The following review is by Joe Toscano in the Anarchist Age Weekly Review No 388, 21 Feb - 27 Feb, 2000, Melbourne.

STREET RECLAIMING
Creating Livable Streets and Vibrant, Communities, David ENGWICHT, New Society Publishers 1999, ISBN 0-86571-404-5

"We must learn how to honour children - and the elderly in the building of our cities and streets" - David Engwicht.

David Engwicht used the experiences he gained during a three year campaign to stop the widening of a street he lived on in Brisbane in 1987, to put together this manual on how to reclaim your street. Ever wondered why every street we live in, is a potential death trap? Ever wondered how the explosion of public transport has made us prisoners in the very streets we live in? If you have, this is the book for you.

In this two hundred page manual, David patiently explains how people can reclaim their streets in the here and now without pushing the problem into somebodies else back yard. This is a very simple practical guide beautifully illustrated with a heap of simple line drawings. Reading the book, itıs easy to see why it took the author over four years to put this manual together. If youıre interested in theory and dream about "The revolution", donıt bother to pick up this little gem.

If youıre a practical type who wants to eat pie in the sky now, not when youıre dead, this is the book for you. Engwicht methodically and patiently goes through the steps that need to be taken to turn an isolated privatised car culture into a culture that reclaims the living space that has been stolen from us by an ever expanding car mentality.

This book isnıt one of those books you read and file away, it has the potential to be much more. As the book went to press, David and a number of other residents in Brisbane have formed the first chapter of the Street Reclaimers Movement. Information about how you can form your own chapter of Street Reclaimers can be gained by writing to David Engwicht P.O. Box 12816 SAN LUIS OBISPO CA 93406 U.S.A. or logging onto www.lesstraffic.com

Copies of Street Reclaiming can be obtained from Anarres Books. Order your book via snail mail P.O. Box 150 EAST BRUNSWICK 3057 Melbourne AUSTRALIA or email your order to mailorder@anarres.org.au.

Want to look at other interesting titles, then write to them for their 2000 catalogue or have a look at their web site www.anarres.org.au