Megamall on the Hudson: Planning, Wal-Mart and Grassroots Resistance

Rating:
Summary: A Must For Your Activist/Social Change Resource Shelf
Review: At one time or another, all communities are likely to face attempts by powerful outside interests to contest the course of future community development. This book constitutes a detailed example of local mobilization that effectively used a thorough understanding of the formal procedural framework to successfully protect important community priorities and values and, in fact, the community's vision of itself.

Rating:
Summary: Well-written, detailed story about community activism
Review: This is a very well-written, detailed and incredibly thorough book about a successful effort by a group of activists and residents in a small community in New York State to battle a proposed construction of Wal-mart in their rural town. The book explains in detail the legal and practical aspects of the environmental review process in New YOrk State. It also explains legal and theoretical bases for appropriate and planned economic growth in a rural community. The book would be useful for community activists and environmentalists in any state that has similar statutes as SEQRA in NY State. I am thoroughly enjoying reading this book.