- Paperback: 501 pages
- Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (Oct 1 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0520086058
- ISBN-13: 978-0520086050
- Product Dimensions: 2.3 x 1.5 x 0.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 839 g
- Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,947,241 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
"The importance of Chester Hartman's book reaches far beyond the case of San Francisco. It is a major work on the politics and urban development, a work that uniquely foresees alternative ways to improve our cities. It will become a landmark of urban research." - Manuel Castells, University of California "The further one reads into Chester Hartman's story of San Francisco redevelopment, the more bizarre and engrossing the story becomes. Centering his account on the downtown Yerba Buena Center project, Hartman wonderfully illuminates the conflicts of interest, ambitions, misrepresentations, extravagant promises, brutality, waste, incompetence, and sheer silliness that characterized the ill-fated American experiment called Urban Renewal andputs it into a social and economic context." - Jane Jacobs, author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities
Book Description
San Francisco is perhaps the most exhilarating of all American cities--its beauty, cultural and political avant-gardism, and history are legendary, while its idiosyncrasies make front-page news. In this revised edition of his highly regarded study of San Francisco's economic and political development since the mid-1950s, Chester Hartman gives a detailed account of how the city has been transformed by the expansion--outward and upward--of its downtown. His story is fueled by a wide range of players and an astonishing array of events, from police storming the International Hotel to citizens forcing the midair termination of a freeway. Throughout, Hartman raises a troubling question: can San Francisco's unique qualities survive the changes that have altered the city's skyline, neighborhoods, and economy?
Hartman was directly involved in many of the events he chronicles and thus had access to sources that might otherwise have been unavailable. A former activist with the National Housing Law Project, San Franciscans for Affordable Housing, and other neighborhood organizations, he explains how corporate San Francisco obtained the necessary cooperation of city and federal governments in undertaking massive redevelopment. He illustrates the rationale that produced BART, a subway system that serves upper-income suburbs but few of the city's poor neighborhoods, and cites the environmental effects of unrestrained highrise development, such as powerful wind tunnels and lack of sunshine. In describing the struggle to keep housing affordable in San Francisco and the seemingly intractable problem of homelessness, Hartman reveals the human face of the city's economic transformation.
Hartman was directly involved in many of the events he chronicles and thus had access to sources that might otherwise have been unavailable. A former activist with the National Housing Law Project, San Franciscans for Affordable Housing, and other neighborhood organizations, he explains how corporate San Francisco obtained the necessary cooperation of city and federal governments in undertaking massive redevelopment. He illustrates the rationale that produced BART, a subway system that serves upper-income suburbs but few of the city's poor neighborhoods, and cites the environmental effects of unrestrained highrise development, such as powerful wind tunnels and lack of sunshine. In describing the struggle to keep housing affordable in San Francisco and the seemingly intractable problem of homelessness, Hartman reveals the human face of the city's economic transformation.
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First Sentence
San Francisco is perhaps the most unique and exhilarating of the nation's cities. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
San Francisco is perhaps the most unique and exhilarating of the nation's cities. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
not very interesting,
By "gabed" (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: City for Sale: The Transformation of San Francisco, Revised and Updated Edition (Paperback)
After reading _The Power Broker_, I was expecting a similar expose of the power politics that went in to San Francisco's redevelopment. _City for Sale_ did not live up to my expectations. Hartman's style is very dry and he gives us very little insight into the people who were involved in the battles that shaped modern San Francisco. He relies almost exclusively on secondary or tertiary sources and presents too much information without distilling and analyzing it.Hartman spends little more than a page on San Francisco's public transit woes. He ignores the development of BART - which operates almost exclusively as a conduit for suburban workers to go to and from the financial district and serves virtually none of San Francisco's neighborhoods. He also offers little insight into the city's homeless problem - people are drawn to San Francisco because it is the only city in the area that pash cash to homeless people. I was most disappointed that after Hartman spent 385 pages outlining how the city's business establishment had virtually controlled urban redevelopment for the last 30 years - he spends the last 15 pages trying to blame San Francisco's gentrification problems on computer programmers in their mid-20s. This book was written so recently and yet Hartman's analysis is already incorrect - silicon valley people in their mid-20s are no longer a threat to San Francisco - but the business interests downtown and in Pacific Heights who obviously created the mess still have the same control over the city's affairs.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
3.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews) 10 of 13 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
not very interesting,
By "gabed" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: City for Sale: The Transformation of San Francisco, Revised and Updated Edition (Paperback)
After reading _The Power Broker_, I was expecting a similar expose of the power politics that went in to San Francisco's redevelopment. _City for Sale_ did not live up to my expectations. Hartman's style is very dry and he gives us very little insight into the people who were involved in the battles that shaped modern San Francisco. He relies almost exclusively on secondary or tertiary sources and presents too much information without distilling and analyzing it.Hartman spends little more than a page on San Francisco's public transit woes. He ignores the development of BART - which operates almost exclusively as a conduit for suburban workers to go to and from the financial district and serves virtually none of San Francisco's neighborhoods. He also offers little insight into the city's homeless problem - people are drawn to San Francisco because it is the only city in the area that pash cash to homeless people. I was most disappointed that after Hartman spent 385 pages outlining how the city's business establishment had virtually controlled urban redevelopment for the last 30 years - he spends the last 15 pages trying to blame San Francisco's gentrification problems on computer programmers in their mid-20s. This book was written so recently and yet Hartman's analysis is already incorrect - silicon valley people in their mid-20s are no longer a threat to San Francisco - but the business interests downtown and in Pacific Heights who obviously created the mess still have the same control over the city's affairs. 3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting Background on an Interesting City,
By Gregor Hohpe "eaiguru" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: City for Sale: The Transformation of San Francisco, Revised and Updated Edition (Paperback)
SF is my adopted hometown and I love walking around the city, noticing little odds and ends. How come the prime real estate on top of Moscone Center is occupied by a Merry-go-Around and a (mostly deserted) playground? How come BART does not stop anywhere people in SF actually live (except for a lucky few in the Mission). What did SoMa look like 30 years ago?Hartman covers San Francisco's urban development history from the relocation of the produce market (to make room for Golden Gateway apartments), the development of South-of-Market (and the resistance), Harvey Milk's and George Moscone's assasination, up to the (now completed) redevelopment of the Presidio's Letterman complex into ILM studios. Reading this book gave me a new perspective on SF. It's possible that the book is not thorough enough for someone who studied urban planning or architecture, but for an interested local resident like me it provided a plenty of detail and insight. |
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