Urban Alchemy: Restoring Joy in America's Sorted-Out Cities

by Mindy Thompson Fullilove

Mindy Thompson Fullilove presents ways to strengthen neighborhood connectivity and empower marginalized communities through investigation of urban segregation from a social heath perspective. "Fullilove passionately demonstrates how, through an urbanity of inclusion, we can heal our fractured cities to make them whole again.

What if divided neighborhoods were causing public health problems? What if a new approach to planning and design could tackle both the built environment and collective well-being at the same time? What if cities could help each other?
Dr. Mindy Thompson Fullilove, the acclaimed author of Root Shock, uses her unique perspective as a public health psychiatrist to explore and identify ways of healing social and spatial fractures simultaneously. Using the work of French urbanist Michel Cantal-Dupart and the American urban design firm Rothschild Doyno Collaborative as guides as well as urban restoration projects from France and the US as exemplary cases, Fullilove identifies nine tools that can mend our broken cities and reconnect our communities to make them whole.

Genres: Nonfiction, Cities, Urban Planning, Urban, Urban Studies, Social Justice, Urbanism

334 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Karen Kohoutek · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm adding this to my list of mind-expanding "must reads." A lot of times I'm dubious about nonfiction that has a memoir element, or when the expert brings in examples from their careers -- I've been burned by a lot of bad business books! -- but those aspects were well integrated, for a purpose, so that was fine. This is a look at the ways psychiatry, history, and urban planning and organization intersect, to look at how neighborhoods and cities have been devastated and ways they can heal. There are loads of important ideas, starting with the idea that to help a neighborhood, one has to look at the whole city, but also that it's hard to really see the issues of a neighborhood at street level. It's not sacrificing one perspective for another, but using them together to get an integrated picture.

Honestly, the whole book would be worth reading if only for the messages it has about the political history and use of the "blight" concept, and the reminders that places are important to people, that they all have meaning to someone, and that all human beings deserve dignity and autonomy. The pain of lost places and the devastated social fabric are real, and many people are legitimately wary of supposed improvement. (Much like how, in my town, every single change I've seen to any street, sidewalk, or crosswalk has been detrimental to pedestrians, so I can't view proposed new changes with a clean slate).

After reading this, I'm basically on fire with ideas about the relationship of communities (human connectedness) and physical space, from big things like how the segregation (the history of "de jure" and the current reality of "de facto") are hurting everyone, to little ones like "how inviting is the entrance to my workplace?" Highly recommended!

[Drick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a follow up to the author's book Root Shock, which looked at the psychological effects of urban removal and renewal. This book looks at how thru careful planning and community engagement these "sorted out cities" as she calls them can be renewed with a new sense of purpose and livability. Much of the book is a diary/recitation of her work with Fre3nch Urbanist Michel Cantal- Dupart. While she begins by saying "This book represents a psychiatrist's views on how to fix the American city" (p.1), it is more an example of how to put Cantal-Dupart's concepts of urban design to work in American city neighborhoods like Pittsburgh's HIll District, East Orange, and the Upper East side of Harlem, NYC, along with a great many examples of Cantal's work in French cities. While the stories are amazing filled with designs and picture to illustrate the concepts, at times the book gets a bit chatty like she is writing a long lost friend familiar with all the characters. Nonetheless it a worthy read.

[Naeema · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I read the the book, I could feel that Mindy was onto something groundbreaking. Anyone that has ever questioned why neighborhoods fall apart or why gentrification happens and wants to prevent it should read this book.

[BJ Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish I could remember who to thank for recommending Urban Alchemy. Although it draws together many threads, it's an easy to absorb, nontechnical read addressing the dysfunction and ill-health in cities. I suspect it is also applicable to other social spaces--Catholic parishes, perhaps?

Notes: Fullilove's prescription:
Keep the whole city in mind
Find out what you're for
Make a mark
Unpuzzle fractured spaces (restore the maze ways/re-knit 'weak ties')
Unslum all neighborhoods (everywhere has a right to be lovable)
Create meaningful places (start with memory; seek its intersection with reason and imagination)
Strengthen the region
Show solidarity with all (find the rivers!)
Celebrate your accomplishments

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so very, very glad I read this book. I love the imagination, the story process, the breadth of experience of this book. Over and over again I feel like I was on a process of discovery in this book. Discovery about my own community. Stirring my imagination about trusting what I notice in the city - how the flow and movement of the city goes. It is beautiful.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really useful information and insight into "restoring joy" in cities and neighborhoods that have been abandoned (the title is one of my favorite parts of the book). Her perspective is unique and valuable. But also a little rambling, and you could get most of the great/helpful content by skimming.

[Sandra Rodriguez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book with really great advice that i think a lot of people should listen to. It was a bit to follow the book (timeline wise) but other than that it was very informative.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Books that make you think are the best. Fullilove's book about how to address sorted-out cities with nine tenets. I expected to be entrenched in theory, science, psychology and sociology along with political, economic, and cultural craziness but instead, Fullilove's address of these points with anecdotes interspersed from her travels and studies is addressed poignantly and without confusing jargon or circuitously trying to "make a point" by flexing her understanding of this subject (as a comparison, I found The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness extremely hard to understand for me). She really demonstrates her want to spread this understanding by using pictures, examples, and stories to help others be able to unsort the cities.

[Faith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dr. Mindy Thompson Fullilove, the acclaimed author of Root Shock, uses her unique perspective as a public health psychiatrist to explore ways of healing social and spatial fractures simultaneously. Using the work of French urbanist Michel Cantal-Dupart and the American urban design firm Rothschild Doyno Collaborative as guides, Fullilove takes readers on a tour of successful collaborative interventions that repair cities and reconnect communities to make them whole.

Read with SpiritHouse citywide book study

[Josephine Ensign · Rating 2 out of 5]

While there are a few interesting stories in this book--and it is about a very important 'current event' topic--I found it seriously lacking in cohesiveness. It felt more like a series of speeches Fullilove has given over the years all jumbled together. And I really tired of her anecdotes of and over-the-top praise for the work of the French urbanist Michel Cantal-Dupart.

[JoLayne Morneau]

Currently reading for my class and loving it. The author is my prof. She and her book are absolutely fantastic!