I'm currently reading Pocket Neighborhoods: Creating Small-Scale Community in a Large Scale World (2011/Taunton Press) (book) (website) by Ross Chapin. The forward is by Sarah Susanka, author of The Not So Big House.

Pocket neighborhoods are clustered groups of neighboring houses or apartments gathered around a shared open space — a garden courtyard, a pedestrian street, a series of joined backyards, or a reclaimed alley — all of which have a clear sense of shared stewardship.

Scale: Pocket neighborhoods are about restoring small-scale communities. Recreating and revitalizing the neighborhood has long been the goal of community activists, many of whom are motivated specifically by the problem of isolation, which Pocket Neighborhoods talks a lot about, as well as by other social problems.


Pocket Neighborhoods is a beautiful 200 page book, almost coffee-table-book size, with full color pictures of what pocket neighborhoods look like on every page. As I read it I look forward to blogging about the high points and interesting concepts on a section-by-section basis.