Neighborhoods decline when the people who live there lose their connection and no longer feel part of their community. Recapturing that sense of belonging and pride of place can be as simple as planting a civic garden or placing some benches in a park.

The Great Neighborhood Book explains how most struggling communities can be revived, not by vast infusions of cash, not by government, but by the people who live there. The author addresses such challenges as traffic control, crime, comfort and safety, and developing economic vitality. Using a technique called "placemaking"-- the process of transforming public space -- this exciting guide offers inspiring real-life examples that show the magic that happens when individuals take small steps, and motivate others to make change.

This book will motivate not only neighborhood activists and concerned citizens but also urban planners, developers and policy-makers.

These are not the "visionaries" usually lauded in the major media, who tell us how the world of tomorrow will be shaped overwhelmingly by globalization, new technology, and market economics. Coming from monasteries and urban ghettos, working at architecture firms and restaurants, living in Berkeley and Bangladesh, being under 35 and over 80, the visionaries in this book share one crucial asset: hope for the future. Hope for finding broader meaning and greater joy in our lives. Hope for the restoration of the planet. Hope for a social and economic order that uses the welfare of the weakest, not the strongest, as its gauge of success.

Well-illustrated with photographs of the subjects who are grouped into six categories - spirit, design, environment, social action, health, and culture - Visionaries is an inspiring and invaluable resource that will have profound appeal for activists, concerned citizens and all those "cultural creatives" who make up Utne's 600,000 loyal readers.