Name: Nathan Griffin's review of City on the Verge by Mark Pendergrast
Item: City on the Verge
Rating: 3
Author: Nathan Griffin

Mark Pendergrast

What we can learn from Atlanta's struggle to reinvent itself in the 21st Century Atlanta is on the verge of tremendous rebirth-or inexorable decline. A kind of Petri dish for cities struggling to reinvent themselves, Atlanta has the highest income inequality in the country, gridlocked highways, suburban sprawl, and a history of racial injustice. Yet it is also an energetic, brash young city that prides itself on pragmatic solutions. Today, the most promising catalyst for the city's rebirth is the BeltLine, which the New York Times described as "a staggeringly ambitious engine of urban revitalization." A long-term project that is cutting through forty-five neighborhoods ranging from affluent to impoverished, the BeltLine will complete a twenty-two-mile loop encircling downtown, transforming a massive ring of mostly defunct railways into a series of stunning parks connected by trails and streetcars. Acclaimed author Mark Pendergrast presents a deeply researched, multi-faceted, up-to-the-minute history of the biggest city in America's Southeast, using the BeltLine saga to explore issues of race, education, public health, transportation, business, philanthropy, urban planning, religion, politics, and community. An inspiring narrative of ordinary Americans taking charge of their local communities, City of the Verge provides a model for how cities across the country can reinvent themselves.

Atlanta and the Fight for America's Urban Future

City on the Verge

Nathan Griffin

The most interesting part about this book is that it sheds light on how a civic project like the BeltLine actually gets done. Its easy to have a narrative of developers vs. the city in projects like the BeltLine, but this book does a pretty good job of showing both parties are needed to effectively move the project forward

HOWEVER

1) If you don’t live in Atlanta, or don’t care about the goings-on in Atlanta you won’t care about the content of this book, yet there is a large chunk that basically goes through a high-level overview of each neighborhood the BeltLine goes through / will go through...which is pretty boring for anybody remotely familiar with Atlanta

2) The BeltLine is just one (albeit the largest and probably most significant) public works project going on in Atlanta yet the book at times frames it like the overall long term success of the city hinges on the project. Which I don’t think is true

Overall recommend if you’re looking for an interesting history on the BeltLine and its future

Nathan Griffin &
City on the Verge by Mark Pendergrast

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Nathan Griffin &City on the Verge by Mark Pendergrast

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Nathan Griffin &
City on the Verge by Mark Pendergrast