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There's a saying that if you come from my part of town, you're from around the way. Urban Books bestseller Treasure Hernandez and Marcus Weber bring readers a fast-paced look at the lives of some street-smart women who think they know it all. Do they have what it takes to survive on the streets? Caught Between a Good Boy and Bad Boy by Treasure Hernandez: Kiesha Simmons is that girl. She graduated top of her high school class and was captain of her step team. She's about to start college at Howard University and is presently doing an internship with the top realtor in her city. She's had a good life so far, but there's one thing she has to do before she takes off for college in the fall—and that's lose her virginity. She just has to decided who is going go to be the lucky guy: her boss's son or the local thug rapper. Lost and Found by Marcus Weber: Maria Santiago is on her way from Albany, New York, to Atlanta, Georgia, when her Greyhound bus stops for a two-hour layover at the Port Authority in Manhattan. She takes a stroll through the city and accidentally witnesses a drug deal going bad. All the men are killed, and Maria scoops up the briefcase full of drugs and a gun, making her way back to the bus station and back on her bus. Arriving in Atlanta, she finds that her grandmother is about to lose her house, and Maria goes on a mission to sell the drugs to save her family. Along the way, she makes friends and enemies, and finds a love that will last her the rest of her short life.

L'Afrique a eu ses rues et ses sentiers avant les contacts avec les non-Africains. Espace colonial, la rue congolaise de l'après-indépendance a été progressivement apprivoisée par la nature et par les gens de la rue qui se la disputent avec l'État, le pouvoir et le peuple, les partis politiques... Tout se passe dans et par la rue, devant un État présent mais très souvent impuissant. La rue est devenue une résidence, un marché, un salon de beauté et de coiffure, une pharmacie, un prieuré, un parc d'attractions, un restaurant, une poubelle publique, un mouroir ; un véritable chaos. Gérant du pays, de ses ressources, structures et infrastructures, l'État se retrouve difficilement dans la gestion de cet espace et de ses occupants, du monde visible et invisible, et ne tire pas un grand profit de ce qui y est récolté. Face au défi du développement, la RDC doit vaincre les démons de la rue, remettre chaque citoyen à sa place, dans un État de droit où le Congolais fera preuve de conscience nationale et de patriotisme, un savoir-être encore rare dans ce pays.

This book provides the tools to maintain and rebuild the interaction between architecture and public space. Despite the best intentions of designers and planners, interactive frontages have dwindled over the past century in Europe and North America. This book demonstrates why even our best intentions for interactive frontages are currently unable to turn a swelling tide of economic and technological evolution, land consolidation, introversion, stratification, and contagious decline. It uses these lessons to offer concrete locational, programming, design, and management strategies to maximize street-level interaction and trust between street-level architecture, its inhabitants, and the city. This book demonstrates that designers, developers, planners, and managers ultimately have to create the right preconditions for inhabitants and passersby to bring frontages to life. These preconditions connect architecture to its urban, social, economical, and technological context. Only the right frontage in the right context, with the right design, the right inhabitation, and the right attitude to the city will become part of the ecosystem of trust and interaction that supports public life. This book empowers the many participants in this ecosystem to build, inhabit, and enjoy truly urbane architecture.

Designing Coffee Shops and Cafés for Community brings together research, theory, and practical applications for designing coffee shops and cafes as places to enhance community connections. As people search for meaning and connection in their lives, they often seek out places that root them in their community. Designers are responsible for creating these spaces, and to do so well, they need to understand the physical and social attributes that make such spaces successful.Addressing societal trends, environment and behavior theories, place attachment, branding, authenticity, location, layout, and ambiance, the book provides guidelines to help designers and operators create more welcoming third places—places that are not home, not work, but those where we can relax in the company of others. It includes eight case studies by authors from threecountries that ground the theories in real-life third places. Its practical design guidelines cover location, accessibility, seating, lighting, sound, and more. Written for students, academics, and designers, this book discusses the value of coffee shops and cafés and guides readers through the ways to create places of belonging that bring people together.

All hail to the West Coast, where its natural resources of breathtaking beaches, smokable trees, and beautiful women are unlimited. From the freezing top of Mt. Denali in Alaska to the fly-ass architectural marvel of California's Golden Gate Bridge, the region is one of the most desirable places to visit on Earth. But for a problematic girl like Temper Chey, it's a prison, and she's dying to be freed. Perhaps Temper's longing to escape is a result of being raised on a road less traveled in an area of South Central Los Angeles, where tourism is obsolete and gang banging and dope slanging reign supreme. Or maybe it's because of the widespread enigma of “the only way out the hood is over a thirty-foot wall.” If this hood proverb is true, then being born half black and half Asian should've given her a ten-foot ladder as a head start. Will her brief escapade with one of the most infamous Crip kingpins force her to twist, toss, and burn her exit plans? Will she give up on the promise she made to her uncle to “bust her ass” to get those missing twenty feet? Or will the chaos be the defibrillator that revives her and provides an escalator ride to freedom?

1988 is the era, Detroit is the scene, and crack is the movement. It's a time when young black men can become self-made millionaires seemingly overnight by selling dope. The crack era has become to Blacks what Prohibition was to the Italians—a time to get over! It's a time that inspires generations of street dreamz... Fresh out of high school, young Wink has but one thing on his mind—rollin'fresh. Infatuated by all the trappings of the game, Wink and his B-boy crew jump head first into the ills of the drug trade, determined to taste the good life. As they pay their dues and the unforgiving streets harden their hearts, they learn that all dreams aren't worth livin', and nothing lasts forever, not even friendship.

C-Town. The Land. Believe Land. No matter what you call it, for years Cleveland has been known to bring the drama. Follow the lives of seven deadly sinners as they struggle to weave their way through the hardened streets of the 216!Michael'Red'Roberts and'Bulletproof'Bobby Walker form a deadly combinationmaking money and holding down their territory. But when Bobby meets a girl that captures his heart, it causes a rift between him and his cousin. It all comes to a head when Bobby has to make a choice between the woman he loves and staying true to the most sacred hood law of all.Tammy has worked tirelessly over the past year to save up enough money to attend college. She's been very careful not to get pregnant and screw up her chances of furthering her education. Everything seems to be going according to plan, until Tammy's mother, Janice, brings home a man who doesn't seem to be quite right. Add that to the fact that Tammy is desperately trying to keep her younger brother, Hakim, from hitting the block to make fast money.Ivory, whom Tammy often hangs out with, has discovered that selling drugs for a living is much easier than working. But when she breaks a long-standing rule, she has no choice but to go in hiding from the hoodlums that she screwed over.

Discussions of street culture exist in a variety of academic disciplines, yet a handbook that brings together the diversity of scholarship on this subject has yet to be produced. The Routledge Handbook of Street Culture integrates and reviews current scholarship regarding the history, types, and contexts of the concept of street culture. It is comprehensive and international in its treatment of the subject of street culture. Street culture includes many subtypes, situations, locations, and participants, and these are explored in the various chapters included in this book. Street culture varies based on numerous factors including capitalism, market societies, policing, ethnicity, and race but also advances in technology. The book is divided into four major sections: Actors and street culture, Activities connected to street culture, The centrality of crime to street culture, and Representations of street culture. Contributors are well respected and recognized international scholars in their fields. They draw upon contemporary scholarship produced in the social sciences, arts, and humanities in order to communicate their understanding of street culture. The book provides a comprehensive and accessible approach to the subject of street culture through the lens of an inter- and/or multidisciplinary perspective. It is also intersectional in its approach and consideration of the subject and phenomenon of street culture.

A comprehensive analysis of the issues involved in planning for and facilitating successful street commerceStreet commerce has gained prominence in urban areas, where demographic shifts such as increasing numbers of single people and childless'empty nesters,'along with technological innovations enabling greater flexibility of work locations and hours, have changed how people shop and dine out. Contemporary city dwellers are demanding smaller-scale stores located in public spaces that are accessible on foot or by public transit. At the same time, the emergence of online retail undermines both the dominance and viability of big-box discount businesses and drives brick and mortar stores to focus as much on the experience of shopping as on the goods and services sold. Meanwhile, in many developing countries, the bulk of urban retail activity continues to take place on the street, even as new car-oriented shopping centers are on the rise. In light of such trends, street commerce will play an important role in twenty-first-century cities, particularly in producing far-reaching benefits for the environment and local communities.Although street commerce is deeply intertwined with myriad contemporary urban visions and planning goals—walkability, quality of life, inclusion, equity, and economic resilience—it has rarely been the focus of systematic research and informed practice. In Street Commerce, Andres Sevtsuk presents a comprehensive analysis of the issues involved in implementing successful street commerce. Drawing on economic theory, urban design principles, regulatory policies, and merchant organization models, he conceptualizes key problems and offers innovative solutions. He provides a range of examples from around the world to detail how different cities and communities have bolstered and reinvigorated their street commerce. According to Sevtsuk, successful street commerce can only be achieved when the private sector, urban policy makers, planners, and the public are equipped with the relevant knowledge and tools to plan and regulate it.

From user-generated images of streets to professional architectural renderings, and from digital maps and drone footages to representations of invisible digital ecologies, this collection of essays analyses the emergent practices of visualizing the street. Today, advancements in digital technologies of the image have given rise to the production and dissemination of imagery of streets and urban realities in multiple forms. The ubiquitous presence of digital visualizations has in turn created new forms of urban practice and modes of spatial encounter. Everyone who carries a smartphone not only plays an increasingly significant role in the production, editing and circulation of images of the street, but also relies on those images to experience urban worlds and to navigate in them. Such entangled forms of image-making and image-sharing have constructed new imaginaries of the street and have had a significant impact on theways in which contemporary and future streets are understood, imagined, documented, navigated, mediated and visualized.Visualizing the Street investigates the social and cultural significance of these new developments at the intersection of visual culture and urban space. The interdisciplinary essays provide new concepts, theories and research methods that combine close analyses of street images and imaginaries with the study of the practices of their production and circulation. The book covers a wide range of visible and invisible geographies — From Hong Kong's streets to Rio's favelas, from Sydney's suburbs to London's street markets, and from Damascus'war-torn streets to Istanbul's sidewalks — and engages with multiple ways in which visualizations of the street function to document street protests and urban change, to build imaginaries of urban communities and alternate worlds, and to help navigate streetscapes.

Streets Reconsidered is a fundamental rethinking of America's streets. It explores the future of streets and what America's roadways could be if they were designed for living, instead of just driving. The book includes: detailed design guidelines, fully illustrated, four color case studies of successful streets from around the world, a new paradigm of streets designed to promote human functions, turning new design ideas into a series of best practices that can be applied to any community. What would streets look like if they accommodated people of all ages and abilities, promoted healthy urban living, social interaction and business, the movement of people and goods and regeneration of the environment? Streets Reconsidered pushes beyond the current standards, focusing on the planning, design and construction of streets as a method for improving our built environment for everyone. The book is organized by the functions of a street: mobility, way finding, commerce, social gathering, events and programming, play and recreation, urban agriculture, green infrastructure and image and identity. Streets Reconsidered is the essential resource for city planners, urban designers, developers, architects, landscape architects, policymakers and community members who share a passion for great urban, human spaces.

In the violent criminal underworld, there is no room for weakness, so the idea of a growing gay mafia in Baltimore is rejected by most people. That doesn't stop kingpin Avery Nelson from striving to come out on top in his battle against Leroy Grant. Avery has faced adversity most of his life, and being a gay black male only adds fuel to the fire already burning within him. After experiencing rejection for so much of his life, Avery has stopped caring about the values of anyone who makes him feel insignificant. Crime and violence are now his preferred method for getting the city's attention. He wants everyone to see that being gay isn't a weakness but a strength.Leroy Grant does not want to see a gay man in charge, especially since in his mind, he is supposed to be where Avery is. A hatred grows inside of him with every mention of Avery and the moves he's making in the streets. Now Leroy's singular mission is to take the top spot for himself. With so much violence and hate, there is no way to tell who will be Baltimore's kingpin and who will be headed to the pen. Who is willing to go down the lowest to get to the top?

Nobody tells the story of women out for revenge quite like Ni'chelle Genovese does. Follow Michelle, Honey, and Novie as they struggle to protect themselves and hit back at the people who have wronged them.Michelle has been broken down, restored, and at the hands of Honey, practically demolished. The woman that has emerged is hell bent on revenge, until an unexpected twist of destiny turns her world completely inside out.Honey is preoccupied with her re-emergence into the world, embracing her new life as the'Queen of Miami.'The only thing that might destroy her faster than Michelle's rage is her new Mafia family. She's learning that all that glitters comes with hands attached to dimmer switches—and right now they're itching to hit the off button. When the only options are bad and worse, Honey does the unthinkable and reaches into her past for a favor that might end up costing her more than the Family can even afford to pay. With her mother bugging her to help the family or disappear, and her father on a mission to keep reaping land, cars, and more side chicks no matter the cost, Novie is feeling pressured. She makes the decision to dive into even crazier waters, aka Genesis Kane's bed. When she winds up pregnant by Genesis, she quickly learns that he is not who she thought he was. Now, with no choice but to return home to the family she despises, Novie sets her sights on making Genesis pay for his mistakes.

Back from the dead, Sadie is hungrier and more ruthless than ever. With a heart black as night and an itching trigger finger, she has vowed to make Ray's murderer's blood rain over the city of Detroit. However, Khiron is currently sitting as the new king of the city. He is backed by the Dominican Cartel, and he is proving to be untouchable. Sadie has secretly relocated to Miami and takes Ray's place as the head of The Last Kings. Recruiting a few new members and making new money, the cartel is revived and ready to go up against the worst to reclaim Detroit. In the midst of it all, a war is budding between the Italians and Dominicans, and Sadie has already chosen her allegiance. The Last Kings are back, guns loaded and ready to make one last bloody movie in the streets.

There's a saying that if you come from my part of town, you're from around the way. Around the Way Girls 10, like its predecessors, is a fast-paced look at the lives of some street-smart women who think they know it all, but are about to get the lessons of their lives.“What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger.” For Katara, that statement is the furthest thing from the truth. Dealing with her mother's cancer, a special needs child, and a physically abusive husband that cheats on her at will, she is slowly losing her mind. Finally fed up with the tortured life she feels forced to live, Katara attempts suicide. What she thought would be an easy escape from reality soon turns out to be a fate she wouldn't wish on her worst enemy. Shay isn't for the games when it comes to self-preservation. Being abused by her stepfather since the age of ten, the teen has finally had enough. Her mother chooses not to listen to her pleas for help, which becomes a deadly mistake. Shay is soon arrested for manslaughter and sent away until her twenty-first birthday. Once she's released back on the streets of Detroit, Shay is a ticking time bomb waiting to explode, as she vows to never let anything or anyone hurt her again. Ajanay Holmes, Sheika Jones, and London Smith were born and raised in Whitcomb Courts, one of Richmond, Virginia's most ruthless housing projects. Faced with horrific home lives, all three girls turn to the streets and each other for comfort. Ajanay concocts a plan for them to use their voluptuous bodies and their sharp mouths to get money out of Amir, one of the biggest dope boys from a rival housing project. However, Amir is a stone-cold killer with a long criminal history, and she has put them in harm's way with no solid plan on how to escape. Will their love and loyalty for one another keep them together, or is it every woman for herself?

When he is released on parole, Stackz wants nothing more than to mind his own business and rebuild his empire. However, when he is forced to kill again, he links up with Ava, an eyewitness to the scene unfolding before the slaughter of her sister's boyfriend. Having one major thing in common—murder—the pair becomes inseparable, hoping love can conquer all. Their belief that they can live a happily-ever-after existence is soon shattered when his victim's crew wants the ultimate revenge: They want Stackz's life, and they'll take Ava's as well if she gets in the way. Ms. Michel Moore and newcomer Marlon P.S. White deliver a fast-paced street love story that will have readers rooting for Stackz and Ava.

Trapped growing up in poverty, best friends Tyrone and Tameka are young and hungry, craving a better way of life. Willing to do whatever it takes to break free of the strong-handed grip of the crime-infested streets of Detroit, the desperate pair devises a win-all/lose-all plan to come up by any means necessary. Nothing will stop their grind or get in the way of turning their childhood dreams into grown-up realities; not family, not friends and definitely not the threat of the law. It's gonna be Tyrone and Tameka's way, or no damn way at all!

...Strada – ca un punct de maximă vitalitate, oglindă a timpurilor și a structurilor sociale. Strada, care vorbește, aude, vede, impune, exclude, trăiește, povestește. Înmagazinând un anume trecut, ea este document. Ea este cea care face politică. În stradă s-au instalat ghilotinele. Strada este triumf sau înfrângere. Este recunoaștere oficială a puterii sau opoziție. Pe străzi cad nevinovații. Pe-aici trec coloanele demonstranților. Strada poate fi bucurie și poate fi tristețe. Ea poate fi cântec sau bocet. Pe străzi se dansează la Rio. Pe străzi se cântă la Buenos Aires muzica lui Piazzola. Pe străzi se desfășoară la Havana festivalul afro-caraibean. Strada este marele semn de identitate națională. În același timp, ea e lumea cea largă. În care se întâmplă totul: binele și răul, urâtul și frumosul, emoționalul, raționalul, lacrima și crima, nunta și înmormântarea, muzica de piculină și bubuitul de tun. Vă invit deci să omagiem împreună strada. Să încercăm să configurăm un eseu al zilelor noastre. Totul ne aparține și vă dă despre noi mărturie. La tot ceea ce înseamnă spectacolul străzii participăm, conștient sau inconștient. Totul intră în perspectiva celui care știe să vadă. Tot ceea ce a creat, a distrus, a afirmat și a contrazis omenirea (la fel ca și germenii viitorului ei), se află expus sau ascuns la un colț de stradă.

How do poverty, youth and crime relate to the concept of being'cool'? Jonathan Ilan presents a unique, theoretically informed overview of street culture in various parts of the world – its origins, functions, manifestations and appeal – examining both its bearing on criminal lifestyles and on the cultivation of'cool.'Drawing on contemporary research and original examples to evidence new ways of thinking about street culture - from the favelas of Brazil to housing projects in the USA - the text locates street culture within its particular social, cultural and economic contexts. Covering diverse subjects from brutal violence to contemporary fashion it explores the ways in which street culture is intertwined with processes of social exclusion and inclusion.An in-depth and even-handed guide to understanding the practices, styles and struggles associated with a particular section of the socio-economically disadvantaged, this text stands as an invaluable resource for students and academics across a range of disciplines, including youth studies, urban studies, criminology, sociology, cultural studies and geography.

Brooklyn style is eclectic, creative, and distinct from neighborhood to neighborhood. It's not about chasing labels. It is stylish on its own terms, and it's about dressing for real life. Brooklyn Street Style: The No-Rules Guide to Fashion explores what has made the borough a global fashion mecca and presents style advice from a host of Brooklyn tastemakers. This diverse crew of notable women in the design, fashion, food, and entertainment worlds includes style expert Mary Alice Stephenson, Girls costume designer Jenn Rogien, Urban Bush Babes blogger Cipriana Quann, Sleigh Bells's singer/beauty-industry activist Alexis Krauss, and award-winning actor/playwright Eisa Davis. Chapters distill what's happening in the borough today—from the maker movement to eco-conscious fashion—with more than 175 striking street-style photographs. Full of suggestions for both visitors and locals alike, the book's Brooklyn Guide offers a curated listing of the essential shops, markets, restaurants, and bars.

New York Times bestselling author Carl Weber has brought together eight of the best Urban Street writers to participate in the most highly anticipated series of 2015, the Kingpin series. Every city has an underworld leader. In the Kingpin series, we will visit eight cities and ride along with that city's kingpin as he rules the streets. The story starts out in Miami with Nikki Turner, and will end with a compilation of all kingpins, written by New York Times bestselling author Carl Weber.