Public Housing That Worked : : New York in the Twentieth Century / / Nicholas Dagen Bloom.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Pennsylvania Backlist eBook-Package 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Bloom, Nicholas Dagen,
• Place / Publishing House: Philadelphia : : University of Pennsylvania Press, , [2014]; ©2008
• Year of Publication: 2014
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (368 p.) :; 33 illus.

When it comes to large-scale public housing in the United States, the consensus for the past decades has been to let the wrecking balls fly. The demolition of infamous projects, such as Pruitt-Igoe in St. Louis and the towers of Cabrini-Green in Chicago, represents to most Americans the fate of all public housing. Yet one notable exception to this national tragedy remains. The New York City Housing Authority, America's largest public housing manager, still maintains over 400,000 tenants in its vast and well-run high-rise projects. While by no means utopian, New York City's public housing remains an acceptable and affordable option.The story of New York's success where so many other housing authorities faltered has been ignored for too long. Public Housing That Worked shows how New York's administrators, beginning in the 1930s, developed a rigorous system of public housing management that weathered a variety of social and political challenges. A key element in the long-term viability of New York's public housing has been the constant search for better methods in fields such as tenant selection, policing, renovation, community affairs, and landscape design.Nicholas Dagen Bloom presents the achievements that contradict the common wisdom that public housing projects are inherently unmanageable. By focusing on what worked, rather than on the conventional history of failure and blame, Bloom provides useful models for addressing the current crisis in affordable urban housing. Public Housing That Worked is essential reading for practitioners and scholars in the areas of public policy, urban history, planning, criminal justice, affordable housing management, social work, and urban affairs.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction -- Part I: Model Housing as a Municipal Service -- Chapter 1. Defining a Housing Crisis -- Chapter 2. Three Programs Are Better Than One -- Chapter 3. High-Rise Public Housing Begins -- Chapter 4. Model Tenants for Model Housing -- Chapter 5. Tightly Managed Communities -- Part II: Transforming Postwar New York -- Chapter 6. The Boom Years -- Chapter 7. Designs for a New Metropolis -- Chapter 8. The Price of Design Reform -- Chapter 9. The Benefits of Social Engineering -- Chapter 10. Meeting the Management Challenge -- Part III: Welfare-State Public Housing -- Chapter 11. Surviving the Welfare State -- Chapter 12. The Value of Consistency -- Part IV: Affordable Housing -- Chapter 13. Model Housing Revisited -- Appendix A: Guide to Housing Developments -- Appendix B: Tenant Selection Policies and Procedures -- Notes -- Index -- Acknowledgments