The Essentials

In the 1970s and 1980s, a few American cities fought back against national politics that tolerated job loss and neighborhood decline. A new Olin Library exhibition illustrates these cities’ efforts, which redistributed resources and encouraged neighborhoods in their own planning, resulting in new city policy directions, new voices and new services that could take up [...]

In 1983, Boston and Chicago elected progressive mayors with deep roots among community activists. Taking office as the Reagan administration was withdrawing federal aid from local governments, Boston’s Raymond Flynn and Chicago’s Harold Washington implemented major policies that would outlast them. More than reforming governments, they changed the substance of what the government was trying [...]