THE URBAN COMPLEX

by Robert C. Weaver ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 21, 1964

Essays nominally on urban life and human values, most of which appeared in various architectural, housing and civic journals, all of which have the aura of committee reports: facts, figures, officialese jargon. This is hardly surprising since the author is the notable Robert Weaver, late of NY's urban redevelopment program, and presently Washington's HHFA Administrator. The book is difficult to quarrel with, for though the issues are headliners (metropolitan relocation, culturally uncoordinated suburbia, minority harassment, the state and federal aid squabble, population explosion, cities as future non-white ghettos, etc.), the methodology is steeped in research, professionalism, on-the-job knowingness. Weaver holds to the usual democratic pieties of public service, but states the case fairly enough for conservative elements more concerned re private interests, straddling a bit disingenuously at times, e.g., ""Education must not be considered solely as a dollar commodity."" There are a few bombshells: Urban renewal is not Negro removal; nor do colored families depreciate property value. An in-depth, serious-minded middle-of-the-road study.

Pub Date: Aug. 21, 1964

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1964

Categories: NONFICTION