Small Gritty and Green

<b>How small-to-midsize Rust Belt cities can play a crucial role in a low-carbon sustainable and relocalized future.</b><p>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 small industrial cities seem to be part of America's past not its future. And yet 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.</p><p>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 including population density and nearby fertile farmland available for new environmentally friendly uses.</p><p>Tumber 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. <i>Small Gritty and Green </i>will help us develop the moral and political imagination we need to realize this.</p>