Small Town / Big Town

A professor of urban studies retires
and moves from Los Angeles to San Luis Obispo, a university
town on the central coast of California. New friends get him
embroiled in local issues of city growth and development,
and he becomes a contributor to a "Greenview" column in the
main city/county newspaper. What began as a lark turns into
a fourteen year broadside against rampant growth and
environmental degradation, often serious, but sometimes
bordering on the hilarious and the heretical.

Winn's views and arguments favor sustainability, slower and
more balanced growth, protection of the downtown, a greener
view of life and planning and sensible paths to
redevelopment -- that are not much appreciated by the powers
that be. But even his critics have to admit that his
arguments for more far-reaching thinking and truly
innovative education of the public are usually intriguing
and practical.

WHY DO WE LOVE THE CITY, BUT DO SO
MANY THINGS TO BREAK ITS HEART?

SMALL TOWN/BIG
TOWN: Growing Pains on California's Central Coast aims at
challenging your perspectives on a wide range of urban
issues and environmental, political and educational topics,
while needling the reader's interests and sense of humor and
outrage.

FROM JIM PATTERSON, SUPERVISOR, SAN LUIS
OBISPO COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:

"Ira Winn
speaks authoritatively to the challenges and complexities of
building livable communities. In SMALL TOWN / BIG TOWN, he
exposes the falsehoods of big-box development being the
panacea for revenue shortfalls plaguing cities and counties
throughout the nation. Environmental degradation, loss of
farmland, lack of affordable housing, urban sprawl and
declining services are all symptoms of the business-as-usual
growth model. Ira not only tells us why we must change this
pattern, but offers insights on how to do it.