(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this review, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)

Gentrification. There. I said it. It's an instantly controversial term, one that means profoundly different things to different people; for some it's ultimately positive, a process of cleaning up slummy inner-city neighborhoods and making them thriving family communities again, while for others it's ultimately negative, conjuring up images of smug middle-class white people taking over a neighborhood like a plague, kicking out the "nasty coloreds, homeless and other undesirables" to make way for their precious little bicycles and their precious little Starbucks and their precious little two-million-dollar condos on every g-dda-n corner. And let's just face facts; Jay Walljasper's The Great Neighborhood Book, a product of the non-profit Project for Public Spaces, is pretty much a detailed blueprint on how to successfully gentrify an urban area, and what you think of the book depends directly on what you think of gentrification in the first place. For those who are down with the cause, for example, this will be an imminently practical and inspirational little guide to urban revitalization (or "placemaking," as Walljasper delicately puts it); it is packed with small, concrete, physical plans for hundreds of neighborhood projects, everything from creating community spaces to increasing neighborhood safety, from getting local traffic to slow down to getting local businesses to move in. If, however, the very concept of gentrification makes you grind your teeth, you need to stay away from this book like it was poison; because to you that's what it actually is, a sanctimonious little manifesto about how freaking great it is to be a Caucasian with money and a white-collar job, and how of course that gives such people the right to tell everyone else how to live too. (After all, isn't that how it works in America? That the people with the most money are the ones most entitled to tell everyone else how to live their own lives?) I'm giving the book a fairly high score today, specifically in consideration for the people out there who will like it; I'm warning you right now, though, that you might not be one of those people, depending on how you look at the issue of middle-class-led city cleanup to begin with.

Out of 10: 8.4 ( )

Easy to read and full of simple actions you can take to improve your neighborhood. Lots of examples of real people implementing the ideas and making a difference. Maybe I'll try some of them out! ( )