Both during the campaign and his victory speech, President-elect Trump referenced the troubled conditions of 'inner cities.' A Tufts professor offers advice for the new administration if it really wants to help.
Justin B. Hollander pens a guest column for the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, offering advice for Ben Carson, selected by the Trump Administration to serve as secretary of the Department of Housing and urban Development. According to Hollander, "it is worth considering what it might mean for President-elect Trump's election-night promise that 'we are going to fix our inner cities.'"
Hollander's advice is broken down into three suggestions:
- Define the 'inner city' and it's problem well.
- To "fix" the inner cities, focus on quality-of-life issues not economic development.
- Implement plans through community-based processes.
Implied especially in the first recommendation is that both Trump and Carson have homework to do if they really want to understand the issues facing 'inner cities,' not to mention crafting policies that improve on the broken parts of the status quo.
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