Street Reclaiming
a review by Ron Mader

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Subtitled "Creating Liveable Streets and Vibrant Communities" this New Society Publishers book is an invitation to make things better better in urban environments. Author David Engwicht asks what it would be like if your street had 50 percent less traffic.

If just a handful of the ideas presented in Street Reclaiming could be implemented in large cities -- say Mexico City -- we would notice a radical change in behavior simply by applying the author's creative, inspiring and imaginative ideas.

Street Reclaiming is a clever, literate and beautiful primer on returning streets as the epicenter of community life instead of the noxious source of carbon dioxide and communal mistrust. The book provides design guidelines, a practical program "Six Weeks to Less Traffic" and a thoughtful essay on "taking stock on what has been stolen."

This is not a book about banishing cars. "The problem is not cars. The problem is too many cars going too fast," Engwicht explains.

He writes: "You want your street back. You want solutions. Not some pie-in-the-sky solutions but solutions that ordinary residents like you can implemente immediately."

Street Reclaiming delivers such alternatives. Kudos! Readers should also bookmark the author's website http://www.lesstraffic.com

Excerpts from Coming Back to Life:

For centuries, people have felt that the street in front of their house was an important part of their home territory. "Home" was not just the dwelling in which they ate, slept, and procreated. "Home" embraced the street on which people lived, the marketplace, the street leading to the marketplace, the landmarks, the public buildings, and dozens of special places.

We live in a world of increasing mobilization and globalization. Our streets have been widened to accomodate the extra mobility. They become like every other clogged traffic artery anywhere else in the world. Residents move out and international burger franchises move in. Our neighborhood begins to lose its distinctive feel and becomes part of global culture.

The success of any street reclaiming will be judged by how well it helps integrate those who are most easily marginalized in society.

Long-term, I am an advocate of building telecommute cottages in every neighborhood. It worries me that the trend for people to work from home via computer further weakens social contact and social networks. Telecommute cottages should combine the latest telecommunications and office machine facilities with other community facilities such as a coffee shop, child-care, library, or home delivery depot. In this way the telecommute cottage can become a centre for the revitalisation of neighborhood life.

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Ron Mader lives in Mexico City and travels frequently throughout the Americas. He hosts the award-winning Planeta.com website -- http://www.planeta.com -- and is the author of the Mexico: Adventures in Nature guidebook and the Exploring Ecotourism in the Americas resource guide.

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