A. Barton Hinkle on How Urban Renewal Destroys Neighborhoods
Urban renewal is the term used to describe the process by which government authorities bulldoze neighborhoods in order to start over from scratch. It became a staple of U.S. urban policy in the mid-20th century, when two federal housing programs shoveled money at localities so they could rejuvenate so-called slums, and a 1954 Supreme Court decision gave them carte blanche to trample the property rights of the underprivileged in order to eliminate so-called blight. But as A. Barton Hinkle explains, the real legacy of urban renewal has the been the destruction of neighborhoods and the enrichment of special interests.