Thomas Angotti

Angotti is fundamentally optimistic about the future of the metropolis, but takes issue with urban planning's inability to integrate urban and rural systems, its contribution to the growth of inequality, and the increase in enclave development throughout the world. Using the concept of 'urban orientalism' as a theoretical underpinning of modern urban planning grounded in global inequalities, Angotti provides new, progressive approaches to community and metropolis. The New Century of the Metropolis argues that only when the city is understood as a necessary and beneficial accompaniment to social progress can a progressive, humane approach to urban planning be developed. 

This collection of case studies by design educators critically explores the current practice of community-engaged learning in architecture, landscape design, and urban planning, radically revising the standard protocol for university-initiated design-build projects in the community. The authors' lively examination of real-life community alliances forms a pedagogical framework for design educators, offering guidelines for a generative and inclusive collaborative design process. Among the contributors are leading practitioners of service-learning in the design professions, including Daniel Winterbottom and Michael Rios. 

Remarkably, grassroots community planning flourishes in New York City—the self-proclaimed real estate capital of the world. Here, Tom Angotti tells the story of community planning in New York: how activists moved beyond the tactics of protests and instead began formulating community plans to protect neighborhoods against urban renewal, real estate mega-projects, gentrification, and more. After describing in general terms the political economy of New York City real estate, its close ties to global financial capital, and the roots of community planning in social movements, Angotti turns to specifics. He recalls the pioneering plans forged in reaction to the ambitions of urban renewal, including the city's very first in 1961, the Cooper Square Alternate Plan. Also detailed are struggles for environmental justice, such as battles over incinerators, sludge, and garbage; plans adopted officially by the city; and others dominated by powerful real-estate interests. Finally, Angotti offers strategies for progressive community planning useful to any neighborhood seeking to defend itself from market-driven development.