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Post by Sapphire Capital on Sept 20, 2008 1:12:00 GMT 4
A Sociolegal History of Public Housing Reform in Chicago Lisa T. Alexander University of Wisconsin Law School Journal of Affordable Housing, Vol. 17, Nos. 1-2, Fall 2007/Winter 2008 Univ. of Wisconsin Law School Working Paper No. 1061 Abstract: This essay summarizes and compares Alexander Polikoff's Waiting for Gautreaux: A Story of Segregation, Housing, and the Black Ghetto and Mary Pattillo's Black on the Block: The Politics of Race and Class in the City to convey the contributions and limitations of each book. Both works provide a rich sociolegal history of public housing reform in Chicago and illustrate the challenges Chicago has faced in implementing recent HOPE VI public housing reforms. I compare Polikoff's forty-year battle to desegregate public housing in Chicago with Pattillo's insightful observations of class dynamics between the new middle-class African-American power brokers of housing reform and public housing residents. Through this comparison, I seek to show that Polikoff's long-term prescriptions for public housing reform are based upon a conception of the inner city that may no longer be entirely accurate. This comparison also conveys the social complexity inherent in HOPE VI reform efforts, a complexity often overlooked in the prevailing policy and academic debates. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID1151801_code917445.pdf?abstractid=1151801&mirid=2
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