How East New York Became a Ghetto

View the Table of Contents. Read the Foreword.Walter Thabit has written a highly personal and compelling piece of retrospective analysis.--Journal of the American Planning AssociationThabit's writing is lucid and heartfelt.--Urban StudiesAn excellent source of data and intelligence on the formation of ghettos and the life and struggle within them.--Science & SocietyHow East New York Became a Ghetto describes the shift of East New York from a working-class immigrant neighborhood to a largely black and Puerto Rican one, and shows how a series of racially biased policies caused the deterioration of this once-flourishing area.--Arab-American AffairsAn interesting and worthwhile read, especially for its descriptions.--SupplementWalter Thabit's book works as a slice of urban sociology, history, and political science. It should whet the appetites of students and scholars to inquire into the longue duree of the subject more extensively.--New York HistoryA comprehensive account of the decline of East New York in Brooklyn into a typical urban slum and of the efforts since the 1960s to redevelop the neighborhood. Anyone interested in urban social problems and improving the quality of life for urban poor should read this astounding analysis of urban decay and rebirth.--Multicultural ReviewThabit does a Herculean task of documenting the various factors that led to the ghettoization of East New York.--Progressive Planning View the Table of Contents. Read the Introduction.Thabit is in a unique position to document the destruction of the once working class Brooklyn neighborhood... Toward the book's conclusion, Thabit sounds a faint note of hope to the emerging community groups. -- New YorkThis thoughtful, important analysis is recommended for academics, professionals, and a concerned public library audience.--Library JournalWalter Thabit eloquently tells the story of East New York, a neighborhood in eastern Brooklyn, complementing his close observation of events in the neighborhood with astute analyses of the bearing of larger forces on this big city slum. Events in East New York reveal in microcosm the turbulent national forces that have determined the fate of inner city ghettos across the country over the past 40 years.--from the Foreword by Frances Fox PivenThe grim descriptions of civil neglect, community disorganization and institutional racism make this a difficult read, particularly when one realizes that this is the story that can be told about thousands of other neighborhoods in scores of citiies by hundreds of people. Perhaps if more planners like Thabit had told their stories, we might not have found oruselves in this predicament. --ADPSR NYIn response to the riots of the mid-'60s, Walter Thabit was hired to work with the community of East New York to develop a plan for low- and moderate-income public housing. In the years that followed, he experienced first-hand the forces that had engineered East New York's dramatic decline and that continued to work against its successful revitalization. How East New York Became a Ghetto describes the shift of East New York from a working-class immigrant neighborhood to a largely black and Puerto Rican neighborhood and shows how the resulting racially biased policies caused the deterioration of this once flourishing area.A clear-sighted, unflinching look at one ghetto community, How East New York Became a Ghetto provides insights and observations on the histories and fates of ghettos throughout the United States.

Walter Thabit has thirty-five years of experience in housing, renewal, community planning, city planning, and antipoverty projects. He lives in New York City