How East New York Became a Ghetto

In response to the riots of the mid-'60s, Walter Thabit was hired to work with the community of East New York to develop a plan for low- and moderate-income public housing. In the years that followed, he experienced first-hand the forces that had engineered East New York's dramatic decline and that continued to work against its successful revitalization. How East New York Became a Ghetto describes the shift of East New York from a working-class immigrant neighborhood to a largely black and Puerto Rican neighborhood and shows how the resulting racially biased policies caused the deterioration of this once flourishing area. A clear-sighted, unflinching look at one ghetto community, How East New York Became a Ghetto provides insights and observations on the histories and fates of ghettos throughout the United States.

Table of Contents:
Foreword by Frances Fox Piven Acknowledgments Introduction1 Welcome to East New York 2 The Population Wave 3 The Ghettoization of East New York 4 Destruction of the "Target Area" 5 The Uniformed (and Other) Services 6 The Youth of East New York 7 Vest Pocket Planning 8 Vest Pocket Implementation 9 The Model Cities Fiasco10 School Planning 11 East New York under Siege 12 The FHA Scandals 13 The Community School Board Disaster 14 Rebuilding in East New York 15 The Hard Road to Recovery 16 Policing the Ghetto Epilogue Notes IndexAbout the Author

About the Author :
Walter Thabit has thirty-five years of experience in housing, renewal, community planning, city planning, and anti-poverty projects. He lives in New York City.

Review :
"Thabit emphasizes the central role of local institutions in contributing to urban disinvestment and decline." -- Journal of Urban History "Walter Thabit has written a highly personal and compelling piece of retrospective analysis."--Journal of the American Planning Association "Thabit's writing is lucid and heartfelt." --Urban Studies "An excellent source of data and intelligence on the formation of ghettos and the life and struggle within them." --Science & Society "How East New York Became a Ghetto describes the shift of East New York from a working-class immigrant neighborhood to a largely black and Puerto Rican one, and shows how a series of racially biased policies caused the deterioration of this once-flourishing area." --Arab-American Affairs "An interesting and worthwhile read, especially for its descriptions."--Supplement "Walter Thabit's book works as a slice of urban sociology, history, and political science. It should whet the appetites of students and scholars to inquire into the longue duree of the subject more extensively." --New York History"The book powerfully coveys the forces behind the ghettoization of one urban community and illustrates the difficulties of community development." -- Urban History Review. "A comprehensive account of the decline of East New York in Brooklyn into a typical urban slum and of the efforts since the 1960s to redevelop the neighborhood. Anyone interested in urban social problems and improving the quality of life for urban poor should read this astounding analysis of urban decay and rebirth." --Multicultural Review "Thabit does a Herculean task of documenting the various factors that led to the ghettoization of East New York." --Progressive Planning "Thabit is in a unique position to document the destruction of the once working class Brooklyn neighborhood... Toward the book's conclusion, Thabit sounds a faint note of hope to the emerging community groups." -- New York "This thoughtful, important analysis is recommended for academics, professionals, and a concerned public library audience." --Library Journal "Walter Thabit eloquently tells the story of East New York, a neighborhood in eastern Brooklyn, complementing his close observation of events in the neighborhood with astute analyses of the bearing of larger forces on this big city slum. Events in East New York reveal in microcosm the turbulent national forces that have determined the fate of inner city ghettos across the country over the past 40 years." --from the Foreword by Frances Fox Piven "The grim descriptions of civil neglect, community disorganization and institutional racism make this a difficult read, particularly when one realizes that this is the story that can be told about thousands of other neighborhoods in scores of citiies by hundreds of people. Perhaps if more planners like Thabit had told their stories, we might not have found oruselves in this predicament." --ADPSR NY