The Case for Cities
The Case for Cities

Author: Vikas Mehta

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2024-07-31

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 1040026826

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The fateful year 2020 brought dramatic challenges to American cities. The COVID-19 pandemic and the civil unrest caused by the killing of George Floyd led to a cascade of negative media stories about cities, often politically motivated. It seemed possible that the economic and demographic gains cities had achieved over the last few decades could be lost. In fact, there has been measurable population loss in larger cities caused by changing work/life patterns and changing public perceptions about the costs and benefits of urban living. Faced with these challenges, advocates for cities must make a vigorous case for cities and show how they aren’t the cause of America’s social, environmental, economic, and public health problems but, in fact, are the places where the solutions to those problems will be found. The 38 chapters in The Case for Cities draw on the expertise of contributors from the academic, professional, and civic sectors to explore the creative tension between the two great values on which the vigor of cities depends––that they should be "Cities of Choice" (places where people who have choice want to live) and "Cities of Justice" (places that welcome and support people with limited choices). The book’s underlying perspective is that these two values are symbiotic and that promoting both is what leads to viable, sustainable urban resurgence. This book will be of keen interest to students and practitioners in urban planning, urban design, real estate, architecture, and landscape architecture and to urban advocates and civic leaders.

University-community Partnerships
University-community Partnerships

Author: United States. Depart. of Housing and Urban Development. Office of Policy Development and Research. Office of University Partnerships

Publisher:

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 138

ISBN-13:

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Constructing Community
Constructing Community

Author: Jeremy R. Levine

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2021-06

Total Pages: 278

ISBN-13: 0691193657

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A look at the benefits and consequences of the rise of community-based organizations in urban development Who makes decisions that shape the housing, policies, and social programs in urban neighborhoods? Who, in other words, governs? Constructing Community offers a rich ethnographic portrait of the individuals who implement community development projects in the Fairmount Corridor, one of Boston’s poorest areas. Jeremy Levine uncovers a network of nonprofits and philanthropic foundations making governance decisions alongside public officials—a public-private structure that has implications for democratic representation and neighborhood inequality. Levine spent four years following key players in Boston’s community development field. While state senators and city councilors are often the public face of new projects, and residents seem empowered through opportunities to participate in public meetings, Levine found a shadow government of nonprofit leaders and philanthropic funders, nonelected neighborhood representatives with their own particular objectives, working behind the scenes. Tying this system together were political performances of “community”—government and nonprofit leaders, all claiming to value the community. Levine provocatively argues that there is no such thing as a singular community voice, meaning any claim of community representation is, by definition, illusory. He shows how community development is as much about constructing the idea of community as it is about the construction of physical buildings in poor neighborhoods. Constructing Community demonstrates how the nonprofit sector has become integral to urban policymaking, and the tensions and trade-offs that emerge when private nonprofits take on the work of public service provision.