Show me a hero : a tale of murder, suicide, race, and redemption

NOW AN HBO MINISERIES Not in my backyard — that's the refrain commonly invoked by property owners who oppose unwanted development. Such words assume a special ferocity when the development in question is public housing. Lisa Belkin penetrates the prejudices, myths, and heated emotions stirred by the most recent trend in public housing as she re-creates a landmark case in riveting detail, showing how a proposal to build scattered-site public housing in middle-class neighborhoods nearly destroyed an entire city and forever changed the lives of many of its citizens. — Public housing projects are being torn down throughout the United States. What will take their place? Show Me a Hero explores the answer. — An important and compelling work of narrative nonfiction in the tradition of J. Anthony Lukas's Common Ground. — A sweeping yet intimate group portrait that assesses the effects of public policy on individual human lives. Political Science / Public Policy / City Planning & Urban Development, Political Science / Public Policy / Social Services & Welfare, History / United States / State & Local / Middle Atlantic (Dc, De, Md, Nj, Ny, P, Political Science / Civil Rights, History / United States / 20th Century Yonkers, New Jersey, 1987. Nicholas Wasicsko, the city's ambitious young mayor is given a court order demanding that the city build public housing on the white, middle-class side of town in order to right what the judge saw as intentional, decades-long pattern of segregation. As these cosy neighbourhoods were faced with the reality of a truly diverse and accepting community, the city went into crisis. In the fine tradition of American reportage, Show Me a Hero is the story of a city divided by fear, racism, politics and even murder. It is also the story of the individuals whose lives were shattered by the meltdown: the young mother, the activist, the ambitious politician Issues facing public housing in Yonkers and the people who live with the results