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Public Housing Myths: INDEX

Public Housing Myths
INDEX
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table of contents
  1. Introduction
  2. I. Places
  3. MYTH #1 Public Housing Stands Alone
  4. Joseph Heathcott
  5. MYTH #2 Modernist Architecture Failed Public Housing
  6. D. Bradford Hunt
  7. MYTH #3 Public Housing Breeds Crime
  8. Fritz Umbach and Alexander Gerould
  9. MYTH #4 High-Rise Public Housing Is Unmanageable
  10. Nicholas Dagen Bloom
  11. II. Policy
  12. MYTH #5 Public Housing Ended in Failure during the 1970s
  13. Yonah Freemark
  14. MYTH #6 Mixed-Income Redevelopment Is the Only Way to Fix Failed Public Housing
  15. Lawrence J. Vale
  16. MYTH #7 Only Immigrants Still Live in European Public Housing
  17. Florian Urban
  18. MYTH #8 Public Housing Is Only for Poor People
  19. Nancy Kwak
  20. III. People
  21. MYTH #9 Public Housing Residents Hate the Police
  22. Fritz Umbach
  23. MYTH #10 Public Housing Tenants Are Powerless
  24. Rhonda Y. Williams
  25. MYTH #11 Tenants Did Not Invest in Public Housing
  26. Lisa Levenstein
  27. Notes
  28. Acknowledgments
  29. Contributor Biographies
  30. Index

INDEX

Page numbers in italics refer to figures. Page numbers in bold refer to tables.

academic research, public housing: effects of, 11, 19, 40–41, 64–78, 89–90; new public housing scholarship, 5, 19–20, 78–89; role of funding in, 69, 74, 76–78, 85–86

Alessandroni, Walter E., 234

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), 50

Architectural Forum, 53–54

architecture and design, 21–22, 33–35, 47–48, 51–55; as cause of crime, 66–71; child rearing and, 52–55; determinism, 56, 69–71, 90, 91, 240n2; in Germany, 157, 161–63; modernization, 182–85, 217–18; narrative of decline and, 47–48, 64; in New York, 52, 99–101; in Philadelphia, 226–27; types of, 4; youth density and, 56, 61, 63

Asia, public housing in, 3–5, 175–76

Atlanta public housing, 82, 88; Techwood Homes, 3, 34

Austria, public housing in, 172

Baltimore public housing, 27–28, 34, 76, 206–15, 217–22; Douglass Homes, 212–14, 217, 271n13; Lafayette Courts, 212–14, 217; Murphy Homes, 72–73, 219–21; projects, origin date, 206–7; Somerset Courts, 271n13; white flight in, 38

Bard, Morton, 191

Bartholomew, Harland, 34–36, 41

Baruch College, 109

Bauer, Catherine, 9, 47

Berlin public housing, 155–59, 161–69; Ernst-Reuter-Siedlung, 160; Falkenhagener Feld, 161; Gropiusstadt, 161; Heinrich-Heine-Viertel, 155; Hellersdorf, 163; Hohenschönhausen, 163; Märkisches Viertel, 155, 162; Marzahn, 155, 162, 163

Bezalel, Ronit, documentaries, 18

Black Student Union, 219

Bloom, Nicholas Dagen, 22–23, 43–44, 48, 198

Boston public housing, 34, 39; Commonwealth, 149–53; Harbor Point, 145

Branch, Van Story, 217

Bristol, Katharine, 41

Brooke, Edward, 20, 131

Brown v. Board of Education, 37

Cabrini-Green, 2, 18, 55, 143; “notorious” description, 12–14

Carroll, Tamar, 269n49

Carter, Walter P., 210

Castells, Manuel, 176

Central Provident Fund (CPF), 178–180, 183–184

CHA. See Chicago public housing

Chicago Defender, 57

Chicago Park District public pools, 60

Chicago public housing, 48–55, 241n10, 255n46; Cabrini-Green, 2, 12–13, 18, 55, 143; family size, 242n25; governance structure, 32–33; Henry Horner Homes, 51 ; Jane Adams Houses, 2 ; Lake Park Place, 144, 148; Loomis Courts, 53 ; Plan for Transformation, 6, 50–51, 149; Robert Taylor Homes (see Robert Taylor Homes); Rockwell Gardens Day Care Center, 60 ; site selection, 34, 48–50; Stateway Gardens, 54 ; tenant representation, 218; Villages at Westhaven, 51 ; welfare rates, 112

Chicago Tribune, 12–14, 50

Cincinnati public housing, governance structure, 32–33

Cisneros, Henry G., 43, 50

Cleveland public housing, 34, 38, 74

Cloward, Richard, 200–201

collective efficacy, 223–34, 273n8; definition, 57; in New York public housing, 187, 189, 192, 196; and youth density, 57–63

Community Action Agency (CAA), 210–14, 217, 221

Community Action Commission (CAC), 211

Conference of Mayors, 129

Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), 210–11

contagion effect, 147

convergence school, 235n1

crime and disorder, 6, 98–99, 234; cause(s) of, 82–90; government role, 60–61; social versus legal definition, 64; statistical evidence, 66–67, 71–73, 77–78, 88–89, 244n6; tenant activism and, 196–205, 211; victimization surveys, 66, 72, 78–80; youth density and, 56–57, 61–63, 94, 244n39

crime studies, methodological issues, 74–81

criminology, 65–66, 71–73, 78–81, 83–85, 87, 244n39

culture of poverty, 67

Dagen, Irving, 44

Darst, Joseph, 36, 41

Davies, Garth, 65, 75, 82

Davis, Dantrell, 13

decline, narrative of, 1, 18–19, 250n1, 267n31; due to architecture and design, 47–48, 64; due to crime and disorder, 64–71, 83; evidence against, 5, 19–28, 40–45; media portrayals and, 11–18, 50; origin, historical, 8–10; and policy, 121–22; Pruitt-Igoe, 40–46

Defensible Space. See Newman, Oscar

DeFilippis, James, 146

demographic composition, public housing: post–World War II, 38; single-parent families, 57, 226; youth density, 48, 56–63

Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), 9–10, 50, 108, 255n46; Chicago Housing Authority (CHA), takeover of, 241n10; Federal Housing Administration (FHA), 36, 39, 43; moratorium, 24–25, 121–22, 132–38, 250n1; promoting activism, 216; public housing studies, 72–73, 76, 78–79, 133, 245n20; site selection, 50

Detroit, 38, 42, 252n6

Dinzey-Flores, Zaire, 84, 247n57

divergence school, 235n1

Dumanovsky, Tamara, 71, 80, 244n39

Eisenhower, Dwight D., 122

Embry, Jr., Robert C., 217

environmental determinism, 56, 69–71, 90, 91, 240n2

Erickson, David J., 250n1

Europe, 3–5, 157–58, 169–72

Family Assistance Plan (FAP), 130–31, 133, 251n2, 254n31

family structure, 21–22, 57, 62, 115, 182

Farley, John, 74

Federal Housing Administration (FHA), 36, 39, 43

finance of housing projects, 242n21; federal funding, 33, 36, 55, 224, 231–32; poverty, role of, 212–13; in Singapore, 178–79; tenant rent, 20, 60–61

First Urban Renewal Program (Germany), 164

Fleming, David, 12

Foucault, Michel, 89

Fraser, Jim, 146

Freedman, Leonard, 123

Garvin, Alexander, 241n3

Gautreaux cases, 50

Gautreaux Project, 86

geographic information system (GIS), 67, 79–80, 245n7

Germany, 158–161

Goetz, Edward, 12, 18, 84–85, 147, 151

Goh, Lee, 176

Goh Keng Swee, 177–78

governance, public housing, 32–33

Great Society, 250n1

Griffiths, Elizabeth, 82–83

Haskell, Douglas, 54

Hatcher, Clyde, 210–11, 213

Hawryluk, Agnes, 227

Hirsch, Arnold, Making the Second Ghetto, 11, 40, 50

Holloway, Steven, 82

Holzman, Harold, 66, 71, 79–82

HOPE VI, 9–10, 46, 87–89, 248n59; definition, 85, 141

Housing Act of 1937, 32–36, 40, 44, 140, 206, 231–32. See also Wagner-Steagall Act

Housing Act of 1949, 35–36, 122, 207

Housing Act of 1954, 122

Housing Act of 1965, 123

housing authority. See public housing in specific cities

Housing Development Board (HDB), 177, 179, 180–186

Houston public housing, governance structure, 33

HUD. See Department of Housing and Urban Development

Hunt, D. Bradford, 43, 69, 111

Husock, Howard, America’s Trillion-Dollar Housing Mistake, 10, 43, 64–65, 267n31

immigration, 154, 164–66, 168–69, 262n36

international comparison, 3–5, 154–55, 175–76, 186

Jacobs, Jane, 8–9, 47, 63, 244n40

Jencks, Charles, 40–41

Johnson, Lyndon, 69, 123–24, 136, 198

Johnson, Margaret E., 217

Johnson administration, 124–25

Joseph, Mark, 145–46, 150, 152

Journal of Housing, 218

Kay, Jane Holtz, 41

Kelley, Robin, 67

Kemp, Jack, 46, 76

Keyes, Langley, 74

King, Jean, 218, 272n30

Knoblauch, Joy, 69–70

Kotlowitz, Alex, There Are No Children Here, 50, 62

Kwok, Reginald, 176

Lane, Vincent, 144

Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA), 69

Le Corbusier, 40, 122, 157

Lee Kuan Yew, 177

Legal Aid, 217

Lively, Walter H., 210, 221

Los Angeles public housing, 78, 82–83, 251n4; governance structure, 33

Los Angeles Times, 13–18

Los Vigilantes, 197

maintenance, 95–99, 217–18, 232–33, 102–10; deferred, 12, 39; by tenants, 223–24, 233

management practices, 95, 103–8, 110–18, 192; eviction, 116, 200–201, 214–15; and race, 219, 221; staffing level, 96–98, 102, 107, 213; tenant-staff relations, 212–14, 229–31

Mann, Nicola, 12

McMillan, Benjamin, 219, 221

McNulty, Thomas, 82

Meehan, Eugene, 42, 44, 138, 251n5

Minneapolis, 216

mixed-income housing, 9–10, 25, 51, 141–48, 152–53, 257n1; in Boston, 149–51; definition, 141–45

Mobilization for Youth (MFY), 201–3

Moses, Robert, 99

Moving to Opportunity (MTO), 85–87, 147

myth, definition, 6

Nathan, Richard P., 127, 251n2

National Industrial Recovery Act, 34

National Institute of Justice (NIJ), 77

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), 67

Netherlands, public housing in the, 154

Newman, Oscar, Defensible Space, 9, 41–42, 47, 79; and collective efficacy, 63; in myth, 67–72; and Van Dyke Houses, 101

New Orleans public housing, 62, 92

Newton, Joel, 213–14, 221

New York City Housing Authority Police Department (HAPD), 189–96, 199, 203; minorities in, 191

New York City public housing, 93–96; architecture and design, 52, 99–101; Brownsville Houses, 68, 102; Claremont Village, 100; collective efficacy, 187, 189, 192, 196; Coney Island Houses, 92; Cooper Park, 199; East River Houses, 92 ; Fort Greene Houses, 98–99; George Washington Carver Houses, 203; governance structure, 32–33; Harlem River Houses, 98; James Weldon Johnson Houses, 100, 103, 192; Lexington Houses, 197; management practices in, 91, 93, 96–110, 192; policing in, 83–84, 189–205; Polo Grounds Towers, 91, 99; Queensbridge Houses, 100; rent strike, 202–3, 269n49; St. Louis, contrast to, 42; tenant activism, 196–205; tenant organizations, 197–98; tenant representation, 217–18; Van Dyke Houses, 68, 100–2; violent and property crime in, 73; Welfare rates, 112; Whitman Houses, 203; Williamsburg Houses, 98; Woodrow Wilson Homes, 61, 94, 100; youth density in, 61–62

New York Times, 13–18, 68, 109

1968 Civil Rights Act, 39

Nixon, Richard, 121, 130

Nixon administration: and devolution, 125–29; moratorium, 24–25, 121–22, 132–38, 250n1, public housing critique, 130–32; public housing policy, 121–122

NYCHA. See New York City public housing

NYCHA v. Medlin, 202

Office of Economic Opportunity, 198–99

Office of Management and Budget (OMB), 128–34, 256n51

Olugbala, 219, 221

Orlebeke, Charles, 129, 255n46

Parker, Mattie, 211

People’s Action Party (PAP), 177–78, 180, 182–84

Perlstein, Rick, 125

PHA (Philadelphia Housing Authority). See Philadelphia public housing

PHA (Public Housing Administration), 52

PHAs (public housing authorities), definition, 32

PHD (public housing development), definition, 64

Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, 228, 233

Philadelphia public housing, 223–34; architecture and design in, 226–27; demographics of, 225; governance structure, 33; James Weldon Johnson Homes, 226; Norris, 234; origin dates, 224–25; Raymond Rosen, 224, 228–29, 231; Richard Allen Homes, 226, 227, 228, 233; site selection, 35; tenant representation, 218

Phoenix public housing, 78

Pittsburgh public housing, 218

Piven, Frances Scott, 200–201

Plan for Transformation, 6, 50–51, 149

police strategies, 71; community policing, 190; order-maintenance policing, 193–94; radio motor patrol, 190–91

political views, 2, 6, 8, 250n1; conservative, 10, 130–132, 251n2; liberal, 11

Popkin, Susan, 85, 88–89

private sector, role of, 3, 123–124, 166–167

Pruitt-Igoe, 2, 4, 14, 19, 21, 38, 40–46, 67–68, 72, 91, 101, 136, 155; comparison, 155; in myth, 6, 31–32; origin, historical, 37; youth density, 61

Pruitt-Igoe Myth, The, 6

public housing, definition, 157, 260n1

Public Housing Drug Elimination Program, 77, 78

public housing policy, federal, 2–4; 1949–1970, 122–25; under Johnson administration, 124–25; under Nixon administration, 121–22, 125–38; race and, 50–51

Public Works Administration (PWA), 34, 44, 140

race: and Housing Act of 1949, 36, and Jim Crow laws, 206–7; and New York public housing, 195; and public housing, 4–5, 11, 40, 256n56; and site selection, 34, 37, 48–50; and tenant activism, 209–10, 219–22; and tenant selection, 50; and white flight, 39

Rainwater, Lee, 44, 67, 72

RAND Corporation, 39

Research Triangle Institute (RTI), 78–79

Resident Action Committee (RAC), 212–15, 218

Residents in Action, 218

Robert Taylor Homes, 49, 55, 56; comparison, 155; collective efficacy in, 58–59; tragic deaths in, 57, 58

Romney, George, 121, 126–29, 131–34

Roncek, Dennis, 74

Rosin, Hanna, 65, 87–88

San Francisco public housing, 13–14, 144–45

Schmandt, Henry and George Wendel, 42

Schmich, Mary, 12

Schwartz, Alex, 144

Schofield, Rosetta, 214, 220–21

Singapore public housing, 176–86; consumption and, 180–183; public policy, 176–180; Tiong Bahru, 177

site selection, 33–34, 48–50, 225

slums. See tenements and slums

social ecology, definition, 72

social exclusion, 8

social strain (theory), 67

Soul School, 219–20

Spencer, Mildred and Joseph, 223–24

staffing practices. See management practices

Stephenson, Maxine, 221

St. Louis, city and county, 38–39

St. Louis public housing, 35–46; Blumeyer Homes, 37; Carr Square Village, 35; Clinton-Peabody, 35; Cochran Gardens, 36–37, 44; Darst-Webbe, 37; governance structure, 32–33; Pruitt-Igoe (see Pruitt-Igoe); rent strike, 218; site selection, 34, 37; Vaughan-Taylor Homes, 37, 44; Wendell O. Pruitt Homes, 37 (see also Pruitt-Igoe); William Igoe Apartments, 37 (see also Pruitt-Igoe)

Super Storm Sandy, 91–92

Teh Cheang Wan, 177

tenant activism, 196–205, 269n49; black nationalism and, 219–22; black women and, 208, 217–19, 223–26; causes of, 209–10; federal support for, 216–17; motivations and incentives for, 207–8; organizers, role of, 210–12; rent strikes, 202–203, 218

tenant organization. See specific names of organizations

tenant rights and representation, 215–18

tenant selection, 42–43, 50, 75, 226

tenements and slums, contrast with public housing, 5, 8, 140, 206–7

Thorpe v. Housing Authority, 215

Tier System, 112

Tita, George, 82–83

Turnkey Program, 37, 124–25

Ulbricht, Walter, 161

United States Housing Authority (USHA), 32–36, 40, 44, 140, 206, 231–32

urban decline, 38–39, 45, 94; deindustrialization, 20–21, 38, 75–76, 77

Urban Renewal Program (United States), 122, 126–28

USHA. See United States Housing Authority

utopian narrative, 1–2, 225–26; crime and, 65 ; critiques of, 6, 9–18 (see also decline, narrative of); in Europe, 157–58; family, 56; origin, historical, 7–8

Van Dusen, Richard C., 129

von Hoffman, Alexander, 251n3

Wagner, Robert, 36, 110

Wagner-Steagall Act, 32–36, 40, 44, 140, 206, 231–32. See also Housing Act of 1937

“warehousing the poor,” 240n1

War on Poverty, 211

Washington, DC, public housing, 72–73, 78

Washington Post, 13–18

Weaver, Robert C., 123, 136

Welfeld, Irving, 131

Williams, Rhonda Y., 196

Wolfe, Tom, 47–48

Wood, Elizabeth, 9, 52–54

Wylie, Rose, 218

Yamasaki, Minoru, 37, 41

Young Lords Organization (YLO), 203

youth density, 56–63, 242n26, 244n40; comparison, city-level, 62

Zipp, Samuel, 99


Copyright © 2015 by Cornell University

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ISBN 978-0-8014-5625-1

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Cover image: Youth cleanup crew, Robert Taylor Homes, summer 1970. Image courtesy of the Chicago Housing Authority. Cover Design: Jim Keller

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