Building a Better Chicago: Race and Community Resistance to Urban Redevelopment
How local Black and Brown communities can resist gentrification and fight for their interests

Despite promises from politicians, nonprofits, and government agencies, Chicago’s most disadvantaged neighborhoods remain plagued by poverty, failing schools, and gang activity. In Building a Better Chicago, Teresa Irene Gonzales shows us how, and why, these promises have gone unfulfilled, revealing tensions between neighborhood residents and the institutions that claim to represent them.

Focusing on Little Village, the largest Mexican immigrant community in the Midwest, and Greater Englewood, a predominantly Black neighborhood, Gonzales gives us an on-the-ground look at Chicago’s inner city. She shows us how philanthropists, nonprofits, and government agencies struggle for power and control—often against the interests of residents themselves—with the result of further marginalizing the communities of color they seek to help. But Gonzales also shows how these communities have advocated for themselves and demanded accountability from the politicians and agencies in their midst. Building a Better Chicago explores the many high-stakes battles taking place on the streets of Chicago, illuminating a more promising pathway to empowering communities of color in the twenty-first century.

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Building a Better Chicago: Race and Community Resistance to Urban Redevelopment
How local Black and Brown communities can resist gentrification and fight for their interests

Despite promises from politicians, nonprofits, and government agencies, Chicago’s most disadvantaged neighborhoods remain plagued by poverty, failing schools, and gang activity. In Building a Better Chicago, Teresa Irene Gonzales shows us how, and why, these promises have gone unfulfilled, revealing tensions between neighborhood residents and the institutions that claim to represent them.

Focusing on Little Village, the largest Mexican immigrant community in the Midwest, and Greater Englewood, a predominantly Black neighborhood, Gonzales gives us an on-the-ground look at Chicago’s inner city. She shows us how philanthropists, nonprofits, and government agencies struggle for power and control—often against the interests of residents themselves—with the result of further marginalizing the communities of color they seek to help. But Gonzales also shows how these communities have advocated for themselves and demanded accountability from the politicians and agencies in their midst. Building a Better Chicago explores the many high-stakes battles taking place on the streets of Chicago, illuminating a more promising pathway to empowering communities of color in the twenty-first century.

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Building a Better Chicago: Race and Community Resistance to Urban Redevelopment

Building a Better Chicago: Race and Community Resistance to Urban Redevelopment

by Teresa Irene Gonzales
Building a Better Chicago: Race and Community Resistance to Urban Redevelopment

Building a Better Chicago: Race and Community Resistance to Urban Redevelopment

by Teresa Irene Gonzales

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Overview

How local Black and Brown communities can resist gentrification and fight for their interests

Despite promises from politicians, nonprofits, and government agencies, Chicago’s most disadvantaged neighborhoods remain plagued by poverty, failing schools, and gang activity. In Building a Better Chicago, Teresa Irene Gonzales shows us how, and why, these promises have gone unfulfilled, revealing tensions between neighborhood residents and the institutions that claim to represent them.

Focusing on Little Village, the largest Mexican immigrant community in the Midwest, and Greater Englewood, a predominantly Black neighborhood, Gonzales gives us an on-the-ground look at Chicago’s inner city. She shows us how philanthropists, nonprofits, and government agencies struggle for power and control—often against the interests of residents themselves—with the result of further marginalizing the communities of color they seek to help. But Gonzales also shows how these communities have advocated for themselves and demanded accountability from the politicians and agencies in their midst. Building a Better Chicago explores the many high-stakes battles taking place on the streets of Chicago, illuminating a more promising pathway to empowering communities of color in the twenty-first century.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781479814886
Publisher: New York University Press
Publication date: 06/29/2021
Series: Latina/o Sociology , #17
Pages: 232
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Teresa Irene Gonzales is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Loyola University. She is the author of Building a Better Chicago: Race and Community Resistance to Urban Development.

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables ix

Introduction: "This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things" 1

1 Àse: (Mis)trust, Change Makers, and Leadership: Development in Two Chicago Neighborhoods 19

2 A Seat at the Table: The New Communities Program, Organizational Relationships, and Socialization into Community Development 51

3 "You Can't Do It if You're Mad, You Can Do It if You're Organized": Leadership Development and the New Communities Program 85

4 "Teamwork to Make the Dream Work": Networks of Opportunity and Collective Skepticism as a Tactical Tool 117

Conclusion: What's Trust Got to Do with It? 153

Acknowledgments 165

Appendix A Methods 169

Appendix B In-Depth Interview Protocol 173

Notes 177

Bibliography 191

Index 205

About the Author 215

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