By the 1970s, 42nd Street in New York was widely perceived to be unsafe, a neighborhood thought to be populated largely by drug dealers, porn shops, and muggers. But in 1979, civic leaders developed a long-term vision for revitalizing one especially blighted block, Bryant Park. The reopening of the park in the 1990s helped inject new vitality into midtown Manhattan and served as a model for many other downtown revitalization projects. So what about urban policy can we learn from Bryant Park?

In this new book, Andrew M. Manshel draws from both urbanist theory and his first-hand experiences as a urban public space developer and manager who worked on Bryant Park and later applied its strategies to an equally successful redevelopment project in a very different New York neighborhood: Jamaica, Queens. He candidly describes what does (and doesn’t) work when coordinating urban redevelopment projects, giving special attention to each of the many details that must be carefully observed and balanced, from encouraging economic development to fostering creative communities to delivering appropriate services to the homeless. Learning from Bryant Park is thus essential reading for anyone who cares about giving new energy to downtowns and public spaces.

For ten years Andrew M. Manshel was associate director and counsel at the Bryant Park Restoration Corporation (conceptualizing and successfully implementing many of its most noted programs including its performances, the film series and the construction and leasing of the Bryant Park Grill) and general counsel and director of Public Amenities to the Grand Central and 34th Street Partnerships (where he created the horticulture, street vendor and newsrack programs). Later, he became executive vice president of Greater Jamaica Development, in Jamaica, Queens. Mr. Manshel blogs about downtown and public space revitalization at theplacemaster.com. He is a long-time director and the treasurer of Project for Public Spaces, Inc. He holds Juris Doctor and Master of Business Administration degrees from New York University and a BA in Government from Oberlin College.

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— The America Trends podcast

— Rudy Washington, former NYC Deputy Mayor

— The Metropole

— Public Square

— The American Conservative

— Metropolis Magazine

— CityLand

— The American Downtown Revitalization Review

— Gothamist

— Michele H. Bogart, Stony Brook University

— Planetizen

— CityLaw

— The New Criterion

— Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class

— Cynthia Nikitin

— Oberlin Alumni Magazine

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— Rein Reports

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— The New Criterion - The Critic's Notebook

— Planners Library

— The Frankie Boyer Show

— Justin Davidson, Pulitzer prize-winning architecture and music critic, New York Magazine

— City Journal