Full Description
Popular opinion holds that public housing is a failure; so what more needs to be said about seventy-five years of dashed hopes and destructive policies? Over the past decade, however, historians and social scientists have quietly exploded the common wisdom about public housing. Public Housing Myths pulls together these fresh perspectives and unexpected findings into a single volume to provide an updated, panoramic view of public housing.
With eleven chapters by prominent scholars, the collection not only covers a groundbreaking range of public housing issues transnationally but also does so in a revisionist and provocative manner. With students in mind, Public Housing Myths is organized thematically around popular preconceptions and myths about the policies surrounding big city public housing, the places themselves, and the people who call them home. The authors challenge narratives of inevitable decline, architectural determinism, and rampant criminality that have shaped earlier accounts and still dominate public perception.
Contents
IntroductionI. PlacesMYTH #1. Public Housing Stands Alone
by Joseph HeathcottMYTH #2. Modernist Architecture Failed Public Housing
by D. Bradford HuntMYTH #3. Public Housing Breeds Crime
by Fritz Umbach and Alexander GerouldMYTH #4. High-Rise Public Housing Is Unmanageable
by Nicholas Dagen BloomII. PolicyMYTH #5. Public Housing Ended in Failure during the 1970s
by Yonah FreemarkMYTH #6. Mixed-Income Redevelopment Is the Only Way to Fix Failed Public Housing
by Lawrence J. ValeMYTH #7. Only Immigrants Still Live in Eu ro pe an Public Housing
by Florian UrbanMYTH #8. Public Housing Is Only for Poor People
by Nancy KwakIII. PeopleMYTH #9. Public Housing Residents Hate the Police
by Fritz UmbachMYTH #10. Public Housing Tenants Are Powerless
by Rhonda Y. WilliamsMYTH #11. Public Housing Tenants Did Not Invest in Their Neighborhoods
by Lisa LevensteinNotes
Acknowledgments
Contributor Biographies
Index
