Displaced by Tourists — A Review of “Gentrification Down the Shore”

May 19, 2021.Reading time 7 minutes.

Makris, Mary Vollman and Mary Gatta. Gentrification Down the Shore. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2020. Reviewed by David J. Goodwin During the virtual 2020 Democratic National Convention, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy stood in front of Asbury Park Convention Hall and pledged the state’s delegates to then-presidential candidate Joe Biden. Just an hour from […]

Cityscape Number 10: May 12, 2021

May 12, 2021.Reading time 18 minutes.

The Metropole’s listing of recent, forthcoming, or overlooked writing. Recent Books Ravenna: Capital of Empire, Crucible of EuropeBy Judith Herrin, Princeton University Press, 2020 O lone Ravenna! many a tale is toldOf thy great glories of the days of old;Two thousand years have passed since thou didst seeCaesar ride forth to royal victoryRavenna, Oscar Wilde […]

Tearing Down Misconceptions — A Review of “The Life and Death of Ancient Cities”

May 5, 2021.Reading time 11 minutes.

Woolf, Greg. The Life and Death of Ancient Cities: A Natural History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. Reviewed by Kathryn Grossman On December 21, 2020, then-President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled “Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture.” Stipulating that “classical architecture shall be the preferred and default architecture for Federal public buildings” in Washington, […]