Book Review: Recycling the City: The Use and Reuse of Urban Land
Abstract
BOOK REVIEWS Recycling the City: The Use and Reuse of Urban Land, edited by Rosalind Greenstein and Yesim Sungu-Eryilmaz. Cambridge, MA: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 2004. This edited book is an impressive collection of essays that addresses the causes of land underutilization and abandonment in cities and identifies experiences and strategies that can bring this property back into productive use. Divided into three major sections, it first deals with a broad overview of the factors that cause urban land to be vacant or underdeveloped. Michael Pagano and Ann Bowman's essay on vacant land as opportunity and challenge draws attention to different ways of understanding reuse problems. Their assessment shows that on average, 15% of the average city's land is vacant (including open space). Although abandoned structures and boarded-up buildings can be testimony to better days, vacant land can also be seen as a future economic opportunity and urban resource rather than a problem. Similarly, Barry Wood's essay on western European vacant land shows how different levels of government intervention yield different results. For example, Great Britain's policies and programs seem to be incentive-based to attract private investment. The French approach seems more codified and part of a