The Living City

Gratz calls into question much urban development conducted today in the name of community renewal. ``The big money continues to pour . . . into the big, the overwhelming and the inappropriate,'' charges this former New York Post reporter. The rescue of vacant buildings in a 10-block area of the South Bronx, and the revitalization of Savannah, Ga., whose residents renovated the Victorian District without forcing out poor people, are examples of what Gratz calls ``urban husbandry''care and management of the built environmentposed here as an alternative to trickle-down policies. Gratz advises that ``thinking small in a big way works,'' and her useful, even inspiring book is filled with examples of successfully rebuilt cities and neighborhoods observed at first hand. Her case studies of defeated shopping-mall projects in Ithaca, N.Y., Burlington, Vt., and Pittsfield, Mass., dramatize the hidden costs of ``mega-change.'' This challenging report could become a bible for back-to-the-city and anti-gentrification movements. (Mar.)