The Hub's Metropolis: From Railroad Suburbs to Smart Growth

In this examination of the evolution of America's oldest large city, Greater Boston's 200- year evolution is broken into nine stages. O'Connell, a National Park Service planner (Becoming Cape Cod), has a dual purpose: presenting a history of the area's planning and development, and suggesting points of interest to experience firsthand this development arc. From the "Village Improvement Societies" of the early 20th century to post-1970s suburban "planned communities", wealthier areas often aimed for a "classic New England village center" aesthetic, which oddly combines a mishmash of styles from different eras, from Colonial Revival to Cape Cod. Taking a neutral view, O'Connell identifies the exclusionary verbiage and tactics that have long been the dark underbelly of urban planning, including zoning restrictions on two-family homes in tony suburbs of the 1920s to modern NIMBYism that blocks bike trails and windmills. The impact of both the automobile and public transit is evident here: the former for its role in post-WWII suburbanization and the latter for spurring growth outside Boston proper in the late 19th and early 20th as well as compact, modern development. O'Connell's combined history and sightseeing guide offers a distinctive, if dry, take on a multifaceted urban region. 60 b&w photos. (Mar.)