(p. C9) Mr. Husock, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, traces the progress of a seemingly sensible but ultimately destructive idea: that “low-income neighborhoods built by ordinary builders were exploitative, overcrowded, and dangerous.”
. . .
What these reformers failed to understand, Mr. Husock contends, is that the poor neighborhoods of large cities provided what planned and subsidized neighborhoods never could: tightly knit communities, a sense of belonging and attendant political participation, ethnic character and the economic mobility that springs from property ownership.
. . .
The unreformers, Mr. Husock writes, “understood something fundamental: Community develops when keeping one’s property becomes part of a positive conspiracy of shared self-interest.”
For the full review, see:
(Note: ellipses added.)
(Note: the online version of the review has the date October 29, 2021 [sic], and has the title “Politics: When the Lights Go Down in the City.”)
The book under review is:
Husock, Howard A. The Poor Side of Town: And Why We Need It. New York: Encounter Books, 2021.