NYC recommendations

Disclaimer: this is a list from 2006 and some of these places may not still exist so check their websites before you try.

New York Recommendations

Starting with some culture:

 

Galleries And Museums

 

Manhattan:

 

1. The Frick Collection
2. The Guggenheim
3. The Metropolitan Museum
4. The Neue Galerie
5. MOMA
6. The Cloisters
7. The Tenement Museum
8. The Eldridge Street synagogue

 

Brooklyn

 

1. The Brooklyn Museum
2. The Brooklyn Botanical Gardens
3. The Brooklyn Brewery (Williamsburg)

 

Queens

 

1. PS1 (where the MOMA decamped when they were rebuilding – this can have really good stuff and also can be really bad but worth it just for a look).

Also home to the Warm Up parties

http://www.ps1.org/ps1_site/content/view/274/102/

 

Upstate New York

 

1. The Storm King Art Center http://www.stormking.org/

This place is breathtaking. One hour bus ride from Port Authority in Manhattan – you buy the tickets at the station which include the entrance to the sculpture park.

Take your own food as there’s nothing there apart from sculptures and a small art center.

 

Bars, Clubs, Music Venues….

 

Manhattan:

 

1. APT – lounge bar in the Meatpacking District, doorpeople can be unbelievably bitchy at the weekend but during the week it’s cool
2. Cielo – opposite APT – beautiful club, great music but people are pretentious and drinks are very overpriced. Monday night is Francois K’s famous “Dub in Space” night –this is the best time to go.
3. Village Vanguard  – best Jazz club in NY by far
4. Shebeen – great little bar playing electronica in Nolita http://nymag.com/listings/bar/shebeen/
5. Element – decent club in the Lower East Side
6. Turntables on the Hudson – this is at various locations but usually a fairly fun night out
7. Body and Soul Parties – usually in the West Village – original NY disco and house parties – lots of fun but only once every few months
8. NuBlu – reggae and soul in Alphabet City
9. The Hiro Ballroom at the Maritime Hotel– beautiful room but all table service
10. French Tuesdays – Francophone night held in different locations every month – quite fun. http://www.frenchtuesdays.com/cities/ny/
11. Downstairs bar at the Bryant Park Hotel – very lovely hotel bar – good if you’re in Midtown and you don’t want to be stuck in an Irish Pub with loads of office workers
12. 230 Fifth – this has a completely random mix of people and bad music but an incredible view of the Manhattan skyline – definitely worth it for one drink at least.

 

Brooklyn:

 

(a)   Williamsburg

 

1. Triple Crown – HIP-HOP! They get great guests here – Grandmaster Flash, Jazzy Jay, Ali Shaheed Muhammed, Jeru, Rob Swift – it’s very chilled, cheap and a nice, mixed crowd
2. Bembe – the best mojitos, capetas and caiprinhas ever. The music is salsa and hip-hop and it is right underneath the Williamsburg bridge – very atmospheric.
3. Capone’s – buy a beer and get a free stone oven-baked pizza! Deal!
4. Galapagos – very arty bar, features in Jim Jarmusch’s Coffee and Cigarettes.
5. Spuyten Duyvil – hundred of types of beer, cider and wine and nice food – this was my “local” – open very late
6. Black Betty – have good bands here, and really nice Moroccan food
7. Barcade – a bar with arcade games – lots of fun!
8. Monkey Town – bar, cinema and restaurant – can be really pretentious but if there’s a good film or good band it is fun
9. Moto – a bit hard to find but worth the effort – this is a “speakeasy” style bar, next to the bridge, really interesting wandering around this area
10. Roebling Tea Room – this is the building I lived in so I loved it here! Teas and gorgeous food during the day, wine and music and gorgeous food in the evening.
11. Soundfix – above the record shop of the same name. Really good.
12. Studio B – proper club http://clubstudiob.com/
13. Zebulon – jazz club

 

(b)   Prospect Heights and Downtown Brooklyn

 

1. Flatbush Farm – this is a bar and a restaurant both of which are excellent. I really love this place.
2. Soda – cool bar, nice burgers
3. BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) – great venue – films, bars, music, plays etc.

 

 

Queens (disclaimer: I hardly ever went to Queens so I’m sure there are more places than this)

 

1. Water Taxi Beach – amazing views of Manhattan and good music.

 

Websites and mailing lists with details of parties etc.

 

1. www.flavorpill.net – weekly email with cultural stuff to do
2. www.nonsensenyc.net – same as above but more counter-cultural
3. www.dailycandy.com – I don’t like this site but it’s very popular in NYC
4. www.rooftopfilms.net (this is for a series of films, animations and gigs that goes on throughout the summer – the events are generally well attended and interesting
5. http://www.wolflambmusic.com/ – minimal techno producers who do warehouse parties in Brooklyn
6. http://www.turntablesonthehudson.com/
7. http://www.bodyandsoul-nyc.com/main.html -  best parties in NYC
8. www.curbed.com – I love this website – it’s all about real estate, weird goings-on and new things opening and closing
9. http://thepoolparties.com/ – Parties and gigs in the Mc Carren Pool in Williamsburg – a disused public pool – they have films there too
10. www.sheckys.com – Discounts, and details of free events in NY
11. www.moviefone.com – if you want to find out where a film is showing
12. http://www.summerstage.org/ – Central Park Summer Stage – free concerts in the park

 

Restaurants, Cafes, Cupcakes shops etc.

 

Manhattan (another disclaimer: there are SO many places to go in NY, these are just some of my favourites that I can remember)

 

Café Gitane  – this is my favourite place in the City. You have to have the avocado on seven grain toast. It is amazing. Cheap, cheerful and a nice scene. You can almost feel like you’re in Europe. (242 Mott Street, Nolita, Subway – 6 at Spring) http://www.menupages.com/restaurantdetails.asp?neighborhoodid=0&restaurantid=5220

 

Florent – the food is not out of this world but it’s open 24 hours and it’s really fun (69 Gansevoort Street, Meatpacking District) – CLOSED NOW…

http://www.restaurantflorent.com/

 

Balthazar –incredible for brunch and people-watching. You can basically just order a bread basket and some coffee and it will keep you happy for hours.

80 Spring Street, SoHo (6 to Spring)

http://www.balthazarny.com/

 

Prune – also incredible for brunch.

54 East 1^st Street (6 to Bleecker)

http://www.prunerestaurant.com/

 

Clinton Street Bakery – unbelievable for brunch – the pancakes with maple butter will make you weep with joy

4 Clinton Street between East Houston and Stanton (the Lower East Side)

      http://www.clintonstreetbaking.com/

 

Levain Bakery – all this place sells is 4 types of cookie – they are all amazing – the size of a fist and full of melting chocolate chips.

167 West 74^th Street (UWS)

http://www.levainbakery.com/home.html

 

City Bakery – lunch, breakfast and the best chocolate chip cookies you will ever have in your life, ever. Fantastic hot chocolate too that your spoon stands up in.

3 West 18^th Street

http://thecitybakery.com/index2.htm

 

Kanoyama – my favourite sushi place. Cheap but nice. I would go here at least once a week.

175 2^nd Avenue at 11^th Street

http://www.kanoyama.com/

 

Republic – kind of like Wagamama but as it’s in NY it’s much better and cheaper

This is on the West side of Union Square

http://thinknoodles.com/

 

Han Bat – Korean food – huge portions and delicious food.

53 West 35^th Street (between 5^th and 6^th)

http://www.menupages.com/restaurantdetails.asp?neighborhoodid=0&restaurantid=4096

 

Shanghai Café, Goodies, Joe’s Shanghai, New Green Bo and countless others for fantastic dimsum in Chinatown

 

Gennaro’s – Italian on UWS – have the antipasto platter – you won’t regret it. “Family-style” Italian i.e. go there with friends.

665 Amsterdam Avenue btw. 92^nd and 93^rd Streets

http://www.menupages.com/restaurantdetails.asp?areaid=3&restaurantid=864&neighborhoodid=0&cuisineid=42&home=Y

 

 

Brick Lane Curry House – does a very nice curry if you want one that isn’t completely crap like most of the curry places in NY – quite expensive though for NY

http://www.bricklanecurryhouse.com/

 

 

Una Pizza Napoletana – heavenly pizzas

349 East 12^th Street between 1^st and 2^nd Avenues

http://www.menupages.com/restaurantdetails.asp?areaid=0&restaurantid=6138&neighborhoodid=0&cuisineid=0

 

 

Otto – heavenly pizzas, pastas and olive-oil gelato – if you don’t have this then there’s something wrong with you

One Fifth Avenue

http://www.ottopizzeria.com/about_reservations.html

 

Momofuko and Momofuko Ssam – just writing the name makes me want to cry – ramen and amazing noodles, porky stuff and yum.

163 First Avenue and 10^th Street

http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/momofuku_noodle_bar/

 

Shake Shack – this place is legendary and hence has long queues. The burgers are fantastic – it is worth queueing if you’re not in a hurry.  Well known as the best burgers in NYC.

Madison Square Park

http://www.shakeshacknyc.com/

 

Tia Pol – very lovely Tapas Bar – food and wine are top-notch

205 12^th Avenue (Chelsea)

http://tiapol.com/

 

Pearl Oyster Bar – Oysters and Lobster Rolls

18 Cornelia Street (West Village)

http://www.pearloysterbar.com/

Max Brenner Chocolate Factory – chocolate desserts and chocolates and more chocolate. If you’re in Union Square and want to eat somewhere and have an enormous sweet tooth I would go here. And I did. Too often.

http://www.maxbrenner.com/

 

Sugar Sweet Sunshine – my favourite cupcakes in the City

126 Rivington Street (LES)

http://www.sugarsweetsunshine.com/

 

Café Zaiya – this is where I went for lunch every day at work – sushi, bentos, bakery stuff and hot food – all really nice, cheap and fresh. If you want to eat in Midtown I’d go here.

18 East 41^st Street between Madison and 5th

http://newyork.citysearch.com/profile/36248035/new_york_ny/cafe_zaiya.html

 

Dishes – the best deli in NY – you may not be able to control yourself in here.

6 East 45^th Between 5^th and 6^th                           

http://www.menupages.com/restaurantdetails.asp?areaid=0&neighborhoodid=0&cuisineid=6&restaurantid=10639

 

Kee’s Chocolates – if you like proper artisan chocolates this place is heaven – their crème brulee chocolates are addictive.

Thomspon Street (SoHo)

http://www.keeschocolates.com/

 

Jacques Torres Chocolate Heaven – just go there, don’t ask questions!

http://www.mrchocolate.com/

 

Angelika’s Kitchen – vegan food but tastes pretty good despite the lack of meat and butter. This is a proper NY experience. Each menu item is described by at least 15 words or you get a discount.

300 East 12^th btw. 1^st and 2^nd (East Village)

http://www.angelicakitchen.com/

 

WD-50 – very expensive but worth it for a special occasion. Molecular gastronomy. Tip: you can go there just for the dessert tasting menu which is $25 and mind-blowing.

50 Clinton Street (LES)

http://www.wd-50.com/

 

Holy Basil – lovely Thai food in the East Village

149 2^nd Ave btw 9^th and 10^th

http://www.menupages.com/restaurantdetails.asp?neighborhoodid=0&restaurantid=4908

 

Café Mogador – Morroccan food in the East Village. Lamb Tagine = good.

101 St. Marks Place (East Village)

http://www.cafemogador.com/

 

Hummous Place – really good and ridiculously cheap hummous and Israeli food

109 St. Mark’s Place (East Village)

http://www.hummusplace.com/

 

Rice – lots of different types of rice dishes from around the world. Really nice and inexpensive.

227 Mott Street (Nolita) 6 to Spring

http://www.riceny.com/

 

Pho Grand – so so cheap and delicious. $5 for a huge bowl of pho. Proper Chinatown experience.  

277 Grand St. at Forsyth

http://www.menupages.com/restaurantdetails.asp?neighborhoodid=0&restaurantid=2517

 

Doughnut Plant – these things are addictive so be careful. The nicest donuts I’ve ever eaten and I don’t even like doughnuts. The coconut cream filled one is my favourite.

379 Delancey Street (F to Grand) in the full-on Jewish Lower East Side.

You can walk over the Williamsburg Bridge to digest.

http://www.doughnutplant.com/

 

Brooklyn – Williamsburg

 

Egg – for brunch. This is always rated as one of the top 10 places to “brunch” in NYC. Loads of different egg dishes with a Southern style

135 North 5^th Street (L train to Bedford Ave)

http://events.nytimes.com/2005/10/14/dining/14jour.html?ex=1187496000&en=f4d92472aff2bebc&ei=5070

Dumont – great for dinner – proper American food and really tasty.

432 Union Avenue (L Train to Lorimer Ave)

http://www.dumontrestaurant.com/

 

Dressler – gorgeous room, fantastic food

http://www.dresslernyc.com/

 

Diner and Marlow and Sons – these are next to each other. Quite pretentious but worth it if you want cheap oysters and the “authentic” Williamsburg experience. Atmospheric.

http://www.freewilliamsburg.com/restaurants/archives/2005/03/_diner_1.html

      http://www.marlowandsons.com/

      Both just past Williamsburg Bridge (L train to Bedford or JMZ to Marcy)

 

Other general things:

 

Good supermarkets – Fairway is by far the best. Wholefoods is ok but overpriced. The Amish markets are good. I would avoid everywhere else.

 

Bed Bath and Beyond for duvets, bed-linen and anything you need for your flat if you can’t be arsed to make the trip to IKEA

 

Best Buy for electronic stuff

 

Record shops: Other Music, Soundfix in Williamsburg, Halycon in DUMBO, lots on St. Marks Square in the East Village

 

www.menupages.com if you want to see the menu for virtually anywhere in the City.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Living for the City

Driving in Golders Green is a very short way to becoming a virulent anti-semite even for a Jew.  There must be some stipulation in the driving test given to Orthodox Jews which says:

“Lift clutch, drive very slowly, stop for no reason, then put on hazard-lights, start again very slowly, stop, then indicate to the right but never actually move, keep driving slowly, very slowly, occasionally stopping and starting, until the person behind you has begun to hate your very being and would gladly get out of their car and stab you in the eye with a freshly-hewn javelin”

Okay, rant over.

I learnt how to play Beirut today! WOOOOOOOOOOOO! New ways to annoy the neighbours are always welcomed here. I’ve moved on from Gulag Orkestar now though and am firmly esconced in the Flying Club Cup which I actually think is better. I like the French influence more than the Balkan perhaps. It’s kind of Serge Gainsbourg-like. Anyway, I’m obsessed with Forks and Knives.

I’ve also very nearly decided on the job decision. I’m now veering away from the secure, well-paid option and into the insecure, less-well paid option. Yes, I’m mad. I’m also alarmingly persuasive even with myself. Which is good because it probably means I can persuade myself that I don’t mind eating marmite on toast for every meal for the pleasure of working for London. Yes, I’m going to be a public servant to my city. A city I love so much I even defend its miserably shitty weather to Americans who dare to compare it to a beautiful, sun-drenched city like New York.

Inclusive Cities

I’ve been thinking about this subject a lot recently. Namely – how is it possible to influence the intent of infrastructure projects in order to provide services that benefit the greatest amount of people rather than a select few? In Mumbai the evidence of regulatory capture by wealthy interest groups is striking: on the one hand the D-Ward ALM (Advanced Locality Management) pushed for the beautification scheme of Priyadarshani Park in Malabar Hill using ultra-expensive land reclamation to provide the space, on the other people in Dharavi (Asia’s biggest slum, located in the heart of the Island City) have little to no sanitation, pathways, electricity or clean water. It’s quite sickening. The Bandra-Worli Expresslink which has cost billions of rupees is a staggeringly inept project which benefits only the 1.5% of the population who drive and even then not so much since it is regularly proven that building roads and flyovers only increases, rather than decreases, congestion. Pathways and pavements used by 55% of the population to get to work (Mumbai has a very low “journey-to-work” time of approximately 23 minutes, mostly due to the informal slum network) are left to degrade and decay.

A lot of this is linked to the state of urban governance in Mumbai – the agency in control of the roads and flyovers is the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority controlled almost wholly by the State. They have no jurisdiction over the pavements or trains or buses which are controlled respectively by the Ward Committees, Indian National Government and Municipal Corporation. From our investigation for the Urban Age it seems that a lack of accountability to the city’s citizens creates unwanted and poor social outcomes, in addition the complexity in public service provision leads to massive coordination problems between agencies.

There is evidence that it is possible to have an urban governance that does create social welfare enhancing policies. Take Penalosa in Bogota, or even Ken with the Congestion Charge. However how much of this is dependent on a charismatic personality? How can you build into an urban governance structure and geography a potential for inclusivity? Is it ever possible to avoid regulatory capture?

A Tale of Two Cities

As the plane gradually made its descent towards Mumbai’s Chatrapati Shivaji Airport, my eyes were drawn to an intense array of lights outside the cabin window. Spread below us was a dense canopy of twinkling bulbs illuminating an organic mass of structures heaped on top of each other. Then: touchdown. They disappeared from sight.  

From street level, on the drive from the airport, they are drawn into clearer focus. This is the Santa Cruz slum housing some of the city’s 12 million inhabitants with no access to formal or legal housing. The dwellings press right up against the airport’s perimeter, obstructing plans to build a new runway to add to the single one that is currently South Asia’s busiest.  

One hour later after a drive in one of Mumbai’s famously psychedelic Fiat taxis, we are in Colaba in the downtown area of the city, still surrounded by poverty in the form of beggars and pavement dwellers but now also by five-star deluxe hotels, expensive restaurants and bars frequented by international financiers, Bollywood celebrities and the multitude of others who are attracted to the city’s booming economy.  

This is by no means a unique situation. Cities all over the world demonstrate stark inequalities between their richest and poorest inhabitants. Although in the developed world in many cases poverty is made invisible by pushing it to the peripheries of the cityspace the inequality remains. David Massey, the sociologist, has said we are now living in an urban “age of extremes.”  

The question is: what is it about the city that creates sustains and speeds up these extremes? This implies that there is something specific about urban agglomerations that although attracts a human mass at the same time divides and segregates them. To answer this we must view the city as a socio-spatial construct rather than as a mere container for human activity. By this we mean that the city’s spaces, inhabitants and infrastructure are vitally involved in its own development. In fact, Henry Lefebvre has stated that “the development of society is conceivable only in urban life, through the realization of urban society.”  

We must also look at the geohistory of the city – the way the city’s geography has changed over time – and how the most recent advances in ICT and their resultant effects on the city’s infrastructure has vitally changed the geography of the traditional pre-1960s city landscape.  Going back to Lefebvre’s statement it is important to digest and explain exactly what he means. The density of the urban agglomeration creates a stimulus to innovation which results in the creation of ideas, goods and processes that are more than the sum of what a similar number of individuals could create in a less dense, geographically dispersed space.  Jane Jacobs, the famous late twentieth century New York -based urban sociologist, called this the “spark of city economic life.”

The interdependencies created by this density also produce synergistic solutions.  However, it would be wrong to see this socio-spatial analysis of the city as fixed in time. The city’s geography has progressed in many ways since Lefebvre wrote his pioneering work “The Urban Revolution” in 1970. The postmodern metropolis no longer has a single peak-density urban centre. We are increasingly seeing “Edge Cities” such as Orange County in California, implicitly and explicitly linked to its larger, older neighbour Los Angeles, but with its own vital economic, cultural and social life. In addition the footprint of major cities is increasing exponentially due to the forces associated with globalization.

Not only do we have to look at the city in its regional context, but also increasingly in a global one. Saskia Sassen, the Columbia University based academic, identifies a new phenomenon – “The Global City” – a growing collection of cities virtually linked by the sophistication of the new information and communications technologies. It is these information and communication technologies that are changing the geography of the city as we speak. They have enabled a speeding up of time and of change, called “time-space compression” by David Harvey, and have been integral to the restructuring of the post-industrial urban landscape. The cities with the most globalised networks are witness to the most inequality and this is true in the developed and developing world. At one extreme these networks enable and expand the wealth of the top layer of professional human capital who control these linkages and at the other end massive internal and international immigration towards these wealth creators rapidly swells the growing underclass of the postindustrial city.   

Graham and Marvin in their work “Splintering Urbanism” have called the city a “socio-technical hybrid.” This is very clear when we look at the fragmentary forces that are shaping the city as we know it today. On the one hand social forces of liberalization are making our cities more diverse: in the developed world many have thriving gay districts, rising numbers of distinct immigrant communities (Greater London’s foreign born population is now at 30% of the total – the highest in its history) and pockets of urban gentrification where the yuppie is steadily reclaiming the inner city traditionally assigned to the poorest in society. On the other the new information and communication technologies are encouraging and facilitating the sharp increases in spatial inequality that are increasingly evident in the urban environment.  

How are they doing this? The answer is multi-faceted. In the main they have de-homogenized the provision of infrastructure services. By reducing costs of provision they allow new entrants into the market which has expanded the range and quality of infrastructure services, and also, on the positive side, supported the development of technologies which can facilitate new low-cost solutions to problems such as irrigation and sanitation in developing countries. At the same time as liberalization is unbundling traditionally integrated infrastructure networks from their former dichotomy of public vs. private provision, the new ICTs have enabled them to splinter further and new entrants to participate in competition over the contestable segments of the unbundled networks. For example in the gas sector resources, treatment, transmission pipelines and local distribution networks can be owned and operated by different entities. 

 Although increased competitiveness and provision of options to the consumer is generally seen as a good thing, this does have many implications on the socio-spatial fabric of urban life.  Polarity of public/private provision has disappeared. We now see a multitude of options for provision of infrastructure services. Informal provision is on the rise particularly in developing countries. Where poor communities, such as the Dharavi slum community, have no access to formal infrastructure networks such as water pipelines, ICTs have facilitated the rise of private water vendors although these often charge between 20% to 2000% higher than normal public tariffs imposing significant costs on the most disadvantaged in society.  

In addition, and most heinously, ICTs enable the bypass of traditional municipal life by the richest in society, exacerbating economic segregation and inequality. Local bypass systems include parallel infrastructure networks such as skywalk pedestrian systems linking malls, corporate office centres and entertainment complexes.  These “total environments” including cultural, employment, housing, leisure and entertainment facilities often designed by “starchitects” such as Foster or Gehry, e.g. the controversial Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn, New York, facilitate a socio-spatial “apartheid” in the metropolis where the wealthy literally retreat from city life into privatized cocoons. They are often highly policed by CCTV and private security guards to exclude any unwanted elements in society. Two cities indeed.  

This is not just happening in the US and Europe. In Jakarta, Mumbai, Lagos, Johannesburg and countless other cities in the developing world, a new urban landscape is being created for the rich that allows them to secede from traditional metropolitan life with their own privatized, unbundled infrastructure. Graham and Marvin also identify systems of “glocal bypass” which allow new infrastructure networks to facilitate the globalised interactions of these local valued users. Networks such as the Heathrow Express rail link, expensive toll-roads, specialized water treatment, and energy provision are all based around the concept of connecting these most valued users to the rest of the world.  

What does this mean for the rest of society? The unbundling of infrastructure and increased competition and innovation seems to favour the globalised and wealthiest citizens of our urban environments. While the rich benefit from continuous high speed internet access on wireless, portable devices able to operate from their time-shared private jets, 60% of the world’s population does not even have a telephone. The decline of traditional manufacturing means that many people are living on or below minimum wage in highly insecure, unskilled jobs: Robinson and Harris, noted urban sociologists, identified in 2000 that approximately 30% in the core developed nations and 50% on the periphery are structurally excluded from productive, secure, consumption expanding activity. A vast mass of humanity is becoming superfluous. The UN disparity index between the richest 1/5 and poorest 1/5 in the world has increased from 30:1 to 1983 to 74:1 in 1999. Today it continues to increase. 

As Vladimir Illich Lenin wrote in 1901 “What is to be done?” Spatial inequality is not going to disappear. In many ways it is inherent in the capitalist system. However, we must improve our systems of democracy, our regional planning policies and our public provision of infrastructure to prevent the exclusion and enormous poverty burden implied by the growing inequality in our urban societies.  (Picture 1: Bandra residential, commercial and leisure complex in Mumbai)(Picture 2: The Dharavi slum in Mumbai)

Bibliography  

Davis, M “Planet of Slums” Verso Books, London (2006) 

Graham, S. and Marvin, S “Splintering Urbanism: networked infrastructures, technological mobilities and the urban condition” Routledge Press (2001) 

Harvey, D. “Social Justice and the City” Edward Arnold Publishers, London (1973) 

Harvey, D. “Spaces of Global capitalism: Towards a theory of uneven Geographical Development” Verso Books, London (2006) 

Lardner, J. and Smith, D.A. “Inequality Matters: the growing economic divide in American and its poisonous consequences” The New Press, NY (2005) 

Lefebvre, H “The Urban Revolution” Minnesota Press (1970) 

Sharma, K “Rediscovering Dharavi” Penguin Books, India (2000) 

Soja, E. “Postmetropolis: critical studies of Cities and Regions” Blackwell Publishing (2000) 

Sorkin, M “Variations on a Theme Park” Hill and Wang (1992)