The great neighborhood book

This book is a delight. (It was published a couple months ago and a well-known online book company rushed it to me in, er, less than seven weeks. As my friend Tim Owen once wrote; it's no wonder carrier pigeons went out of business).

Jay Walljasper presents a wide range of positive aspects of neighbourhood life in short, digestible, well-illustrated chapters. His range of examples is broad - one of the strengths of PPS that I've always liked is that they recognise that there is life outside the USA, and they make an effort to find out about it. And the book sparkles with enthusiastic tips and suggestions for actions, little and large, that can be taken by residents. Chapters are rounded-off with a convenient short resource list.

If you're one of those who get put off by the relentlessly upbeat cheeriness of american neighbourhood involvement, it's true this one may not be for you. But it makes a good complement to the seminal Shaping neighbourhoods guide published in 2003.

The great neighborhood book: a do-it-yourself guide to placemaking, by Jay Walljasper, published by New Society for the Project for Public Spaces.