SYLLABUS

1. February 4th. Introduction to the themes of the course and course requirements. 

2. February 11th. The state of cities and urban life today. 

Robert J. Sampson, "Unemployment and Imbalanced Sex Ratios: Race-Specific Consequences for Family Structure and Crime," in M. Belinda Tucker and Claudia Mitchell-Kernan, eds., The Decline in Marriage Among African Americans (Russell Sage Foundation, 1995), pp. 229-254

William H. Frey and Elaine L. Fielding, "Changing Urban Populations: Regional Restructuring, Racial Polarization, and Poverty Concentration," Cityscape 1:2 (June 1995): 1-66

Franklin J. James, "Urban Economies: Trends, Forces, and Implications for the President's National Urban Policy," Cityscape 1:2 (June 1995): 67-123

Janet Rothenberg Pack, "The Impacts of Concentrated Urban Poverty on City Government Expenditures," (Real Estate Center, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, December 1994)

Helen Ladd, "Big City Finances," in George E. Peterson, ed., Big-City Politics, Governance, and Fiscal Constraints (Urban Institute, 1994), pp. 201-269

Background
Robert D. Plotnick, "Assessing the Well-Being of Urban Households," in Harold Wolman and Elizabeth Agius, eds., National Urban Policy (Wayne State University Press, 1996), pp. 78-105, with comment by Sheldon Danziger.

3. February 18th. The Cultural and Political Setting for Contemporary Urban Policy 

Hugh Heclo, "Poverty Politics," in Sheldon H. Danziger, Gary D. Sandefur, and Daniel H. Weinberg, eds., Confronting Poverty: Prescriptions for Change (Russell Sage Foundation/Harvard University Press, 1994), pp. 396-437

James L. Sundquist, "Has America Lost its Social Conscience - And Can it Get it Back?" in Marshall Kaplan and Franklin James, eds., The Future of National Urban Policy (Duke University, 1990), pp. 325-344

Nicholas Lemann, "The Myth of Community Development." New York Times Magazine (January 9): 27-60

William Schneider, "The Suburban Century Begins," Atlantic (July 1992): 33-44

Arthur L. Goldberg, "Americans and their Cities: Solicitude and Support," in Ronald Berkman et al, In the National Interest (New York: 20th Century Fund Press, 1992)

Robert A. Beauregard, "Why Passion for the City Has Been Lost," Journal of Urban Affairs 18:3 (1996): 217-231.

4. February 25th. Democrats expand federal urban programs as a response to urban problems and conflicts: the New Deal, Fair Deal, Great Society, and Carter administrations. 

John H. Mollenkopf, The Contested City (Princeton University Press, 1983), Chapter Two

Thomas Jackson, "The State, the Movement, and the Urban Poor: The War on Poverty and Political Mobilization in the 1960s," in Michael B. Katz, ed., The "Underclass" Debate: View from History (Princeton University Press, 1993)

Franklin James, "President Carter's Comprehensive National Urban Policy Achievements and Lessons Learned," Government and Policy 8 (February 1990): 29-38

Background
Benjamin Kleinberg, Urban America in Transformation: Perspectives on Urban Policy and Development (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1995), Chapters 4-6

Robert Halpern, Rebuilding the Inner City: A History of Initiatives to Address Poverty in the United States (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995)

Eliabeth Agius and Harold Wolman, "The President's National Urban Policy Report as a Policy Document: A History and Analysis of the First Twenty Years," in Wolman and Agius, eds., National Urban Policy, pp. 27-51.

5. March 4th. Republicans modify federal urban programs in response to Democrats: reform and contraction of urban programs in World War II, the Eisenhower administration, the Nixon-Ford years, and the Reagan and Bush administrations. 

Mollenkopf, The Contested City, Chapter Three.

Harold Wolman, "The Reagan Urban Policy and Its Impacts," Urban Affairs Quarterly 21:3 (March 1986): 311-335

Demetrios Caraley, "Washington Abandons the Cities," Political Science Quarterly 107:1 (1992): 1-30

Michael Rich, "Riot and Reason: Crafting an Urban Policy Response," Publius 23 (Summer 1993): 115-134

Background
Benjamin Kleinberg, Urban America in Transformation: Perspectives on Urban Policy and Development (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1995), Chapters 7, 8.

6. March 11th. Federal Urban Policy in the Clinton Era: Community Empowerment Meets The Contract With America 

John Mollenkopf, "Urban Policy in the Clinton Era: From Entitlement to `Empowerment' to Retrenchment," in Margaret Weir, ed., The Politics of Social Policy in the Clinton Administration (Russell Sage Foundation/Brookings Institution, forthcoming)

Fred Siegel and Will Marshall, "Markets and Empowerment: Helping Cities Help Themselves" in Will Marshall, ed., Building the Bridge: Ten Big Ideas to Transform American (Rowman and Littlefield, 1997), pp. 129-148

Christine Olson and Robert Rector, "Saving Our Children: The American Community Renewal Act of 1996," Heritage Foundation Issues Bulletin No. 228 (July 29, 1996)

Demetrios J. Caraley, "Dismantling the Federal Safety Net: Fictions Versus Realities," Political Science Quarterly 111 (Summer 1996)

Background
Henry Cisneros et al, Interwoven Destinies: Cities and the Nation (New York: W.W. Norton, 1993)

HUD Reinvention Blueprint (Office of Policy Development and Research, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, December 1994).

7. March 18th. Suburbanization, metropolitan segregation, spatial mismatch, and mobility programs. 

George Galster, "Racial Discrimination and Segregation," in George Galster, ed., Reality and Research: Social Science and U.S. Urban Policy Since 1960 (Urban Institute Press, 1996), pp. 181-204

G. Thomas Kingsley and Margaret Austin Turner, eds., Housing Markets and Residential Mobility (Urban Institute Press, 1993), chapters 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, and 11

John M. Hartung and Jeffrey R. Henig, "Housing Vouchers and Certificates as a Vehicle for Deconcentrating the Poor," Urban Affairs Review 32:3 (January 1997): 403-419

Background
Claudia J. Coulton, Julian Chow, Edward C. Wang, and Marilyn Su, "Geographic Concentration of Affluence and Poverty in 100 Metropolitan Areas, 1990," Urban Affairs Review 32:2 (November 1996): 186-216

George C. Galster and Edward W. Hill, eds., The Metropolis in Black and White: Place, Power, and Polarization (Rutgers Center for Urban Policy Research, 1992)

William W. Goldsmith and Edward J. Blakely, Separate Societies: Poverty and Inequality in U.S. Cities (Temple University Press, 1992)

Douglas Massey and Maureen Denton, American Apartheid (Harvard University Press, 1993)

8. March 25th. Metropolitan solutions to urban problems: approaches and obstacles. 

Todd Swanstrom, "Ideas Matter: Reflections on the New Regionalism Debate," Cityscape 2:2 (May 1996):5-22

Christopher Edley, "The Next Phase of the Clinton Urban Policy: Metropolitan Empowerment Zones," (draft memorandum, Office of Management and Budget, October 1994)

Edward W. Hill, Harold L. Wolman, and Coit C. Ford III, "Can Suburbs Survive Without Their Central Cities? Examining the Suburban Dependence Hypothesis," Urban Affairs Review 31:2 (November 1995): 147-183 with comment from and rejoinder to Savitch

Margaret Weir, "Central Cities' Loss of Power in State Politics," Cityscape 2:2 (May 1996): 23-40

Background
Anthony Downs, New Visions for Metropolitan America (Brookings Institution, 1994)

Donald Phares, ed., Metropolitan Governance Without Metropolitan Government? (forthcoming)

H.V. Savitch and Ronald K. Vogel, eds., Regional Politics: American in a Post-City Age (Sage Publications, 1996)

9. April 1st. Drugs, crime, social disorganization, and social control in central city neighborhoods. 

Jeffrey Fagan, "Drug Selling and Licit Income in Distressed Neighborhoods: The Economic Lives of Street-Level Drug Users and Dealers," in Adele V. Harrell and George Peterson, eds., Drugs, Crime, and Social Isolation (Urban Institute Press, 1993), pp. 99-138

Reread Sampson from session 2. 

Dan A. Lewis, "Crime and Communities: Continuities, Contradictions, and Complexities," Cityscape 2:2 (May 1996): 95-120

Ralph B. Taylor, "The Impact of Crime on Communities," Annals 539 (May 1995): 28-45

John E. Eck and David Weisburd, "Crime Places in Crime Theory," in John E. Eck and David Weisburd, Crime and Place (Police Executive Research Forum, 1995), pp. 1-33

Materials on fall in police-documented crime in New York City. 

Background
Wesley G. Skogan, Disorder and Decline: Crime and the Spiral of Decay in American Neighborhoods (Free Press, 1990)

10. April 8th. Community development corporations and neighborhood revitalization. 

Dennis E. Gale, "Conceptual Issues in Neighborhood Decline and Revitalization," in Naomi Caidon, ed., Neighborhood Policy and Programmes (St. Martins, 1990), pp. 11-35

Edward W. Goetz, "Local Government Support for Nonprofit Housing: A Survey of U.S. Cites," Urban Affairs Quarterly 27:3 (March 1992)

Langley C. Keyes, Alex Schwartz, Avis C. Vidal, and Rachel Bratt, "Networks and Nonprofits: Opportunities and Challenges in an Era of Federal Devolution," Housing Policy Debate 7:2 (1996): 202-229

Margaret Weir, "Community Development and the Paradox of Decentralization," (paper prepared for the National Community Development Policy Analysis Network Conference, November 15-16, 1996, Brookings Institution)

Xavier Briggs, Elizabeth Mueller, and Alex Schwartz, From Neighborhood to Community: Evidence on the Social Effects of Community Development (Community Development Research Center, New School, December 1996).

11. April 15th. Labor market policy and youth employment. 

George Peterson and Wayne Vroman, eds., Urban Labor Markets and Job Opportunity (Washington: Urban Institute Press, 1993), chapters 1, 3, 4, 6, 7

Background
Randall W. Eberts, "Urban Labor Markets," in Wolman and Agius, eds., National Urban Policy, pp. 52-73

Mercer Sullivan, Getting Paid: Youth Crime and Unemployment in the Inner City (Cornell, 1989)

William J. Wilson, When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor (Knopf 1996), chapters 1,2,5

McDonnel and Norton Grubb, Education and Training for Work: The Policy Instruments and the Institutions (RAND, 1991)

12. April 29th. Welfare reform. 

Pamela A. Holcomb, "Family Support and Social Welfare," in George Galster, ed., Reality and Research (Urban Institute, 1996), Ch. 4

Thomas Corbett, "Child Poverty and Welfare Reform: Progress or Paralysis?" Focus 15:1 (Spring 1993): 1-17

"Welfare Reform in the 104th Congress: Goals, Options, and Tradeoffs," Focus 17:1 (Summer 1995): 29-53

David T. Ellwood, "From Social Science to Social Policy? The Fate of Intellectuals, Ideas, and Ideology in the Welfare Debate of the Mid-1990s," with response by Benjamin Page (Distinguished Public Policy Lecture, Northwestern University, January 11, 1996)

Mary Jo Bane, "Welfare as We Might Know It," The American Prospect 30 (January February 1997): 47-55.

13. May 6th. "Empowerment zones" and Community Economic Development. 

Sarah Liebschutz, "Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities: Reinventing Federalism for Distressed Communities," Publius 25:3 (Summer 1995): 117-132

Marilyn Gittell, Janice Bockmeyer, Robert Lindsay, and Kathe Newman, The Urban Empowerment Zones: Community Organizations and Capacity Building (Samuels Center, May 1996)

Mitchell Moss, "The Empowerment Zone that Couldn't," City 5:2 (Spring 1995): 76-81.

14. May 13th. 

Presentation of selected class projects.