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Author Bloom, Nicholas Dagen, 1969- author.

Title Public housing that worked : New York in the twentieth century / Nicholas Dagen Bloom
Published Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2008]
©2008

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Description 1 online resource (364 pages) : illustrations, maps
Contents Model housing as a municipal service. Defining a housing crisis; Three programs are better than one; High-rise public housing begins; Model tenants for model housing; Tightly managed communities -- Transforming postwar New York. The boom years; Designs for a new metropolis; The price of design reform; The benefits of social engineering; Meeting the management challenge -- Welfare-state public housing. Surviving the welfare state; The value of consistency -- Affordable housing. Model housing revisited -- Appendix A. Guide to housing developments -- Appendix B. Tenant selection policies and procedures
Summary 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
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 279-348) and index
Notes Print version record
Subject New York City Housing Authority -- History -- 20th century
New York City Housing Authority
Public housing -- New York (State) -- New York -- History -- 20th century
City planning -- New York (State) -- New York -- History -- 20th century
HISTORY -- United States -- 20th Century.
City planning
Public housing
Social conditions
New York (N.Y.) -- Social conditions -- 20th century
New York (State) -- New York
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780812201321
0812201329
0812220676
9780812220674