Efforts to rehab boarded-up structures, build new homes on vacant lots, and to remove graffiti, abandoned cars and other unsightly stuff contributes to the restoration of social order. The authors believe that these activities added new credence to the work of CDCs. Unshackling city life from gigantic unresponsive bureaucracies . In expounding on resurgent markets, maturing grassroots movements, the reform of government systems and other Blueprint elements, Grogan and Proscio do more than describe. They aggressively opine.
Poverty is still significantly higher than in most parts of New York.
The South Bronx has not regained its former grandeur, nor is it likely to do so. The above observations certainly do prompt rhetorical questions. Despite these influences, surprisingly, the book does not dissect the challenges facing national intermediaries nor does it discuss limitations to this model. Though it seriously deals with a host of urban policy issues, this work lacks the rigor of another recent book, Urban Problems and Community Development , published by the Brookings Press and also dedicated to the recently deceased Sviridoff. Comeback Cities is more of a thoughtful practitioner's book rather than an academic treatise.