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Author Anderson, Michelle W., author.

Title The fight to save the town : reimagining discarded America / Michelle Wilde Anderson.

Publication Info. New York : Avid Reader Press, 2022.

Copies

Location Call No. Status
 Avon Free Public Library - Adult Department  363.0973 ANDERSON    Check Shelf
 Burlington Public Library - Adult Department  363.09 WILDE ANDERSON    Check Shelf
 Cheshire Public Library - Adult Department Lower Level  363.0973 ANDERSON    Check Shelf
 Enfield, Main Library - Adult Department  363.0973 AND    Check Shelf
 Middletown, Russell Library - NEW Adult Nonfiction  363.09 AND    Check Shelf
 Simsbury Public Library - Non Fiction  363.0973 ANDERSON    Check Shelf
 South Windsor Public Library - Non Fiction  363.09 WILDE ANDERSON    Check Shelf
 West Hartford, Noah Webster Library - Non Fiction  320.8 ANDERSON    Check Shelf
 Windsor, Main Library - Adult Department  363.0973 AN    Check Shelf
Edition First Avid Reader Press hardcover edition
Description vii, 352 pages ; 24 cm.
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages (261-338) and index.
Contents Introduction: "Aren't we the government?" -- "I won't give up on you, ever": Stockton, California -- Man in the arena: Josephine county, Oregon -- "Marching, marching, in the beauty of the day": Lawrence Massachusetts -- Do not bid: Detroit, Michigan -- Facing forward.
Summary Decades of cuts to local government amidst rising concentrations of poverty have wreaked havoc on communities left behind by the modern economy. Some of these discarded places are rural. Others are big cities, small cities, or historic suburbs. Some vote blue, others red. Some are the most diverse communities in America, while others are nearly all white, all Latino, or all Black. All are routinely trashed by outsiders for their poverty and their politics. Mostly, their governments are just broke. Forty years after the anti-tax revolution began protecting wealthy taxpayers and their cities, our high-poverty cities and counties have run out of services to cut, properties to sell, bills to defer, and risky loans to take. In The Fight to Save the Town, urban law expert and author Michelle Wilde Anderson offers unsparing, humanistic portraits of the hardships left behind in four such places. But this book is not a eulogy or a lament. Instead, Anderson travels to four blue-collar communities that are poor, broke, and progressing. Networks of leaders and residents in these places are facing down some of the hardest challenges in American poverty today. In Stockton, California, locals are finding ways, beyond the police department, to reduce gun violence and treat the trauma it leaves behind. In Josephine County, Oregon, community leaders have enacted new taxes to support basic services in a rural area with fiercely anti-government politics. In Lawrence, Massachusetts, leaders are figuring out how to improve job security and wages in an era of backbreaking poverty for the working class. And a social movement in Detroit, Michigan is pioneering ways to stabilize low-income housing after a wave of foreclosures and housing loss. Our smallest governments shape people's safety, comfort, and life chances. For decades, these governments have no longer just reflected inequality--they have helped drive it. But it doesn't have to be that way. Anderson argues that a new generation of local leaders are figuring out how to turn poverty traps back into gateway cities.
Subject Municipal services -- United States.
Local government -- United States.
Poverty -- United States.
Social problems -- Government policy -- United States.
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Economics / General.
Local government. (OCoLC)fst01001300
Municipal services. (OCoLC)fst01029431
Poverty. (OCoLC)fst01074093
Social problems -- Government policy. (OCoLC)fst01122782
United States. (OCoLC)fst01204155
ISBN 1501195980 (hardcover)
9781501195983 (hardcover)
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