The End of the Village: Planning the Urbanization of Rural China by Nick R. Smith (review)

Abstract

racial segregation, those communities affirm an injustice and perpetuate all the attendant social ills that racial hegemony entails. Flint used restrictive covenants not to block the construction of back decks and room additions, as in Sunnyside Gardens, but to prevent Blacks from buying, leasing, or otherwise living in homes. By the time Flint reluctantly acceded to fair housing policies in the 1970s, block busting and White flight hollowed out much of the city’s middle class. Because African Americans do so much of the heavy lifting in efforts to revive Civic Park, Young confronts the role that racism played in Flint’s development and demise much more frankly than Kroessler does for Sunnyside Gardens. Both Kroessler and Young offer richly detailed histories of the struggles that groups or individuals face when seeking to revive communities through rehabilitating or preserving buildings. One might reasonably be deemed a success, though its conception in racial injustice must temper any celebration. The other highlights the limitations to what both one person with limited resources and a marginalized and politically weak community can accomplish.