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Select Review and Reader Comments Since Publication “Have you ever wondered how to approach the rabid growth of unchecked corporate America’s ‘Big Box’ developers as they peruse your community and look ravenously at your cherished open spaces? Do you live in a town where the most progressive notion of land use planning is the granting of variances in the local building codes and zoning laws? Have you had quite enough of old boy economics, unaccountable public officials and pretzel-patterned public-input provisions? Have you ever asked yourself, ‘Well, how do I work this?’ Citizen activists can rest easy--but never for long. David Porter and Chet Mirsky have written the bible on the subject. Megamall on the Hudson belongs in every citizen activist’s library. . . . [The book] provides a comprehensive catalogue of methodologies dealing with both local participatory applications (the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act, or SEQRA) and national ones (NEPA) that will instruct and direct anyone involved in a similar process.. . . Where the long-range well being of a community is at risk, Porter and Mirsky’s book must be considered a seminal work. It is as much a citizen’s bible as it is a developer’s nightmare.” --Green Times (Spring 2003)
“This is a fascinating, long, detailed book about the fight against a
Wal-Mart . . . . . . . [The] discussion of dealing with a town planning
board, local home rule philosophy, different development ideas, and the
political context to it all is very useful and eye-opening. . . . Must
reading. There's a lot about democracy, not just about stopping
development. The big picture and the small.”
“The book gives a lengthy insider’s view of how a community
grassroots organization forms around a specific issue--here the development
of land for commercial use--and gives a good basic look at both legal and
community aspects of land development. It is a fascinating chronicle of how
one community galvanized its resources to fight for its beliefs. . . . the
book chronicles an extremely interesting story and gives valuable
information for anyone involved in land-use planning issues . . . .”
“This is a very well-written, detailed and incredibly thorough book
about a successful effort by a group of activists and residents in a small
community in New York State to battle a proposed construction of Wal-Mart
in their rural town. The book explains in detail the legal and practical
aspects of the environmental review process in New York State. It also
explains legal and theoretical bases for appropriate and planned economic
growth in a rural community. The book would be useful for community
activists and environmentalists in any state that has similar statutes as
SEQRA in NY State. I am thoroughly enjoying reading this book.”
“This book constitutes a detailed example of local mobilization that
effectively used a thorough understanding of the formal procedural
framework to successfully protect important community priorities and values
and, in fact, the community’s vision of itself.” “The changing face of the Hudson Valley is addressed in the challenging and enlightening new book, Megamall on the Hudson: Planning, Wal-Mart and Grassroots Resistance . . .Did they succeed in their efforts in their efforts to stop Wal-Mart? [The book] . . . not only provides the answer to that question, but also details the long-term struggle of those opposing the mall. In a more general way, the book analyzes the nature of regulatory politics and assesses the many obstacles to meaningful participatory democracy that are often found in our government today.” --Times Herald-Record (Middletown, NY), 1/19/03
“[This book is] a rather unusual hybrid, comprised of a well-researched
academic treatise on public participation in land-use planning and a deeply
felt diary of the difficulties and frustrations of grassroots engagement
with bureaucracy and the forces of big business. . . . The book serves
clearly to highlight the very practical problems faced by communities
attempting to turn the rights to participation as they appear on paper into
meaningful rights of participation in practice. . . . The scenario examined
also provides an interesting and topical opportunity to examine the tension
between traditional hierarchical and technocratic decision-making processes
and often-controversial values of community-based bottom-up
decision-making. The frequent mismatch between the conflicting values
expressed in these systems is one of the most interesting features of this
book and one that has a resonance that extends far beyond its immediate
factual context. . . . The labyrinthine workings of the local political
system played a hugely influential role in the broader context underpinning
the land-use planning decision-making process in the Ashbury mall
application. . . . If nothing else this serves to demonstrate that the
theoretical lines between administrative decision-making and politics pure
and simple can be almost infinitely blurred in practice. . . . The authors
have taken great pains to lay the structure of the book out clearly enough
to enable readers to dip in and out of the text in a way that will enable
them to pursue their own particular interests in a reasonably focused
fashion. The book also benefits from an exhaustive and diverse bibliography
that provides an extremely useful resource for anyone dealing with public
participation in environmental decision-making processes. . . . The story
of the Ashbury mall proposal and community opposition to it will surely
strike a chord with many, as the issues raised by out of town development
continue to generate controversy throughout the developed world. The
challenge to take personal responsibility for using hard-won professional
expertise for the greater good of the community as a whole that chimes
through the book is also
“Readers will find many important themes for impact assessment
revealed through the case study. . . . [T]he story has many of the
ingredients of a John Grisham novel, a small town community, great
characters, page-turning plot, big business and many legal maneuverings . .
. . . . . The book is also of definite interest to professionals involved
in planning and impact assessment or retail development and in urban
environmental management more generally. Urban sociologists and political
economists will also find much in this case study.”
"The authors provide critical reflection on the role of
ideology, knowledge, control and resistance in what, on the surface,
appeared to be a democratic model of local participatory planning. . . .
The authors challenge the reader to think beyond traditional land-use
planning board arrangements as a way to involve local people in the
land-use planning, in a way that can address greater collective goals and
interests. . . . This book would be appropriate reading for an
undergraduate or graduate course in urban planning, community development,
environmental or community sociology, human geography, and in political
science courses |