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.
Table of 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
About the Author :
Nicholas Dagen Bloom is Associate Professor of Social Sciences and chair of Interdisciplinary Studies at New York Institute of Technology. He is the author most recently of Public Housing That Worked: New York in the Twentieth Century. Fritz Umbach is Associate Professor of History at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY). He is the author of The Last Neighborhood Cops: The Rise and Fall of Community Policing In New York's Public Housing. Lawrence J. Vale is Ford Professor of Urban Design and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author most recently of Purging the Poorest: Public Housing and the Design Politics of Twice-Cleared Communities.
Review :
Addressing and debunking 11 widely held assumptions about public housing and why it failed, this much-needed book largely discredits the policy rhetoric concerning the problematic stereotypes associated with public housing.... The book adeptly points out that to blame public housing on the persistence of crime, poverty, and other social problems is simply not accurate.
- D.A. Oakley (CHOICE) For tenants like those who I [have spoken to in my research] – and for indeed anyone who has tried to engage in discussions about public housing – the value of this book cannot be overstated. Public debate about public housing requires an arsenal of rebuttals to confront these destructive myths, as well as a lot of energy and patience. As I read through this collection, I could feel a growing sense of relief – finally, it's here! In one volume!... Public housing – as an institution, a home and social policy – has long needed a resource like Public Housing Myths. Anyone whose scholarly or professional work involves public housing should be required to read this comprehensive and convincing volume.
- Martine August (Social & Cultural Geography)
