Human Capital Investment for Central City Revitalization

Human Capital Investment for Central City Revitalization shows that a major weakness of urban revitalization programs is their failure to develop human capital. Typically, analyses of urban revitalization have focused on reviving and attracting business to center cities. This book, the product of a three-year study conducted by the National Center for the Revitalization of Central Cities, focuses instead on ways in which poor people can be helped to improve their own situations. Investing in human capital, the contributors argue, will help alter the structures that perpetuate poverty. New revitalization efforts therefore should be based around improving people's capacities. Strategies include upgrading education and school-linked services, enhancing tenant-based housing management programs, and fostering community reinvestment agreements. Through case studies of the center cities of Detroit, Baltimore, New Orleans, and Kansas City, MO, Human Capital Investment for Central City Revitalization shows that empowering city residents will improve their living conditions and, more generally, the central city itself. Book jacket.

Fritz W. Wagner is Dean Emeritus of the College of Urban and Public Affairs at the University of New Orleans, and is also Senior Lecturer at the University of Washington, Bothell Timothy E. Joder is Associate Dean of Business Affairs and Executive Director of Sponsored Research at the College of Urban and Public Affairs at the University of New Orleans. He also serves as Deputy Director of the National Center for the Revitalization of Central Cities Anthony J. Mumphrey Jr. is Professor of Urban and Regional Planning and Research Director of the National Center for the Revitalization of Central Cities at the University of New Orleans