Comeback Cities shows how innovative, pragmatic tactics for ameliorating the nation's urban ills have produced results beyond anyone's expectations, reawakening America's toughest neighborhoods. In the past, big government and business working separately were unable to solve the inner city crisis. Today, a blend of public-private partnerships, grassroots nonprofit organizations, and a willingness to experiment characterize what is best among the new approaches to urban problem solving. Pragmatism, not dogma, has produced the charter-school movement and the police's new focus on "quality of life" issues. The new breed of big city mayors has welcomed business back into the city, stressed performance and results at city agencies, downplayed divisive racial politics, and cracked down on symptoms of social disorder. As a consequence, America's inner cities are becoming vital communities once again.
America's inner cities, recovering from pervasive crime and social disorder that plagued them only a decade ago, are now revived - producing results beyond expectations and reawakening America's toughest neighborhoods
Unlocking the Economic Potential of Post-Industrial Cities provides a roadmap for how urban policy makers, community members, and practitioners in the public and private sector can work together with researchers to discover how all cities can solve the most pressing modern urban challenges.
Following decades of neglect and decline, many US cities have undergone a dramatic renaissance. From New York to Nashville and Pittsburgh to Portland governments have implemented innovative redevelopment strategies to adapt to a globally integrated, post-industrial economy and cope with declining industries, tax bases, and populations. However, despite the prominence of new amenities in revitalized neighborhoods, spectacular architectural icons, and pedestrian friendly entertainment districts, the urban comeback has been highly uneven. Even thriving cities are defined by a bifurcated population of creative class professionals and a low-wage, low-skilled workforce. Many are home to diverse and thriving immigrant communities, but also contain economically and socially segregated neighborhoods. They have transformed high-profile central city brownfields, but many disadvantaged neighborhoods continue to grapple with abandoned and environmentally contaminated sites. As urban cores boom, inner-ring suburban areas increasingly face mounting problems, while other shrinking cities continue to wrestle with long-term decline. The Great Recession brought additional challenges to planning and development professionals and community organizations alike as they work to maintain successes and respond to new problems. It is crucial that students of urban revitalization recognize these challenges, their impacts on different populations, and the implications for crafting effective and equitable revitalization policy. Urban Revitalization: Remaking Cities in a Changing World will be a guide in this learning process. This textbook will be the first to comprehensively and critically synthesize the successful approaches and pressing challenges involved in urban revitalization. The book is divided into five sections. In the introductory section, we set the stage by providing a conceptual framework to understand urban revitalization that links a political economy perspective with an appreciation of socio-cultural factors in explaining urban change. Stemming from this, we will explain the significance of revitalization and present a summary of the key debates, issues and conflicts surrounding revitalization efforts. Section II will examine the historical causes for decline in central city and inner-ring suburban areas and shrinking cities and, building from the conceptual framework, discuss theory useful to explain the factors that shape contemporary revitalization initiatives and outcomes. Section III will introduce students to the analytical techniques and key data sources for urban revitalization planning. Section IV will provide an in-depth, criticaldiscussion of contemporary urban revitalization policies, strategies, and projects. This section will offer a rich set of case studies that contextualize key themes and strategic areas across a range of contexts including the urban core, central city neighborhoods, suburban areas, and shrinking cities. Lastly, Section V concludes by reflecting on the current state of urban revitalization planning and the emerging challenges the field must face in the future. Urban Revitalization will integrate academic and policy research with professional knowledge and techniques. Its key strength will be the combination of a critical examination of best practices and innovative approaches with an overview of the methods used to understand local situations and urban revitalization processes. A unique feature will be chapter-specific case studies of contemporary urban revitalization projects and questions geared toward generatingclassroom discussion around key issues. The book will be written in an accessible style and thoughtfully organized to provide graduate and upper-level undergraduate students with a comprehensive resource that will also serve as a reference guide for professionals
This extraordinary text for undergraduate urban students is a reflection of Mark Hutter’s academic interests in urban sociology and his life-long passion for experiencing city life. His deep academic roots in the Chicago School of Sociology help inform and appreciate the variety of urban structures and processes and their effect on the everyday lives of people living in cities. This text, however, extends the Chicago School perspective by combining its traditions with a social psychological perspective derived from symbolic interaction and also with a macro-level examination of social organization, social change, stratification and power in the urban context, informed by political economy. This entirely new, 3rd Edition has a global outlook on city life, and a visual presentation unmatched among books in this genre.
Detroit, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and Baltimore - at one time these were among the 20 most populous and important cities in the U.S. They helped build our national economy through much of the 20th century but have since struggled due to deindustrialization. As a result of their shared past, this group of former industrial powerhouse cities shares unique structural and cultural traits that make them fertile ground upon which to build a startup-driven resurgence; an outcome that would yield nationwide economic, social, and well-being benefits. A story of optimism and expectation, New Grit is a look inside the unique entrepreneurial fabric of these once-great rust belt cities. With stories and insights from AOL co-founder Steve Case, Startup Communities author Brad Feld, and 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang, you will discover a sense of hope for comeback cities and gain an understanding of the importance of entrepreneurship in achieving this goal. You will love New Grit if you are: A rust belt enthusiast looking for optimism for the future of this area A politician or community leader looking for long-term considerations for your city's sustained well-being Interested in economic development and looking for an often-forgotten group of cities with considerable untapped potential Interested in cities, startups, or startup community development A millennial who can't fathom the possibility of owning a home in your current city, looking for promise in places you hadn't considered Wondering how a community can dig itself out of a hole If you are a fan of comebacks and underdogs, look no further. These cities are not just hoping for a resurgence. They know it's coming, and you should too.
Patrick J. Buchanan, bestselling author and senior advisor to Richard Nixon, tells the definitive story of Nixon's resurrection from the political graveyard and his rise to the presidency. After suffering stinging defeats in the 1960 presidential election against John F. Kennedy, and in the 1962 California gubernatorial election, Nixon's career was declared dead by Washington press and politicians alike. Yet on January 20, 1969, just six years after he had said his political life was over, Nixon would stand taking the oath of office as 37th President of the United States. How did Richard Nixon resurrect a ruined career and reunite a shattered and fractured Republican Party to capture the White House? In The Greatest Comeback, Patrick J. Buchanan--who, beginning in January 1966, served as one of two staff members to Nixon, and would become a senior advisor in the White House after 1968--gives a firsthand account of those crucial years in which Nixon reversed his political fortunes during a decade marked by civil rights protests, social revolution, The Vietnam War, the assassinations of JFK, RFK, and Martin Luther King, urban riots, campus anarchy, and the rise of the New Left. Using over 1,000 of his own personal memos to Nixon, with Nixon’s scribbled replies back, Buchanan gives readers an insider’s view as Nixon gathers the warring factions of the Republican party--from the conservative base of Barry Goldwater to the liberal wing of Nelson Rockefeller and George Romney, to the New Right legions of an ascendant Ronald Reagan--into the victorious coalition that won him the White House. How Richard Nixon united the party behind him may offer insights into how the Republican Party today can bring together its warring factions. The Greatest Comeback is an intimate portrayal of the 37th President and a fascinating fly on-the-wall account of one of the most remarkable American political stories of the 20th century.
This book explores the many facets of black urban life from its genesis in the 18th century to the present time. With some historical background, the volume is primarily a contemporary critique, focusing on the major themes which have arisen and the challenges the confront African Americans as they create communities: political economy, religion and spirituality, health care, education, protest, and popular culture. The essays all examine the interplay between culture and politics, and the ways in which forms of cultural expression and political participation have changed over the past century to serve the needs of the black urban community. The collection closes with analysis of current struggles these communities face - joblessness, political discontent, frustrations with health care and urban schools - and the ways in which communities are responding to these challenges.
America seems to be on a downward slide. Our government spends too much, our economy creates too little, and we aren't preparing our children to compete in a global marketplace. Yet our politicians—Republican and Democrat alike—just don't get it. While once-great cities fall into decay, Washington thrives, living off the hard work and tax dollars of the private sector. It's time for an American comeback—and it starts with innovation. Throughout its history, America's great innovators have been the drivers of our unsurpassed economic success. American innovation transformed a country of ragtag farmers into the epicenter of the world's technological progress. Innovation creates jobs, markets, and new industries where none existed before. Most importantly, innovation moves us forward as a nation, pushing us to succeed and strive for a better tomorrow. In short, innovation is the American Dream. In The Comeback, Gary Shapiro shows us how to return innovation to its rightful place at the center of America's economic policy. The Comeback is a new blueprint for America's success.
The only text to offer a regional survey of world urban development, this third edition has been fully revised and updated to include new chapter authors, new cities and regions, and an expanded art program. Focusing on the eleven major culture realms of the world, the volume examines each region's urban history, economy, and culture and society, and offers engaging case studies of major representative cities. Introductory and concluding chapters frame the regional discussion by summarizing world urban history and by looking to the future of urban development. Maps, graphs, tables, photos, color satellite images, recommended readings, web sites, and UN data on major cities offer rich additional resources for students. Visit our website for sample chapters!
