Planners Book Club — October 2007

The Old Neighborhood

The Old Neighborhood was the October 2007 selection of Planners Book Club.

When Americans left the old neighborhood behind in the urban migration of the 1940s and '50s, did they leave the very idea of neighborhoods behind? In The Old Neighborhood, Ray Suarez, host of "Talk of the Nation" on National Public Radio, captures the stories of the people who left and the people who stayed, casting new light on the suburbanization of America.

Here are some questions to get your discussion started:

Suarez examines the population changes in major cities between 1950 and 1990. Would his conclusions have been different if he had access to the 2000 census?

What does the decline of the "consensus culture" mean for planners?

Was the suburbanization of America inevitable?

Suarez points out that Chicago's efforts to reform public housing have displaced many residents. What could the city have done differently?

Writing about the Chicago South Shore Commission, Suarez doesn't seem to question the necessity of keeping white residents in a community. Does a community need white residents to hold on to services?

What role do religious institutions play in shaping communities?

Pennsylvania Representative Chaka Fattah believes race "has been identified as the number one contributing factor to how national policy has been shaped around cities." Is this true? What does it mean?

How does the built environment contribute to perceptions about crime and safety?

Is America more or less segregated now than it was before the civil rights movement?

More about The Old Neighborhood