In City on the Line, former Baltimore budget director Andrew Kleine asks why the way government does its most important job – deciding how to spend taxpayer dollars – hasn’t changed in hundreds of years. Parts memoir, manifesto, and manual, this book tells the story of Baltimore’s radical departure from traditional line item budgeting to a focus on outcomes like better schools, safer streets, and stronger neighborhoods—during one of the most tumultuous decades in the city’s history. Elected officials, executives, and citizens alike will be equipped to transform budgets in their city, state, or any other mission-driven organization.

'A travelogue and memoir to rank alongside anything by Chatwin or Thubron' Jim Crace 'A most absorbing and rewarding book' Michael Palin In 1956, Sudan gained independence from Britain. On the brink of a promising future, it instead descended into civil war and conflict. When the 1989 coup brought a hard-line Islamist regime to power, Jamal Mahjoub's family were among those who fled. Almost twenty years later, he returned. Rediscovering the city in which his formative years were spent, Mahjoub encounters people and places he left behind. The capital contains the key to understanding Sudan's divided, contradictory nature and while exploring Khartoum's present – its changing identity and shifting moods; its wealthy elite and neglected poor – Mahjoub also delves into the country's troubled history. His search for answers evolves into a thoughtful meditation on the meaning of identity, both personal and national. A Line in the River combines lyrical and evocative memoir with a nuanced exploration of a country's complex history, politics and religion. The result is both captivating and revelatory.

How two New Yorkers led the transformation of a derelict elevated railway into a grand--and beloved--open space The High Line, a new park atop an ele-vated rail structure on Manhattan's West Side, is among the most innovative urban reclamation projects in memory. The story of how it came to be is a remarkable one: two young citizens with no prior experience in planning and development collaborated with their neighbors, elected officials, artists, local business owners, and leaders of burgeoning movements in horticulture and landscape architecture to create a park celebrated worldwide as a model for creatively designed, socially vibrant, ecologically sound public space. Joshua David and Robert Hammond met in 1999 at a community board meeting to consider the fate of the High Line. Built in the 1930s, it carried freight trains to the West Side when the area was defined by factories and warehouses. But when trains were replaced by truck transport, the High Line became obsolete. By century's end it was a rusty, forbidding ruin. Plants grew between the tracks, giving it a wild and striking beauty. David and Hammond loved the ruin and saw in it an opportunity to create a new way to experience their city. Over ten years, they did so. In this candid and inspiring book-- lavishly illustrated--they tell how they relied on skill, luck, and good timing: a crucial court ruling, an inspiring design contest, the enthusiasm of Mayor Bloomberg, the concern for urban planning issues following 9/11. Now the High Line--a half-mile expanse of plants, paths, staircases, and framed vistas--runs through a transformed West Side and reminds us that extraordinary things are possible when creative people work together for the common good.

An unprecedented behind-the-scenes tour of New York City’s dynamic food culture, as told through the voices of the chefs, line cooks, restaurateurs, waiters, and street vendors who have made this industry their lives. In Food and the City, Ina Yalof takes us on an insider’s journey into New York’s pulsating food scene alongside the men and women who call it home. Dominique Ansel declares what great good fortune led him to make the first cronut. Lenny Berk explains why Woody Allen’s mother would allow only him to slice her lox at Zabar’s. Ghaya Oliveira, who came to New York as a young Tunisian stockbroker, opens up about her hardscrabble yet swift trajectory from dishwasher to executive pastry chef at Daniel. Restaurateur Eddie Schoenfeld describes his journey from Nice Jewish Boy from Brooklyn to New York’s Indisputable Chinese Food Maven. From old-schoolers such as David Fox, third-generation owner of Fox’s U-bet syrup, and the outspoken Upper West Side butcher “Schatzie,” to new kids on the block including Patrick Collins, sous chef at The Dutch, and Brooklyn artisan Lauren Clark of Sucre Mort Pralines, Food and the City is a fascinating oral history with an unforgettable gallery of New Yorkers who embody the heart and soul of a culinary metropolis.

In Subway Adventure Guide: New York City, residents and tourists alike gain access to off-the-beaten-path adventures in a compact guidebook format and see the New York City that's not featured on postcards sold all over Manhattan. Each of the roughly three dozen end-of-the-line destinations spread out over New York City's five boroughs included in this easy-to-use guide, from restaurants and bars to landmarks and museums, are highlighted in great detail by authors Kyle Knoke and Amy Plitt—what to order, what to see, and how to get there. For even better exploring, each destination is organized by the more than 30 subway lines that run through the city, including handy maps with street names. From delighting in a little-known ethnic restaurant to admiring a local landmark, each adventure contained in this photo-packed pocket guide reveals a new hidden gem of the city. Van Cortlandt Park. Far Rockaway. Bay Ridge. Flatbush Avenue. Subway Adventure Guide: New York City takes you away from the tourist traps and closer to a genuine New York City experience.

It's time for America to move beyond zoning, argues city planner M. Nolan Gray in Arbitrary Lines: How Zoning Broke the American City and How to Fix It. With lively explanations, Gray shows why zoning abolition is a necessary--if not sufficient--condition for building more affordable, vibrant, equitable, and sustainable cities. Gray lays the groundwork for this ambitious cause by clearing up common misconceptions about how American cities regulate growth and examining four contemporary critiques of zoning (its role in increasing housing costs, restricting growth in our most productive cities, institutionalizing racial and economic segregation, and mandating sprawl). He sets out some of the efforts currently underway to reform zoning and charts how land-use regulation might work in the post-zoning American city. Arbitrary Lines is an invitation to rethink the rules that will continue to shape American life--where we may live or work, who we may encounter, how we may travel. If the task seems daunting, the good news is that we have nowhere to go but up

Forever at the Finish Line tells the remarkable and inspiring story of Daniel Mitrovich, a runner from San Diego who had a goal of putting a life-size statue of New York Marathon founder Fred Lebow in Central Park. New York’s parks commissioner Henry Stern said “It will be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than to put a statue in Central Park.” It would not be easy for someone who lacked financial backing and who wasn’t even a New Yorker to make this happen. But with the faith and blessing of Fred Lebow, the support of his family, and his own personal determination, he knew it would happen. His journey involved crossing the continent many times, securing the support of some of the most famous runners of our time, including Joan Benoit Samuelson, Grete Waitz, Alberto Salazar, Bill Rodgers, and Carl Lewis. He would ultimately gain the endorsements of some of the most powerful political people of our time: presidents George Herbert Walker Bush and William Jefferson Clinton, Governor Andrew Cuomo, US senators Alan K. Simpson and Al D’Amato, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, and thirteen members of Congress. Daniel Mitrovich’s personal story will show you that if you pursue a dream with the right intent you will be “Forever at the Finish Line.”