Alice Sparberg Alexiou

This book starts out well, with a well-written and engaging history of the Dutch settlement of Manhattan, with the Bowery being a prime settlement area, and along with Broadway, one of the two main thoroughfares. Even from early days, however, it became a place where the less fortunate, the immigrant, and the homeless clustered. But in such a melange, there was great life. The bars, theaters, and even brothels in the Bowery all had a story to tell, and their history, as accounted by the author, is fascinating. We meet lots of interesting characters, some whose lives end in triumph; others in defeat or worse. As the book moves nearer the modern day, however, the author seems to lose her focus. The chapter on CBGB's is interesting, but the author clearly is not an expert about the punk scene she is writing about. After that, the book just sort of peters out, as she laments the destruction of so many old (I'm not sure I would call them all historic) structures and their replacement with gleaming high rise hotels and apartments, clean restaurants, and even Whole Foods. She is naturally worried about where all the down-on-their-luck souls who have called the Bowery home for centuries are going to end up. Perhaps, however, the best solution to the problem is not to prolong the life of derelict, ready-to-fall-down buildings, but to actually do something about the root causes of poverty and addiction. But, alas, that is something neither New York or anywhere else has done very well at.… (mais)

I want to be just like Jane Jacobs when I grow up! What an interesting woman she was. She saw no reason why she shouldn't write about subjects for which she had no formal training (like urban planning and philosophy)but on which she had lots of views. She was not afraid to take on the establishment, big business or even friends if she felt their views and actions were wrong. She lived her life in a way that espoused her views and along the way she changed the way the world thought.

Alexiou's book describes Jacobs' life and her writings. She is obviously impressed by Jacobs but she does not hesitate to discuss areas where Jacobs was lacking such as the issue of race in urban planning.

This is a good introduction to Jacobs' work but I now want to read some of the original books like Death and Life and Dark Age Ahead.… (mais)

Misleading Title, Disappointing Book

Although I was looking forward to reading this book as it was recommended by the Bowery Boys podcast, I was disappointed that the text did not live up to its title: The Flatiron: the New York Landmark and the Incomparable City that Arose with It. In truth, this book should have been titled Harry Black - The Man Who Built the Flatiron Building and His Story because this was really what the book turned out to be. And there's nothing wrong with that. Harry Black had an interesting story and is a man largely forgotten today despite all of his achievements. However, I was expecting more focus on the building, its history, residents, events, etc., hinted at in the introduction. There was a great deal of information about the design and construction of the building as well as it's earliest years which was satisfying. But once the building was completed, it was rarely only tangentially linked to the story that followed Harry Black beyond the building of the Flatiron. Even he lost interest in the building, always more focused on bigger, better, newer, and higher. Sadly, NOT the definitive work about the famous Flatiron building.… (mais)