Walking the Streets/Walking the Projects

A walk through the remnants of a social democratic America, and an argument about its future.

Walking the Streets/Walking the Projects is an insightful exploration of the remnants of a social democratic America and a thought-provoking argument about its future.

The book traces the rise of a 1960s urban ideology that celebrated bottom-up, organic city development while criticising state-led planning that resulted in lifeless, sterile "projects." Using walking as a method, the author tests these ideas across New York City, with a brief interlude in Washington, DC, examining a wide array of urban developments.

Key areas explored:
- Cultural complexes in Manhattan
- New Deal-era public housing in Brooklyn, Harlem, and Queens
- Roosevelt Island’s social experiment
- Communist housing co-operatives in the Bronx
- Union-led rebuilding of the Lower East Side
- DC's Metro system

By walking through these spaces, the book reveals that, despite their flaws, fragments of a more equal society were built in the past and continue to thrive today. Walking the Streets/Walking the Projects asks what lessons a new generation of American socialists might learn from these surviving social democratic enclaves as they envision a better future.