Reflections on Place Matters: Poverty, Politics, and Power in the Modern Metropolis

On the occasion of the publication of the 3rd edition, one of the authors of Place Matters reflects on the tensions in the arguments of the book and how it has been variously received by scholars. After addressing the question of whether we know enough about place effects to use them to guide public policy, he responds to the criticism that efforts to reduce concentrated poverty actually harm the poor, reflects on the interplay of race and class, and examines the political obstacles in the way of regional reforms. We know what needs to be done, he argues; what is missing is the political will to do it.