Vacant Land: Books

To access these eBooks, click on book title and log on with PHS membership number.

To access these eBooks, click on book title and log on with PHS membership number.

To access these eBooks, click on book title and log on with PHS membership number.

This report was developed out of a series of documents on urban vacant land by one of the leading groups in the country dealing with this issue: the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, which also supported the color printing in this report. Part 1 of the report addresses the challenges to urban vitality presented by vacant land; vacant land as a neighborhood resource; large-scale greening systems; and the link between urban renewal and sprawl. Part 2 provides an in-depth look at some PHS programs, including the rebirth of the New Kensington Philadelphia neighborhood and the Green City Strategy employed by the City of Philadelphia. An appendix provides a list of contacts to the many community development corporations active in the area of urban greening.

Contents: Shrinking cities -- Detroit today -- Potential and problems in urban agriculture -- Road diets and roundabouts -- Healing a wounded landscape -- Filling the vacancy -- Revving the urban economic engine -- The best idea Detroit’s never tried -- Who governs? -- The way forward.

Partial contents:The different contexts of vacant urban land -- Cities and vacant land: data and a model -- City policymaking: exploring the land-tax dynamic -- The social value of vacant land -- The development potential of vacant land -- Strategic uses of vacant land.