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.