A compact but complete handbook of zoning covering the story of the spread of this movement, the reasons for zoning, the experiences of various zoned cities, the correct principles and best practice, the legal pitfalls and a selected list of reference.
EDWARD M. BASSETT was chairman of the Zoning Committee of New York.
"Prince George’s County is a Wakanda of sorts. Its majority-Black residents enjoy higher incomes, stronger homeownership, and longer life expectancy than residents in many places—indeed, more than those in many non-Black-majority areas. As a resident, I affectionately call it ‘Black bougie heaven,’ proudly celebrating its strengths. Angela Simms’s rigorous work shows, however, that as remarkable as PG County is, it could be even better in a world without racism. Fighting for a Foothold invites readers from all places to remove the drags of racism that throttle growth that would otherwise occur."
—ANDRE M. PERRY, senior fellow and director, Center for Community Uplift, Brookings Institution
"Fighting for a Foothold reveals the connection between a long legacy of racist policies in America and the struggle among local leadership in an iconic middle-class Black suburb to provide residents with the kinds of amenities that are taken for granted in neighboring middle-class White suburbs. In doing so, Angela Simms shows middle-class Black homeowners and their elected officials face an uphill battle as they attempt to reap the benefits of living in one of the most coveted spaces in the country—the suburbs."
—KARYN LACY, associate professor of sociology, University of Michigan
Prince George’s County, Maryland, is a suburban jurisdiction in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area and is home to the highest concentration of Black middle-class residents in the United States. As such, it is well positioned to overcome White domination and anti-Black racism and their social and economic consequences. Yet Prince George’s does not raise tax revenue sufficient to provide consistent high-quality public goods and services. In Fighting for a Foothold, sociologist Angela Simms examines the factors contributing to Prince George’s financial troubles.
Simms draws on two years of observations of Prince George’s County’s budget and policy development processes, interviews with nearly 60 Prince George’s leaders and residents, and budget and policy analysis for Prince George’s County and its two Whiter, wealthier neighbors, Montgomery County, Maryland, and Fairfax County, Virginia. She argues legacy and ongoing government policies and business practices—such as federal mortgage insurance policy prior to 1968, local government reliance on property taxes, and private investment patterns—have resulted in disparities in wealth accumulation between Black and White Americans, not only for individuals and families but local jurisdictions as well. Prince George’s County has a lower cost of living than its Whiter, wealthier neighbors. As the most affordable county bordering D.C., it attracts a disproportionate share of the region’s core middle-class, lower middle-class, working class, and low-income residents, resulting in greater budget pressure.
Prince George’s uses the same strategies as majority-White jurisdictions to increase revenue, such as taxing at similar rates and vying for development opportunities but does not attain the same financial returns. Ultimately, Simms contends Prince George’s endures “relative regional burden” and that the county effectively subsidizes Whiter counties’ wealth accumulation. She offers policy recommendations for removing the constraints Prince George’s County and other majority-Black jurisdictions navigate, including increased federal and state taxes on wealthy Americans and corporations, which will enhance the capacity for government to distribute and redistribute resources equitably; increased state-level funding of public goods and services, which would decrease local jurisdictions’ reliance on locally-generated tax revenue; and the creation of equity funds to remediate harms inflicted upon Black Americans.
Fighting for a Foothold is an in-depth analysis of the fiscal challenges experienced by Prince George’s County and by the suburban Black middle-class and majority-Black jurisdictions, more broadly. The book reveals how race, class, and local jurisdiction boundaries in metropolitan areas interact to create different material living conditions for Americans.
This illustrated booklet discusses the moral value of folk dancing. Part I covers folk and national dances. Part II covers the use of folk dancing in a public school system, as shown by its use by the girls’ branch of the Public Schools Athletic League of New York City.
LUTHER H. GULICK was director of the Department of Child Hygiene at the Russell Sage Foundation.
This booklet reports on the results of a survey on school social centers sent to 774 school superintendents. It includes charts on cities that reported having schoolhouse social or recreation centers at which there were some paid workers and that reported schools with libraries. The booklet also discusses civic aspects of recent social-center development.
CLARENCE A. PERRY was an urban planner, sociologist, and educator.
This booklet is aimed at legislators, school workers, and others interested in public education and provides facts concerning school conditions in all the states. Topics include investment in the school building, expenditure per school-age child, the length of the school year and attendance, workers and wages, textbook legislation, medical inspection legislation, and tests of efficiency, among other topics.
This booklet discusses how social centers promote reform movements. It notes that social centers provide patriotic education of immigrants through public ceremonies held for their naturalization, civic and health education, the promotion of baby welfare, the elevation of political discussions, and the dignification of voting through the maintenance of balloting booths. The booklet concludes with a list of foundation pamphlets on the topic of the social center.
CLARENCE A. PERRY was an urban planner, sociologist, and educator.
This booklet discusses the use of schools as community centers and the centers’ policies. Topics include the New York school center system of the time, the historical antecedents of community policy, and community use and its regulation. An appendix provides a directory of official and unofficial community centers.
CLARENCE A. PERRY worked in the Department of Recreation at the Russell Sage Foundation.
MARGUERITA P. WILLIAMS worked in the Department of Recreation at the Russell Sage Foundation.
More than sixteen hundred people were arrested in Topeka in 1913. This booklet seeks to investigate how the city’s police department, courts, jails, and probation officers are treating the offenders. It discusses the police department, court penalties, city and county jails, probation and parole for adults, juvenile delinquency, and preventive work and the provides general conclusions.
ZENAS L. POTTER worked in the Department of Surveys and Exhibits at the Russell Sage Foundation.
This booklet continues a series of similar annual summaries of operating statistics of private family welfare agencies issued since 1936. It is based on data reported monthly and made available to the reporting agencies and others in a monthly table of comparative statistics.
RALPH G. HURLIN was director of the Department of Statistics of the Russell Sage Foundation.
