Customer Reviews

Waiting for Gautreaux: A Story of Segregation, Housing, and the Black Ghetto

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This book is excellent portrayal of the events around the saga that was the Gautreaux case. Not only did this case change the law, but ultimately thousands of lives in the city of Chicago. Alex Polikoff's narrative is easy to read and he reveals an insider's perspective of the machinations in the halls of power from Mayor Daley's City Hall to the Supreme Court of the United States. For anyone acquainted with or interested in segregation, urban development, and welfare reform, this book represents an excellent addition to one's library.

This book is a memoir, it is not really an objective review of affordable housing issues. Polikoff comes at this from a certain political perspective, but regardless of how one feels about public housing and the people who live in public housing, Gautreaux is primarily a story about a city agency that broke the law and Polikoff's struggle to enforce a court order to remedy the actions of the city.

I very much enjoyed the book, but I too come from a certain political perspective. My biggest gripe with the book was that Polikoff admits the mistakes that were made in the case, but he doesn't really explore the implications of those mistakes, which, in my opinion, were significant.