[ePub] Managing Bermudagrass Turf: Selection; Construction; Cultural Practices; and Pest Management Strategies by L. B. McCarty; Grady Miller at Arts-Photography

Description

As anyone who has flown into Los Angeles at dusk or Houston at midday knows; urban areas today defy traditional notions of what a city is. Our old definitions of urban; suburban; and rural fail to capture the complexity of these vast regions with their superhighways; subdivisions; industrial areas; office parks; and resort areas pushing far out into the countryside. Detractors call it sprawl and assert that it is economically inefficient; socially inequitable; environmentally irresponsible; and aesthetically ugly. Robert Bruegmann calls it a logical consequence of economic growth and the democratization of society; with benefits that urban planners have failed to recognize.In his incisive history of the expanded city; Bruegmann overturns every assumption we have about sprawl. Taking a long view of urban development; he demonstrates that sprawl is neither recent nor particularly American but as old as cities themselves; just as characteristic of ancient Rome and eighteenth-century Paris as it is of Atlanta or Los Angeles. Nor is sprawl the disaster claimed by many contemporary observers. Although sprawl; like any settlement pattern; has undoubtedly produced problems that must be addressed; it has also provided millions of people with the kinds of mobility; privacy; and choice that were once the exclusive prerogatives of the rich and powerful.The first major book to strip urban sprawl of its pejorative connotations; Sprawl offers a completely new vision of the city and its growth. Bruegmann leads readers to the powerful conclusion that "in its immense complexity and constant change; the city-whether dense and concentrated at its core; looser and more sprawling in suburbia; or in the vast tracts of exurban penumbra that extend dozens; even hundreds; of miles-is the grandest and most marvelous work of mankind."ldquo;Largely missing from this debate [over sprawl] has been a sound and reasoned history of this pattern of living. With Robert Bruegmannrsquo;s Sprawl: A Compact History; we now have one. What a pleasure it is: well-written; accessible and eager to challenge the current cant about sprawl.rdquo;mdash;Joel Kotkin; The Wall Street Journal ldquo;There are scores of books offering lsquo;solutionsrsquo; to sprawl. Their authors would do well to read this book.rdquo;mdash;Witold Rybczynski; Slate