Here we have a very interesting investigation about the stories of the american cities and specially its downtowns, how they have growned, its shinning past and its following falldown. We can learn about very brilliant redevelopment projects that are intending to rebuild and to regain once again progress and live to some parts of the modern cities that have been in a great depression since long decades of desinvestments. It is very important to take in accounts the stories very well written by the authors about how the joining between public and privates forces is the only way to rebulit american ( and everywhere) abandoned downtowns!

The transformation of Times Square from a den of porn, drugs, and prostitution into an urban Disneyland is the greatest success story of urban renewal. (I am astonished that anyone could be nostalgic about the old Times Square - I find it hard to be nostalgic about drug dealers loitering in front of porn shops and boarded-up theaters.)

Lynne Sagalyn devotes her 600-page tome to documenting the politics behind the redevelopment process. The end result is not exactly rivetting reading. Perhaps it's asking too much for any author to transform this epic of backroom politics, urban planners, and real estate developers into a "good read." In any event, the author has carefully documented the entire process, focussing on the backroom politics and urban planning strategies, rather than on the architecture of the buildings themselves. The book is profusely illustrated with well over a hundred b&w photos and detailed maps. In addition, a central color section of the book has about 35 photographs and drawings.

The story of how Times Square, and, in particular, 42nd Street, was finally rescued is fascinating, but it's blurred in this treatment. Sagalyn is an academic, and unfortunately, it shows. It reads like a long series of New York Times Arts & Leisure section essays by a critic. All the info is in there, but it's somewhat exhausting to wade through. One suspects the same info could have been delivered more elegantly in half the number of words.

Given the rather expensive price, wait to see whether there's a paperback version. But anyone who's interested in the history and development of NYC will find it worthwhile.