Building a Better Chicago by Teresa Irene Gonzales, ISBN-13: 978-1479814886

Building a Better Chicago: Race and Community Resistance to Urban Redevelopment by Teresa Irene Gonzales, ISBN-13: 978-1479814886

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• Publisher: ‎ NYU Press (June 29, 2021)
• Language: ‎ English
• 226 pages
• ISBN-10: ‎ 1479814881
• ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1479814886

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.

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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