The Suburban Racial Dilemma: Housing and Neighborhoods (Conflicts In Urban & Regional) [Paperback]

W. Keating (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 6, 1994 | ISBN-10: 1566391482 | ISBN-13: 978-1566391481

Whether through affirmative housing policies or mandatory legislation, there have been numerous efforts to integrate America's neighborhoods, especially the historically white, affluent suburbs. Though much of suburbia has rejected such measures out of a fear of losing their communities to an influx of low-income, inner-city, and primarily African American residents, several metropolitan areas have been successful in creating greater racial diversity. W. Dennis Keating documents the desirability, feasibility, and legality of implementing housing diversity policies in the suburbs. At the heart of this book is the troubling dilemma that the private housing market will inevitably resist race-conscious policies that can be effective only if embraced and supported by individual home buyers and renters, politicians, realtors, financial institutions, and insurers. In the Cleveland, Ohio, metropolitan area, pro-integrative policies have resulted in some examples of long-term racial diversity, particularly in Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights. Keating compares Cleveland's suburbs to suburbs around the country that have both failed and succeeded in reducing housing discrimination. While there have been occasional fair housing victories over the last three decades, Keating's analysis points toward strategies for greater progress in the future. Formerly a staff attorney at the National Housing Law Project, University of California at Berkeley, W. Dennis Keating is Professor of Law and Urban Planning and Associate Dean of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University. He is co-author of "Housing and Community Development: Cases and Materials".

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In 1968, LBJ's Kerner Commission famously said we were becoming ``two increasingly separate Americas,'' one black and one white. But most people don't remember what else the commission, set up in the midst of the country's worst urban riots in this century, predicted: that within 20 years we'd become ``a white society principally united in suburbs, in smaller central cities, and in the peripheral parts of large central cities; and a Negro society largely concentrated within large central cities.'' Today, over half the population lives in 39 metropolitan areas--with most blacks living in the central cities and most whites in the suburbs. Here, Cleveland State University law professor Keating describes community and government attempts at healing this suburban-urban racial divide. He chronicles efforts to break down suburban racial barriers in housing throughout the United States, but focuses on Cleveland, which joins Chicago and Detroit as the nation's most segregated metropolitan areas. Although the country's many failures and few successes at suburban housing integration are carefully profiled here, Keating's data also points up our urgent need to focus public policy on depopulated and increasingly impoverished and homogeneous urban centers. As he convincingly demonstrates, private and government attempts at suburban integration, as well as special urban integrationist projects have achieved spotty results at best. What's needed is a rethinking of metropolitan policy. While that's beyond Keating's scope here, his book usefully illustrates some of our current policy's intractable problems.

Copyright 1994 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"[Keating] chronicles efforts to break down suburban racial barriers in housing throughout the United States.... Keating's data also point up our urgent need to focus public policy on depopulated and increasingly impoverished and homogeneous urban centers. As he convincingly demonstrates, private and government attempts at suburban integration, as well as special urban integrationist projects, have achieved spotty results at best."
—Publishers Weekly

"With case studies of local governments and nonprofits striving to lead the examined life and shape a robust, racially inclusive destiny, Keating illuminates the issues of race and residence. Anyone who is concerned about understanding these issues will benefit from reading his book."
—Shelterforce Online

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Temple University Press (April 6, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566391482
• ISBN-13: 978-1566391481
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #670,034 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #74 in Books > Law > Constitutional Law > Discrimination

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