Good Neighborhoods A Study of In-Town and Suburban Residential Environments

Subjects:

• Sociology » Urban Studies
• Architecture & Planning » Architecture
• Political Science » Public Administration
• Economics » Economics (General)

Reviews:

• Brower's book is an interesting addition to the literature of urban studies and planning because it synthesizes many ideas in the interdisciplinary fields of neighborhood development and environmental design....Nicely produced, the book is well documented and illustrated with useful empirical examples.... Highly recommended for collections emphasizing urban planning, arhcitectural design, and community development.
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  Choice
• The significance of Brower's study lies in his development of prototypical neighborhoods. Traditioanlly, neighborhood satisfaction studies have attempted to identify qualities that typify `good' or even `ideal' neighborhoods. The result is a long list of desirable qualities, without any distinctions as to sources of satisfaction for different populations. Brower's study, by contrast, identifies four distinct types of neighborhoods boasting different qualites, each of which appeals to a particular segment of the population.... By connecting the subject of its analysis to larger contexts, this book challenges the notion of dualities that dominates so much of our thinking. It is a challenge that is long overdue.
  —Economic Development Quarterly
• [O]ne is left both enriched and desirous of more after reading this book by urban studies and planning professor Sidney Brower.... Good Neighborhoods will be useful to academics and professionals in urban design, neighborhood planning, environmental psychology, and sociology.... One mark of a good urban treatise is that it helps the reader conceptualize the city more fully than before while still allowing space to challenge some of the book's specific interpretations. On this account, Good Neighborhoods represents a worthwhile trek.
  —Environment and Behavior
• Good Neighborhoods offers something for everyone...a useful reference to the planning practitioner and student, evoking new ideas and sicussing a multitude of old ones.
  —APA Journal

Table of Contents:

• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Urban and Suburban Residential Environments
• Neighborhood Settings
• Past Neighborhoods
• Ideal Neighborhoods
• Models of Neighborhoods
• Mythical Neighborhoods
• Satisfactory Neighborhoods
• Towards a Typology of Neighborhoods
• A Typology: Hypothesis and Testing
• Types of Neighborhoods
• Applications
• Appendix 1: Some Questions about Neighborhood Planning, with Special Emphasis on the Role of the Professional Planner
• Appendix 2: Interview
• Bibliography
• Index