Comeback Cities: A Blueprint For Urban Neighborhood Revival

A pair of pictures on the opening pages of Comeback Cities captures this book's themes as well as any words can. The first shows President Jimmy Carter walking silently through the South Bronx: the shadows are long, there's a boarded-up building in the background, and Carter strolls through a littered field with his hands in his pockets, looking like a man who feels powerless. It evokes a sentiment authors Paul Grogan and Tony Proscio say they understand: "At least in our lifetimes, major cities have gone mostly downhill, burdened by industrial obsolescence, physical rot, riots, crime, poverty, and the serial failure of big federal rescue missions." The next picture, however, is a complete reversal. It shows President Bill Clinton visiting the same area 20 years later: there's a well-maintained residential building in the background, and a gesturing Clinton looks to be in the middle of a good conversation. "The American inner city is rebounding--not just here and there, not just cosmetically, but fundamentally," write Grogan and Proscio.

The authors highlight four trends that explain the urban upswing affecting not just the South Bronx, but American cities in general: the growth of neighborhood nonprofit groups; the creation of new markets, including the willingness of retailers to move into old areas; falling crime rates; and "the unshackling of inner-city life from the giant bureaucracies that once dictated everything that happened there--in particular, the welfare system, public housing authorities, and public schools." This is no dewy-eyed account; Grogan and Proscio readily acknowledge statistics that suggest there's not much of a recovery at all, and they're careful to qualify many of their statements. But anybody who has seen New York City circa 1990 versus New York City at the new millennium knows the authors have a point when they write that "something is happening in formerly bleak neighborhoods all over the country, something unforeseen and, at least in recent decades, unprecedented." They've done a good job of explaining what that something is. Before reading Comeback Cities, it's impossible not to hope Grogan and Proscio's optimism is warranted; afterwards, it's possible to believe they're right. --John J. Miller