BookShelf


Heart of a Lion: A Lone Cat’s Walk Across America By William Stolzenburg Bloomsbury USA $27.00


Reviewed by ELIZA MURPHY


A young male mountain lion left its hostile home in South Dakota’s Black Hills seeking love in all the wrong places


before succumbing to death by auto on a scenic highway passing through the Connecticut suburbs.


During its two-year quest to find a mate, the cougar left a trail through the plains, cities, backyards and forests of the upper Mid- west and the Northeast, giving rise to rumors and hysteria. Uncollared, so without a known identity, he left evidence along the way that scientists gathered with incredulousness and zeal. Was this lone cat an escapee? Did his carcass validate conspir- acy theories about the secret mission of various agencies to release this charismatic predator to help manage unwieldy deer herds? Leave it to author William Stolzenburg to give us the sordid details surrounding a terribly misunderstood animal. Reaching back in time, the author traces the biological and cul-


Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution


By Janette Sadik-Khan and Seth Solomonow Viking, $28.00


Reviewed by JENNIFER WEEKS


The genesis of this book dates back to 1989 when David Dinkins was elected


mayor of New York City. Janette Sadik-Khan was a young lawyer who had joined Dink-


ins’ campaign to work on social justice issues. She called her mother — a City Hall reporter for the New York Post — and asked what agency she should work in to make a difference. Sadik-Khan’s mother answered, “If you want to touch people’s


lives every day, you have two choices: Sanitation or transportation.” Sadik-Khan chose transportation and spent the next 16 years working in government and the private sector. In 2007, she became New York City’s transportation commissioner under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg’s administration was already de- veloping PlaNYC (pronounced “Plan YC”), a detailed sustainabil- ity blueprint for a growing city. One central goal was introducing new transportation strategies, such as rapid bus networks and bike lanes, that would make city streets safer and more accessible for all New Yorkers, not just those in cars.


Many cities share the problem that confronted New York: a


car-focused infrastructure that was congested, inefficient and dan- gerous.


tural roots of fear surrounding lions to today’s institutionalized ef- forts to eradicate this savvy, and wrongfully vilified, animal. In doing so, Stolzenburg creates a portrait of an animal we ought to revere — with caution.


Despite inflammatory legends of a ruthless killer who wan-


tonly gorges on the flesh of critters we hold dear, the lion emerges as a solitary wanderer capable of extraordinary prowess but who prefers to steer clear of our kind.


Myths abound about the wild cat, primarily spread by ranchers who make false claims about predation on livestock, hunters who erroneously blame cougars for the decline in prey species and offi- cials who amplify public fear to justify and sanction ongoing slaughter of this magnificent animal. This book is not for the tender-hearted. Not only does the an- imal meet a horrible end, Stolzenburg is unflinching in his exposure of segments of the population that have essentially declared war on an animal for no good reason.


As a counterweight, the author tracks down wildlife biologists who readily supply facts that turn popular misinformation inside out, giving this intelligent survivor overdue kudos. Written with an enlightening narrative, this book is an impor- tant addition to the growing body of evidence pointing to a need for increased protection for predators.


Eliza Murphy is an SEJ member and Oregon-based freelancer.


“City streets, built in a different age, barely serve today’s res- idents,” Sadik-Khan writes. “Car-based urban areas have adjusted to increases in population only by adding to already obsolete infra- structure. Building new highways, widening streets and endlessly sprawling the city’s limits have merely multiplied the damage to city cores and smothered the very assets that make cities places where people want to live — their accessibility, convenience, di- versity, culture and immediacy.” “Streetfight” (coauthored by Seth Solomonow, Sadik-Khan’s chief media strategist in the Bloomberg administration) asserts that cities can become denser and more livable at the same time, if they redesign their streets to make them function better. Sadik-Khan describes initiatives that her agency took in New


York, such as narrowing street lanes, creating 300 miles of bike lanes, introducing a rapid bus system and widening sidewalks in ways that organized traffic more effectively and reduced exposure for pedestrians.


Before-and-after photos of streets, avenues and intersections show how these steps made spaces more attractive. And Sadik-Khan cites data to show that most of these changes


improved traffic flow, even when cars gave up some of their space on the street. Anyone who has walked or biked in New York in the past four or five years has probably seen some of the results, which include remakes of Times and Herald Squares. Many of these projects were relatively quick and cheap, un- like typical urban mega-projects that take years and cost billions of dollars.


“Planners can reorder a street without destroying a single building, double-decking a street or building a streetcar, light rail system or highway interchange,” Sadik-Khan argues. As examples she shows how her agency redesigned plazas in


21 SEJournal Fall 2016


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