HOW DO WE CONFRONT OUR LOVE-HATE AFFAIR WITH CITIES? 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.

If you love oldies music, old cars, and good stories, you’ll love Small Town Big City: When Time Stood Still, a screenplay script. It is about the way it used to be in ’63. This nostalgic look back in time will take those who experienced it on a memorable journey to the times of simple living, old-fashioned ways, cool cars, good music, and teenagers trying to become adults, living for the moment and looking forward to tomorrow. Those who were born after 1963 can see and feel themselves in 1963. Back in the day, small-town people were usually outdated by the lifestyles of the big-city folks. They were kind of behind in the times, but they wouldn’t exchange it for the world to be a part of a close-knit community and for the love and commodity, which was priceless.

Curl up and escape to three charming small towns with this box set of bestselling reads! Three heartwarming stories to start your next binge-read, together for the first time. Featuring Snow Angel Cove, The Shop on Blossom Street and Sweet Dreams on Center Street (previously published as Better Than Chocolate). Snow Angel Cove, the first story in RaeAnne Thayne’s Haven Point Series Nothing short of a miracle can restore Eliza Hayward’s Christmas cheer. The job she pinned her dreams on has gone up in smoke—literally—and now she’s stuck in an unfamiliar, if breathtaking, small town. Rescuing Eliza is pure instinct for tech genius Aidan Cain and putting the renovation of his lakeside guest lodge in Eliza’s hands assuages his guilt—until he sees how quickly he could fall for her. Having focused solely on his business for years, he never knew what his life was missing before Eliza, but now he’s willing to risk his heart on a yuletide romance that could lead to forever. The Shop on Blossom Street, the start of Debbie Macomber’s Blossom Street series There’s a little yarn store in Seattle called A Good Yarn. For the owner, Lydia Hoffman, it represents her dream of a new start—life after cancer. Lydia teaches knitting to beginners, and three very different women join the first class. The lesson is to each make a baby blanket, though separately, creating this craft is a chore to be tackled, a gesture of reconciliation, or an act of hope. As the lives of these four women knit together, they make unexpected discoveries—about themselves and each other. Discoveries that lead to understanding and acceptance, to laughter and friendship. Sweet Dreams on Center Street, the first novel in Sheila Roberts’ Life in Icicle Falls series (Previously published as Better Than Chocolate.) Sweet Dreams Chocolate Company has been in the Sterling family for generations, ever since Great-Grandma Rose literally dreamed up her first fabulous recipe. But now it looks as if they’re about to lose Sweet Dreams to the bank—and that would be a disaster, not only for the family but for the small town of Icicle Falls, Washington. Can Samantha, the oldest daughter and new head of the company, come up with a way to save it? After some brainstorming, inspiration strikes. They’ll have a chocolate festival! Time’s running out, but the Sterling women are determined and the town’s behind them, so everything’s bound to go smoothly… Discover your next favorite series, and enjoy a break to small towns where everyone helps out and love is just around the corner.

How three New Hampshire women triumphed over an oil billionaire: “A very timely reminder that when we fight we often win.”—Bill McKibben Never underestimate the underdog. In 1973, Greek oil shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis—husband of President John F. Kennedy’s widow, Jacqueline, and arguably the richest man in the world—proposed to build an oil refinery on the narrow New Hampshire coast, in the town of Durham. At the time, it would have cost $600 million to build and was expected to generate 400,000 barrels of oil per day, making it the largest oil refinery in the world. The project was vigorously supported by the governor, Meldrim Thomson, and by William Loeb, the notorious publisher of the only statewide newspaper, the Manchester Union Leader. But three women vehemently opposed the project—Nancy Sandberg, the town leader who founded and headed Save Our Shores; Dudley Dudley, the freshman state rep who took the fight to the state legislature; and Phyllis Bennett, the publisher of the local newspaper that alerted the public to Onassis’ secret acquisition of the land. Small Town, Big Oil is the story of how the residents of Durham, led by these three women, out-organized, out-witted, and out-maneuvered the governor, the media, and the Onassis cartel to hand the powerful Greek billionaire the most humiliating defeat of his business career, and spare the New Hampshire seacoast from becoming an industrial wasteland. “Activists and organizers will find lots of ideas and inspirations in this book's detailed account of an epic battle.”—Bill McKibben “[An] apt handbook on the power of the people.”—Providence Journal

We tend to associate small town economic development with the decline of the rural United States--empty houses, shuttered shops and rusting factories. A common diagnosis of sluggish small town recovery is their lack of lifestyle amenities that attract new residents and businesses. Yet many small towns have shown progress and potential in recent years. This collection of recent articles by experts presents stories of small-town America's struggle and describes innovations and practices behind successful revivals.