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Shows that cities can be revitalized by attracting and retaining the middle class through schools and housing programs.
Selling Cities takes the optimistic position that cities can be revitalized by attracting and retaining the middle class. The authors, experienced policymakers as well as academics, review previous work on city revitalization; report original research on homebuyers in the Cincinnati and Wilmington, Delaware metropolitan areas; and present case studies of middle-income schooling and housing policies in these and other metropolitan areas around the U.S. and Canada.
Selling Cities spans several disciplines—economics, sociology, demography, law, and planning—and is one of the first books to examine both housing and schooling programs. It includes numerous recommendations for city revitalization; an analysis of middle-income housing programs such as tax abatements and below-market-rate mortgages; analyses of metropolitan school desegregation in the Wilmington area and magnet schools in Cincinnati; and proposals of policies to enhance cities' attraction and retention of the middle class.
"This book offers empirical insights to a critical urban policy issue: Can central cities attract middle-class homeowners? The analysis is thorough, the data interpretation is well balanced and non ideological, and the policy recommendations user-friendly. The argument that cities can do something about decline is an important contribution to the urban policy literature." — Kenneth Wong, University of Chicago
"A really thoughtful contribution to the policy debate. The topic is extremely significant, both as a matter for policy debate and as a subject for academic inquiry."— Robert K. Whelan, University of New Orleans
List of Figures
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
Part 1. The Problem of Cities
1. The Importance of Attracting Middle-Class Homeowners to Cities
2. Central City Revitalization: Three Different Perspectives
3. Two Cities and Their Recent Homebuyers
Part 2. The Mobility Process
4. City-Suburban Choices
5. Moving Plans
6. Segmentation of the Homebuyer Market
Part 3. Developing Programs to Attract Middle-Income Families
7. Local Housing Plans
8. Middle-Income Housing Programs
9. Overcoming Resistance to Middle-Income Housing Programs in Low-Income Communities
10. Metropolitan School Desegregation
11. Magnet Schools
Part 4. Conclusions
12. Future City Revitalization Efforts
Appendix 1. Definitions of Independent Variables
Appendix 2. Definitions of Community Variables Included in Factor Analysis
Notes
References
Index