Reading Guide for

Comeback Cities

1. What is the main argument of this book?

2. How did the South Bronx achieve success in urban revitalization?

3. From where do Community Development Corporations get their money?

4. What is the LISC? How important is the LISC (and other organizations like it) to urban revitalization?

5. How did the Low Income Housing Tax Credit facilitate the development of affordable housing?

6. Why did commercial banks begin to invest in inner city areas during the 1990s (as opposed to earlier periods)?

7. Why did retailers begin to return to inner city neighborhoods during the 1990s?

8. Why, according to Grogan and Proscio, are immigrants good for cities?

9. Why did the public housing projects from earlier periods fail?

10. What do Grogan and Proscio mean by “The third way?”

11. To what extent do Grogan and Proscio agree and/or disagree with William Julius Wilson?