Redevelopment and race : planning a finer city in postwar Detroit / June Manning Thomas.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Thomas, June Manning.

Series:

Great Lakes books.

Great Lakes books

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Urban renewal--Michigan--Detroit--History.

Urban renewal.

City planning--Michigan--Detroit--History.

City planning.

African Americans--Michigan--Detroit--History.

African Americans.

Detroit (Mich.)--Race relations--History.

Detroit (Mich.).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (314 p.)

Edition:

Paperback ed.

Place of Publication:

Detroit : Wayne State University Press, c2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In the decades following World War II, professional city planners in Detroit made a concerted effort to halt the city's physical and economic decline. Their successes included an award-winning master plan, a number of laudable redevelopment projects, and exemplary planning leadership in the city and the nation. Yet despite their efforts, Detroit was rapidly transforming into a notorious symbol of urban decay. In "Redevelopment and Race: Planning a Finer City in Postwar Detroit, " June Manning Thomas takes a look at what went wrong, demonstrating how and why government programs were ineffective and even destructive to community needs. In confronting issues like housing shortages, blight in older areas, and changing economic conditions, Detroit's city planners worked during the urban renewal era without much consideration for low-income and African American residents, and their efforts to stabilize racially mixed neighborhoods faltered as well. Steady declines in industrial prowess and the constant decentralization of white residents counteracted planners' efforts to rebuild the city. Among the issues Thomas discusses in this volume are the harmful impacts of Detroit's highways, the mixed record of urban renewal projects like Lafayette Park, the effects of the 1967 riots on Detroit's ability to plan, the city-building strategies of Coleman Young (the city's first black mayor) and his mayoral successors, and the evolution of Detroit's federally designated Empowerment Zone. Examining the city she knew first as an undergraduate student at Michigan State University and later as a scholar and planner, Thomas ultimately argues for a different approach to traditional planning that places social justice, equity, and community ahead of purely physical and economic objectives. "Redevelopment and Race" was""originally published in 1997 and was given the Paul Davidoff Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning in 1999. Students and teachers of urban planning will be grateful for this re-release. A new postscript offers insights into changes since 1997.

Contents:

""Half-title ""; ""Title ""; ""Copyright ""; ""Dedication ""; ""Contents ""; ""Preface to the Paperback Edition ""; ""Preface ""; ""Acknowledgments ""; ""Abbreviations ""; ""Introduction ""; ""I The Optimistic Years ""; ""1 Roots of Postwar Redevelopment ""; ""2 Postwar Planning ""; ""II Renewal and Loss ""

""3 Eliminating Slums and Blight """"4 Racial Flight and the Conservation Experiment ""; ""5 Revisioning Urban Renewal ""; ""III Progress amidst Decline ""; ""6 Rising from the Fire ""; ""7 Coleman Young and Redevelopment ""; ""8 Planning a Better City ""; ""9 Racial Disunity ""

""10 Conclusion: Moving toward a Finer City """"Postscript ""; ""Notes ""; ""Index ""

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-8143-3908-5

OCLC:

867739252