Did you know that this week is Bike to Work Week in Chicago? There are several events throughout the city all week long, including a free screening of Pee Wee's Big Adventure in Grant Park tonight, and a Bike to Work Rally on Friday. Roosevelt even has a team in the Bike to Work Week Commuter Challenge!
This is a great benefit of living in Chicago, and helps to kick off a great summer season. Do you plan on spending a lot of time enjoying the city's parks and outdoor spaces? Take a look at some great books about our shared public spaces!
Urban diversity : space, culture, and inclusive pluralism in cities worldwide
From the publisher: This book presents the findings of a multiyear, collaborative research initiative examining how cities in the global North and South are adapting to the challenges of urban pluralism and diversity with the creation of new forms of urban space, citizenship, and belonging. Contributors from North America, Europe, and South Africa examine the multiple meanings of inclusion and exclusion in cities, seeking approaches that view diversity as an asset rather than a threat. Material stems from forums and workshops held over the course of two years in Washington, Barcelona, and Johannesburg. Some specific topics discussed are the future of retail and leisure 'contact zones' in the inclusive city, cyberspace as the new public domain, youth cultures and the mediation of racial exclusion and inclusion, and inclusive cities and citizen voice. B&w photos are included. Kihato is a senior research fellow at the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of Witwatersrand.
Call number: Chicago HT361 .U715 2010
Sidewalks : conflict and negotiation over public space
From the publisher: Urban sidewalks, critical but undervalued public spaces, have been sites for political demonstrations and urban greening, promenades for the wealthy and the well-dressed, and shelterless shelters for the homeless. On sidewalks, decade after decade, urbanites have socialized, paraded, and played, sold their wares, and observed city life. These many uses often overlap and conflict, and urban residents and planners try to include some and exclude others. In this first book-length analysis of the sidewalk as a distinct public space, Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris and Renia Ehrenfeucht examine the evolution of the American urban sidewalk and trace conflicts that have arisen over its competing uses....
Call number: Real Estate Institute HT153 .L67 2009
The walkable city : from Haussmann's boulevards to Jane Jacobs' streets and beyond
The idea that a city might not be walkable would never occur to anyone who lived before 1800. Over the past 200 years there have been dramatic changes to our cities. With the very best intentions, Baron George Eugène Haussmann ruthlessly transformed Paris in the mid-19th century. Its broad boulevards and grand vistas are the direct result of Haussmann’s thinking about how to adapt cities to a new age. In North America cities were redeveloped to accommodate the automobile and automobile-dependent suburbs. The city was no longer walkable, and in the 1960s activist-writer Jane Jacobs began to critique many of the ideas about how cities should be organized.
Call number: Chicago NA9053.S7 S63 2008
Take a look at similar books on Public Spaces HERE.
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