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The Changing American Neighborhood: Acknowledgments

The Changing American Neighborhood
Acknowledgments

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Notes

table of contents
  1. Preface
  2. Acknowledgments
  3. Introduction
  4. 1. Why Good Neighborhoods?
  5. 2. A Dynamic Systems Approach to Understanding Neighborhood Change
  6. 3. The Rise of the American Urban Neighborhood, 1860–1950
  7. 4. The American Urban Neighborhood under Siege, 1950–1990
  8. 5. The Polarization of the American Neighborhood, 1990–2020
  9. 6. Neighborhoods as Markets
  10. 7. Neighborhoods in an Era of Demographic Change and Economic Restructuring
  11. 8. The Continuing yet Changing Significance of Race
  12. 9. Agents of Neighborhood Change
  13. 10. Deconstructing Gentrification
  14. 11. The Crisis of the Urban Middle Neighborhood
  15. 12. The Persistence of Concentrated Poverty Neighborhoods
  16. 13. Neighborhood Change in the Suburbs
  17. 14. The Theory and Practice of Neighborhood Change
  18. Notes
  19. Index

Acknowledgments

We both want to thank our three readers, Karen Black, Charles Duff, and John Shapiro, who offered sometimes critical but always thoughtful and constructive comments and suggestions; Jim Lance, our editor at Cornell University Press, for his consistent support and encouragement; and Brett Theodos, who was part of the initial conversations that ultimately led to this book.

Over many years Alan has had the opportunity to learn about cities and neighborhoods from numerous people, perhaps beginning with George Sternlieb at Rutgers, whose clear-headed view of the urban condition in the 1970s and 1980s was an invaluable experience. The late David Lewis, founder of Urban Design Associates, and the late Colin Ward, the one Welsh and the other English, were two people who were early inspirations as Alan began his career in this field. During Alan’s long involvement with the Housing and Community Development Network from its founding in 1988, he learned from a host of New Jersey’s community development leaders, including Sean Closkey, Pilar Hogan Closkey, Ray Ocasio, Joe Della Fave, Patrick Morrisy, and above all the network’s founding executive director, Diane Sterner, who has been my valued friend, critic, and sounding board for many years. Working for the City of Trenton during the 1990s opened Alan’s eyes to the many complexities of urban and neighborhood change and enabled him to learn from an amazing cast of characters, including among many others Marty and Liz Johnson, Gwendolyn Long Harris, Blanca Valentin, the late Ken Russo, Father Brian McCormick, the late Albert “Bo” Robinson, Bill Watson, and the people of Trenton themselves. More recently as Alan has worked in cities around the country, he has been fortunate to meet wonderful and dedicated practitioners who have shared their challenges and insights, including Rick Sauer in Philadelphia; Frank Ford, Linda Warren, and Tony Brancatelli in Cleveland; Annika Goss, Steve Tobocman, and Maggie DeSantis in Detroit; Ian Beniston in Youngstown; Presley Gillespie, first in Youngstown and now in Pittsburgh; Chris Ryer and Gerard Joab in Baltimore; and many more whom he hopes will forgive him for not mentioning them by name.

One of Alan’s great rewards of working on cities and neighborhoods has been the ability to work with a remarkable collection of colleagues, both practitioners and scholars, including Paul Brophy, the late Michael Schubert, David Boehlke, Sabina Deitrick, George Galster, Margie Dewar, Dennis Keating, Jennifer Leonard, Robert Beauregard, Robert Weissbourd, Karen Beck Pooley, Dan Immergluck, Ira Goldstein and many others. Alan particularly wants to thank Michael Braverman, Karen Black, Lavea Brachman, Charles Buki, Bill Gilchrist, John Shapiro and Marcia Nedland, who have become friends of long standing and to whom Alan looks regularly to obtain good advice, valuable insights, and wise counsel.

Alan is grateful to CEO Akilah Watkins and her colleagues Tarik Abdelazim, Rob Finn, Kim Graziani, Courtney Knox, Danielle Lewinski, and former CEO Tamar Shapiro at the Center for Community Progress and to CEO Mac McCarthy and in particular Jessie Grogan at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy for their constant support and encouragement and the many opportunities both organizations gave Alan to engage with the past, present and future of America’s neighborhoods.

Finally, Alan wants, one more time, to thank Robin, his lifelong partner, who passed away in the summer of 2020, as this book was being written. For many decades, her love, moral support, and encouragement were his mainstay, and this book is dedicated to her.

Over the years Todd has had the privilege of learning from community development practitioners working on the ground in St. Louis. Under the leadership of Jenny Connelly-Bowen, the Community Builders Network has been a constant source of inspiration and insight. There are too many people to acknowledge here, but Tom Pickel has been a special source of sage advice. Participating in the civic experiment called the St. Louis Anchor Action Network has also been eye-opening. Karl Guenther, Stefani Weeden-Smith, Prima Wagan, Hank Webber, Jason Purnell, Nishesh Chalise, Ifeanyi Ukpabi, and Rachel Lewis have been stimulating collaborators as we have tried to figure out how anchor institutions can revitalize disinvested neighborhoods. Led by Dana Malkus, the Vacancy Collaborative Reading Group critically examined several chapters from the book. Among many other members of the group, Peter Hoffman, Zach Kassman, Laura Ginn, Ian Trivers, Bob Lewis, Kathryn Shackelford, and Brian Adler deserve a special shout-out for stimulating conversations about the challenges of disinvested neighborhoods. Austin Harrison has also helped both Todd and Alan think critically about the literature on neighborhood change.

Todd would like to thank Allie Huddleston and Zack Schwartz for research assistance. Madeleine Swanstrom also conducted valuable research for the book as well as endless hours of stimulating conversation about things urban. Todd benefited greatly from Napoleon Williams’s work on the struggles of older suburbs in St. Louis. Bob Kerstein, Ben Looker, and Margaret Weir provided helpful commentary on parts of the manuscript. The St. Louis–Dortmund exchange provoked new thinking about gentrification from a cross-national point of view. We want to especially thank Jörg Plöger, Susanne Frank, Sabine Weck, Heike Hanhörster, Florian Sichling, and Adriano Udani for their many insights. The students from St. Louis who, together with their collaborators from TU Dortmund University, won “The Future of My City” competition also deserve recognition for generating insights on gentrification: Mark Kasen, Liz Gerard, Adam Brown, Nathan Theus, Jodie Lloyd, Sydney Gosik, and Julia Spoerry. Todd’s collaborators on the Home Repair Grant funded by the RRF Foundation for Aging, including Kiley Bednar, Adam Brown, John Robinson, Cynthia Palazzolo, Terry Jones, and Rachel Goldmeier, helped him to understand the huge need for more investment in older homes. Norm Krumholz passed away while this book was being written, but his dedication to equity planning continues be a source of inspiration.

Finally, Todd wants to thank his wife Catherine for being so patient and supportive as he drifted off to his study, physically and mentally, to write the book. He wants to especially acknowledge the incredibly generous and intelligent support she provided during his recent medical challenges. In this case, it is not a cliché: He could not have done it without her.

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