Streetlife

Our street-level economy is undergoing dramatic change. Retailers are reeling from the rise of e-commerce, rising rents, and increasing storefront vacancies, along with a cultural shift from material to experiential consumerism. Today, the COVID-19 pandemic is contributing to economic upheaval as commercial corridors and the small businesses they house face sweeping closures, bankruptcy, and job losses.

Streetlife brings together scholars who have been trying to make sense of the changing retail landscape at street level and what it means for urbanism’s future. Streetlife pays special attention to the varied responses and policies that have emerged to address the competing realities of small business loss and neighbourhood needs. With case studies from the United States, as well as contributions covering Canada and Europe, this book demystifies the logic behind street-level urban retail and calls for better plans, designs, policies, and innovations to bolster sales.

Streetlife shows that now, more than ever before, we need to understand what makes our storefronts tick, what awaits them, and what we can do as planners, designers, developers, entrepreneurs, and policymakers to maintain retail as integral to urban lifestyle.

Streetlife reflects on the purpose, value, and meaning of our long valued but often taken for granted urban storefronts.

• Imprint: University of Toronto Press
• Published: December 2022
• Pages: 368

• epub: 9781487535643
• pdf: 9781487535636
• paperback: 9781487524814
• hardcover: 9781487507138

Conrad Kickert is an assistant professor in the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of Buffalo.

Emily Talen is a professor in the Social Sciences Division at the University of Chicago.

"Conrad Kickert, Emily Talen, and a group of interdisciplinary contributors bring together a timely and much-needed discussion of the future of urban retail. From shocks caused by e-commerce and COVID-19 to the gradually changing demographic realitiesand preferences for urban amenities, the book offers an indispensable compass for navigating not the demise but the twenty-first-century reorientation of urban street life."

Andres Sevtsuk, Associate Professor of Urban Science and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

"Even the heartiest of main streets have been challenged by a harsh mix of retail shifts, gentrification, the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and human foibles. This lovely volume offers us sound analysis and careful advice – main street lovers will find it just what they need to imagine a path forward!"

Mindy Thompson Fullilove, author of Main Street: How a City's Heart Connects Us All