustainable Communities.- Chapter 4. New York City Planning: Community Boards and Planning Instruments.- Chapter 5. Application of Planning Instruments: Case Studies.- Chapter 6. Preparing Students for Urban Futures: Case Example Bushwick.- Chapter 7. Future Directions: Sustainable Urban Planning (SUP).- Appendices.- Post Script.- Glossary.- Index.