Book Review: Universities And The Battle For Sustainable Neighborhoods

24 August 2005 - 5:00am

Few institutions of higher learning apply their knowledge and resources directly to the problems of poverty and housing.

University of Louisville professor John Gilderbloom and engineer R.L. Mullins Jr., have co-authored "Promise and Betrayal: Universities and the Battle for Sustainable Urban Neighborhoods" (State University of New York Press, $78.50 hardcover, $24.95 paperback).

They write, "Traditionally, universities avoid substantive involvement in inner cities because success is difficult. Yet if universities are so knowledgeable, then one wonders why many surrounding neighborhoods of those institutions are filled with hopelessness and despair. In ten years of community building in Louisville and elsewhere, we found that most academics fail to address, much less solve, inner-city problems."

Source: The Courier-Journal, October 26, 2005
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