^that's kind of what I imagined.
Do you mean it might incorporate in the future? Is there a thread on that?
Do you mean it might incorporate in the future? Is there a thread on that?
Anyone have knowledge of any good books on the importance, workings, and/or new push for local/urban entrepreneurship?
I'm reading a very interesting book I picked up at the St. Louis Public Library called Green Metropolis by David Owen. It speaks a lot about cities that have perceptions of being dirty, but in actuality due to their density, public transportation, and smaller footprints leave a much smaller carbon footprint / person than anywhere else. It talks about oil prices, LEED certification and other topics. A very easy read and extremely informative. Makes me smile a bit more that I use public transportation to get to work instead of driving.
The Just City - Susan Fainstein
Social Justice and the City - David Harvey
Social Justice and the City - David Harvey
I really enjoyed Common Ground in a Liquid City by Matt Hern. He's an anarchist/community activist type, but not the dry, uptight ideologue that description might conjure. The book examines what makes various cities around the world work, or not, with Hern's hometown of Vancouver acting as the foil for comparison.
While there's nothing specifically about St. Louis in the book, it's a very engaging, enjoyable read that shouldn't fail to provoke thought in anyone on this forum. I particularly appreciate how Hern doesn't let his mistrust of high-level, developer-driven new urbanism turn him off to the pleasures of city life.
While there's nothing specifically about St. Louis in the book, it's a very engaging, enjoyable read that shouldn't fail to provoke thought in anyone on this forum. I particularly appreciate how Hern doesn't let his mistrust of high-level, developer-driven new urbanism turn him off to the pleasures of city life.
OK, I just finished A Universe Less Travelled, by Eric von Schrader. For a first-time novelist, it's surprisingly well written. Not great literature or high art, of course, but much better than lots of today's popular fiction. It's got an easy, natural flow.
Basically, two very different versions of St. Louis split apart sometime after 1904. One is the city we know today, and the other is a much more prosperous, booming, world-class city. They both exist in the same time, but in "parallel universes". The actual plot doesn't really matter, as it's just a device to explore these different variations of St. Louis.
Some of the areas featured include the Southside National Bank Building, Gravois Blvd. (with an emphasis on Boulevard), South Grand, Tower Grove Park, the Pelican Restaurant, Forest Park, the CWE, Holy Corners, Lindell, Grand Center/Midtown, the VA Hospital, Enright, Downtown, the Riverfront, Eads Bridge, East St. Louis, Cahokia, Crestwood, and Chesterfield. The Arch is featured, of course, but it doesn't exist in the "other" St. Louis; rather, most of the old Riverfront buildings still remain, mixed in with newer mid and high-rise buildings.
Local people and institutions range from The Veiled Profit Organization to Steve Mizerany (with names changed, of course).
Anyway, it's a fun read for anyone fond of St. Louis.
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Basically, two very different versions of St. Louis split apart sometime after 1904. One is the city we know today, and the other is a much more prosperous, booming, world-class city. They both exist in the same time, but in "parallel universes". The actual plot doesn't really matter, as it's just a device to explore these different variations of St. Louis.
Some of the areas featured include the Southside National Bank Building, Gravois Blvd. (with an emphasis on Boulevard), South Grand, Tower Grove Park, the Pelican Restaurant, Forest Park, the CWE, Holy Corners, Lindell, Grand Center/Midtown, the VA Hospital, Enright, Downtown, the Riverfront, Eads Bridge, East St. Louis, Cahokia, Crestwood, and Chesterfield. The Arch is featured, of course, but it doesn't exist in the "other" St. Louis; rather, most of the old Riverfront buildings still remain, mixed in with newer mid and high-rise buildings.
Local people and institutions range from The Veiled Profit Organization to Steve Mizerany (with names changed, of course).
Anyway, it's a fun read for anyone fond of St. Louis.
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I've been meaning to get around to reading that, looks really interesting. STL on the Air had a nice interview with the author a while back.
Does anyone know if those are real buildings (from some large Asian city presumably) or just a fictional skyline?
Looks like Dubai to me. In particular, Business Baykipfilet wrote:Does anyone know if those are real buildings (from some large Asian city presumably) or just a fictional skyline?
Speaking of novels set in St. Louis, has anyone read the 27th City by Franzen?
It’s next on my list after I wrap up the Power Broker (an amazing book in its own right if you like big urban cities).
It’s next on my list after I wrap up the Power Broker (an amazing book in its own right if you like big urban cities).
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I have not. I am about to read The Broken Heart of America by Walter Johnson.
Nice to see this thread revived. So many new books have been released since the last post. Some of the latest additions to my coffee table include:
Southampton St. Louis: An unconventional History, edited by Tim Fox
Renaissance: A History of the Central West End, by Candace O'Connor
Great River City: How the Mississippi Shaped St. Louis, by Andrew Wanko
Capturing the City: Photographs From the Streets of St. Louis, 1900 - 1930, by Heathcott and Dietz
The Lost St. Louis Riverfront, by Thomas Grady
Downtown St. Louis, by Nini Harris
BTW, here's another thread on STL books, last post 2008: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6422
Southampton St. Louis: An unconventional History, edited by Tim Fox
Renaissance: A History of the Central West End, by Candace O'Connor
Great River City: How the Mississippi Shaped St. Louis, by Andrew Wanko
Capturing the City: Photographs From the Streets of St. Louis, 1900 - 1930, by Heathcott and Dietz
The Lost St. Louis Riverfront, by Thomas Grady
Downtown St. Louis, by Nini Harris
BTW, here's another thread on STL books, last post 2008: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6422
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it's been sitting on my bookshelf for a few years now but the reading of it has not happened yet.sc4mayor wrote: ↑Jan 02, 2021Speaking of novels set in St. Louis, has anyone read the 27th City by Franzen?
^ That's literally my exact situation lol.
I've been working on the Power Broker for months now...absolutely fascinating read, hard to put down once I pick it up...would just help if I picked it up more than once a month.
The Twenty-Seventh City sounds like it would have some very interesting and broad parallels to St. Louis' current situation with regards to policing the city and county, mergers, "suspicious and distrustful" business elites and politicos, etc.
I've been working on the Power Broker for months now...absolutely fascinating read, hard to put down once I pick it up...would just help if I picked it up more than once a month.
The Twenty-Seventh City sounds like it would have some very interesting and broad parallels to St. Louis' current situation with regards to policing the city and county, mergers, "suspicious and distrustful" business elites and politicos, etc.
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While St. Louis isn't mentioned by name I loved finding the botanical garden in space in Anne Leckie's Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Mercy.
symphonicpoet wrote: ↑Jan 03, 2021While St. Louis isn't mentioned by name I loved finding the botanical garden in space in Anne Leckie's Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Mercy.
I've been trying to learn new languages over the past decade or so and came across this book in the process. It's entirely about St. Louis (primarily) and Missouri (to a much lesser extent). To my knowledge, this book is only available in Dutch.
The title ("Americans Don't Walk") is indicative of the content, but it's more about the poverty, culture, and racial divide in St. Louis. The author is fair - he did meet friends here and has a fondness for certain things about the city, such as Forest Park - but it is not at all a pretty picture of the city and its suburbs (He rented his first house in one of the diminutive N. County municipalities). He was here, and the book was published, after the Ferguson riots. So it's relatively new.
https://amzn.to/3rOEVe3
There's an interview in English with the author here: https://www.john-adams.nl/interview-arjen-van-veelen/
The title ("Americans Don't Walk") is indicative of the content, but it's more about the poverty, culture, and racial divide in St. Louis. The author is fair - he did meet friends here and has a fondness for certain things about the city, such as Forest Park - but it is not at all a pretty picture of the city and its suburbs (He rented his first house in one of the diminutive N. County municipalities). He was here, and the book was published, after the Ferguson riots. So it's relatively new.
https://amzn.to/3rOEVe3
There's an interview in English with the author here: https://www.john-adams.nl/interview-arjen-van-veelen/
Hot off the presses:
Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age
In Four Lost Cities, acclaimed science journalist Annalee Newitz takes readers on an entertaining and mind-bending adventure into the deep history of urban life. Investigating across the centuries and around the world, Newitz explores the rise and fall of four ancient cities, each the center of a sophisticated civilization: the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in Central Turkey, the Roman vacation town of Pompeii on Italy’s southern coast, the medieval megacity of Angkor in Cambodia, and the indigenous metropolis Cahokia, which stood beside the Mississippi River where East St. Louis is today.
https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393652666
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Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age
In Four Lost Cities, acclaimed science journalist Annalee Newitz takes readers on an entertaining and mind-bending adventure into the deep history of urban life. Investigating across the centuries and around the world, Newitz explores the rise and fall of four ancient cities, each the center of a sophisticated civilization: the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in Central Turkey, the Roman vacation town of Pompeii on Italy’s southern coast, the medieval megacity of Angkor in Cambodia, and the indigenous metropolis Cahokia, which stood beside the Mississippi River where East St. Louis is today.
https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393652666
^premise reminds me of the excellent "Vanished Kingdoms", a collection of histories of countries that while relevant during their time have largely been forgotten in the modern day: https://www.amazon.com/Vanished-Kingdom ... 0143122959
Just picked up this awesome coffee-table book on local architect William Bernoudy. Fantastic book; can't praise it enough:
https://www.amazon.com/William-Adair-Be ... 0826212247
https://www.amazon.com/William-Adair-Be ... 0826212247
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One of the best: Architecture of the Private Streets of St. Louis: The Architects and the Houses They Designed
https://www.amazon.com/Architecture-Private-Streets-St-Louis/dp/0826204856/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Architecture+of+the+Private+Streets+of+St.+Louis%3A+The+Architects+and+the+Houses+They+Designed&link_code=qs&qid=1644504822&sourceid=Mozilla-search&sr=8-1
https://www.amazon.com/Architecture-Private-Streets-St-Louis/dp/0826204856/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Architecture+of+the+Private+Streets+of+St.+Louis%3A+The+Architects+and+the+Houses+They+Designed&link_code=qs&qid=1644504822&sourceid=Mozilla-search&sr=8-1