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Fixing Broken Cities explores the planning, execution, and impact of urban repopulation and investment strategies that were launched in the wake of two crises: late twentieth-century economic disinvestment and the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
List of contents
Introduction 1. The Ten-Year Tax Abatement: An Equitable Development Controversy and a Political Compromise 2. The Center City District: Rethinking Downtown and Post-Pandemic Futures 3. The Transition Zone: Remaking a Neighborhood and Revisiting, 25 Years Later 4. The Neighborhood Transformation Initiative: An Ambitious Policy, a Land Management Problem, and an Organizational Development Success 5. Two Institution-Assisted Neighborhood Public School Ventures, a Generation Apart: Penn Alexander and Powel/SLAMS 6. The West Philadelphia Fire House: Constructing a Community Partnership and Witnessing Neighborhood Change, 1982–2022 7. Public Power and Political Dynamics in Camden: The State Receivership, Grow NJ, and the Newest Waterfront Plan 8. Two Inheritances for a New Administration in Allentown, Pennsylvania: A Rental Housing Crisis and a Wealth-Generating Neighborhood Improvement Zone 9. Conclusion: Three Glimpses of the Future
About the author
John Kromer is a housing and development consultant who specializes in the design and execution of reinvestment strategies for distressed urban communities. As Philadelphia's Director of Housing from 1992 to 2001, he supervised the expenditure of more than a billion dollars in public investment to implement housing preservation and development strategies that improved living conditions for thousands of Philadelphia families. Since then, he has completed strategic planning and capacity building projects for municipal government agencies and nonprofit development organizations. He teaches a course in "The Politics of Housing and Urban Development" at the University of Pennsylvania, USA, where he previously served as a program administrator and consultant at the Fels Institute of Government. His most recent book, Philadelphia Battlefields: Disruptive Campaigns and Upset Elections in a Changing City (2021) draws on his extensive participation in local political campaigns and elections.
Summary
Fixing Broken Cities explores the planning, execution, and impact of urban repopulation and investment strategies that were launched in the wake of two crises: late twentieth-century economic disinvestment and the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
