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Place Matters: Metropolitics for the Twenty-First Century
by Peter Dreier, John Mollenkopf, and Todd Swanstrom, (University
Press of Kansas: 2001), 328 pp..
Reviewed by John Atlas.
With new a governor sworn in, it seems a good time to think about how
New Jersey might become a more just and better place to live by ending the
deep split between our educated, skilled workers who live in the upscale
suburbs and those less educated and skilled who live at or near poverty in
our inner suburbs and cities.
Place Matters: Metropolitics for the 21st Century shows how the
state, and the rest of the country, can end these divisions by
revitalizing our cities and ending suburban sprawl.
The authors, political science professors, have the scholarly
credentials and first-hand practical experience to write persuasively
about how we can build a broad political coalition to put cities back on
the political agenda.
Dreier, who teaches at Occidental College, served as Boston Mayor Ray
Flynn's top housing-policy aide. Mollenkopf, of the City University of New
York, authored The Contested City, a path-breaking book on urban
political history, and has advised several public officials and unions in
New York City. And St. Louis University professor Swanstrom is the author
of a prize-winning study about one-time Cleveland Mayor Dennis Kucinich.
Despite some improvement in our cities over the last decade, the authors
note with justification, that our central cities and inner-ring suburbs
are plagued with serious problems. And that "We accept as normal levels of
poverty, crime and homelessness that would cause national alarm in Canada,
Western Europe or Australia."
The authors set out to demonstrate that the differences in levels of
crime, poverty and inequality are symptoms of national policy and politics
and not the inevitable consequences of the free market. They document how
Federal programs -- transportation, housing and taxes, even the siting of
defense plants -- have been biased against cities and encouraged
metropolitan sprawl.
In this well-written book, full of lively examples, the authors examine
efforts by different mayors to make cities more livable for the poor
--from Harold Washington's progressive regime in Chicago to Rudy
Giuliani's conservative approach in NY.
While the authors recognize the that Republican Mayors like Giuliani
and Richard Riordon in Los Angeles implemented policies that encouraged
the middle class to remain in the city, their strategy of "addressing
poverty by promoting private investment in the hope that benefits will
trickle down failed was a failure." And while conservative Mayor
Stephen Goldsmith of Indianapolis targeted low income neighborhoods and
relied on inner city organizations to improve housing opportunities, he
did little to reduce concentrated poverty.
On the other hand they show how efforts by mayors like Washington, Ray
Flynn in Boston, Tom Murphy in Pittsburgh and Henry Cisnaros San Antonio,
Texas worked with grassroots labor and community organizing groups in ways
that truly improved the conditions for the urban poor.
These "progressive" partnerships passed "living wage" laws that boosted
salaries of employees of private companies with city contracts,
strengthened faith-based Community Development Corporations that built
affordable housing, helped community activist fight the redlining by
banks, stopped price gauging by working with tenants to control rents and
redirected city funds and pubic services toward poor neighborhoods.
The authors conclude, however, that such efforts wind up "swimming against
the stream" without a broader national political movement and policy
agenda. They specify 13 major policy changes that would reduce poverty,
empower the poor and promote regional solutions. They range from
requiring that federally funded housing, welfare, workforce development
and transportation programs be administered on a metropolitan basis to
increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit and the minimum wage.
The question remains, however, in a suburban nation, where will the
political support come from to fight for the public policies needed to
revitalize our cities? The authors put forward a political analysis and
strategy "based on a careful look at voting and demographic trends, among
other factors" to build a majority political coalition to win political
clout for cities and troubled suburbs.
This coalition -- "metropolitics" refered in the title is the political
alliance that would include cities and older suburbs like the Newarks
and Bellvilles, the Patersons and Haledons. The authors recognize that
older, working-class suburbs that face the same economic, social and
demographic trends confronting cities could be mobilized into a political
coalition that transcends the city boundaries.
Dreier and his colleagues argue correctly that common ground exists
between suburbanites and city residents because the outer metropolitan
areas need healthy cities for economic growth and that the problems in
central cities and their suburbs are made worse by governmental
fragmentation and competition.
The authors' major concern is the problem of the urban poor, but they
are politically savvy enough to recognize that building a grassroots
movement among the poor is not sufficient to win major policy changes at
the state and the federal level.
The book may be overly optimistic about the potential of unions and
community groups to expand their recent successes and to build a sustained
movement for social justice and urban reform. And they say little about
how to find and promote political and civic leaders who have the vision
and persistence to create community institutions that helps build strong
families while mobilizing residents, especially in the inner cities.
Place Matters may not have all the answers, but it is a brilliant
analysis of the urban condition and a useful roadmap for reform. It is a
must read for activists, leaders, policy experts and anyone concerned
about improving our society and especially the condition of our cities.
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