Review by Choice Review
The major focus of this poignant book is on the tensions and challenges associated with social change in one urban neighborhood. Cummings follows the human side of the neighborhood as its class and racial makeup evolve from a predominately white middle-class area to a racially mixed neighborhood, to one whose residents are predominately poor blacks and Latinos. Using extensive interviews and fieldwork, the author examines the psychological and emotional circumstances of residents left in a changing urban milieu. Cummings specifically addresses the problems of the elderly, families, and youth, and he shows how these groups suffer because of the lack of cohesive and stable communities as this area undergoes economic and demographic change. The special contribution of his book is its revelation of how public officials, public policy, and community residents abetted community decline by failing to manage the process of racial succession in an effective and humane manner. Cummings concludes with a critical examination of national urban policy and offers recommendations for how cities and residents can better manage racial transition and change. Upper-division undergraduates and above. G. Rabrenovic Northeastern University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
"Neighborhood succession," academics call it; ex-residents simply say their community "changed." What both groups are describing is an all-white area that became, more or less quickly, an all-black area. Cummings--a University of Louisville urban policy and sociology professor who has edited the Journal of Urban Affairs for 10 years--became involved with "Rosedale" (in the Dallas^-Fort Worth region) in the mid-1970s. Studying "institutional, cultural, and psychological changes that accompanied racial transition," he explores "how various public policies contributed to Rosedale's decline" and seeks to identify "new policies . . . to better enable cities to preserve, protect and revitalize their neighborhoods." Because marginalized groups were most vulnerable to Rosedale's institutional breakdown, Cummings focuses particular attention on old and young: "For the white elderly, the ghettoization of Rosedale produced fear, isolation, and withdrawal. For adolescents, it produced rage, hostility, and violence." Preventing future Rosedales, Cummings maintains, will require a serious attack on both racism and crime, as well as early action to strengthen community institutions. Thoughtful analysis of a continuing problem. --Mary Carroll
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
Review by Booklist Review
