Local governments claim that neighborhood improvement programs develop grassroots leadership capacity, raise the importance of neighborhood issues on the citywide political agenda, and empower residents to solve neighborhood-level problems. This article argues that neighborhood improvement programs also jeopardize the geography of opportunity, particularly women's neighborhood activism. Drawing from interviews with neighborhood activists and local government officials from one municipality in Southern California, this study illuminates the ways in which local government efforts regulate and contain neighborhood activism.
Ackelsberg, Martha.1988. Communities, resistance and women's activism: Some implications for a democratic polity. In Women and the politics of empowerment , chap. 13, edited by Ann Bookman and Sandra Morgen.Philadelphia : Temple University Press.
2.
Arnstein, Sherry R.1969. A ladder of citizen participation. Journal of the American Institute of Planners July: 216-24.
3.
Benest, Frank.1999. Reconnecting citizens with citizens: What is the role of government?Public Management81 (2): 6-11.
4.
Berry, Jeffrey, Kent Portney, and Ken Thomson.1993. Rebirth of urban democracy. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.
5.
Bookman, Ann, and Sandra Morgen, eds. 1988. Women and the politics of empowerment. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
6.
Brower, Sidney.1996. Good neighborhoods: A study of in-town and suburban residential environments. Westport, CT: Praeger .
7.
Chaskin, Robert J., and Ali Abunimah.1999. A view from the city: Local government perspectives on neighborhood-based governance in community-building initiatives. Journal of Urban Affairs21 (1):57-78.
8.
Checkoway, Barry.1991. Neighborhood needs and organizational resources: New lessons from Detroit. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly20 (2): 173-89.
9.
Crow, Barbara A.1997. Relative privilege? Reconsidering white women's participation in municipal politics. In Women transforming politics, chap. 25, edited by Cathy J. Cohen, Kathleen B. Jones, and Joan C. Tronto.New York: New York University Press.
10.
DeSena, Judith.1994. Women: The gatekeepers of urban neighborhood. Journal of Urban Affairs, 16 (3): 271-83.
11.
Ferguson, Kathy E.1984. The feminist case against bureaucracy. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
12.
Fincher, Ruth, and Jacinta McQuillen .1989. Women in social movements . Urban Geography10 (6): 604-13.
13.
Fine, Michelle, and Lois Weis.2000. Disappearing acts: The state and violence against women in the twentieth century. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society25 (4): 1140-46.
14.
Fisher, Robert, and Joseph Kling.1993. Mobilizing the community: Local politics in the era of the global city. Urban Affairs Annual Review, No. 41. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
15.
Garber, Judith.2000. “Not named or identified”: Politics and the search for anonymity in the city. In Gendering the city: Women, boundaries, and visions of urban life, edited by Kristine B. Miranne and Alma H. Young.Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield .
16.
Gittell, M., and T. Shtob.1980. Changing women's roles in political volunteerism and reform of the city. In Women and the American city, edited by C. Stimpson, E. Dixler, M. Nelson, and K. Yatrakis.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
17.
Goetz, Edward, and Mara Sidney.1994. The impact of the Minneapolis Neighborhood Revitalization Program on neighborhood organizations. Minneapolis, MN: Center for Urban and Regional Affairs .
18.
Haeberle, Steven H.1986. Good neighbors and good neighborhoods: Comparing demographic and environmental influences on neighborhood activism. State and Local Government Review Fall: 109-16.
19.
Halpern, Robert.1995. Rebuilding the inner city: A history of neighborhood initiatives to address poverty in the United States. New York: Columbia University Press.
20.
Hardy-Fanta, Carol.1993. Latina politics, Latino politics: Gender, culture and political participation. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
21.
Harwood, Stacy.2003. Environmental justice on the streets: Advocacy planning as a tool to contest environmental racism. Journal of Planning Education and Research23 (1): 24-38.
22.
Heffernan, Tess, and Jon Ruiz.1995. Forming partnerships with neighborhoods . Public Management77:10-13.
23.
Hoy, Suellen.1995. Chasing dirt: The American pursuit of cleanliness. New York: Oxford University Press.
24.
Junn, Jane.1997. Assimilating or coloring participation? Gender, race, and democratic political participation. In Women transforming politics, chap. 22, edited by Cathy J. Cohen , Kathleen B. Jones, and Joan C. Tronto.New York: New York University Press.
25.
Kelley, Daryl, Daniel Yi, and Hector Becerra.2001. Crowding now way of life in California . Los Angeles Times, June 10.
26.
Leavitt, Jacqueline, and Susan Saegert.1990. From abandonment to hope: Community-households in Harlem . New York: Columbia University Press.
27.
Lofland, Lyn.1998. The public realm: Exploring the city's quintessential social territory. New York: Aldine .
28.
Logan, John R., and Harvey L. Molotch .1987. Urban fortunes: The political economy of place. Berkeley: University of California Press.
29.
Logan, John R., and Gordana Rabrenovic.1990. Neighborhood associations: Their issues, their allies and their opponents. Urban Affairs Quarterly26 (1): 68-94.
30.
Lubetkin, Martie Theleen.1996. How teamwork transformed a neighborhood. Educational Leadership53 (7): 10-12.
31.
Marston, Sallie A., and George Towers.1993. Private spaces and the politics of places: Spatioeconomic restructuring and community organizing in Tucson and El Paso . In Mobilizing the community: Local politics in the era of the global city, chap. 4, edited by Robert Fisher and Joseph Kling.Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
32.
Martin, Deborah.2002. Constructing the “neighborhood sphere”: Gender and community organizing. Gender, Place and Culture9 (4): 333-50.
33.
Martin, Judith A., and Paula R. Pentel .2002. What the neighbors want: The neighborhood revitalization program's first decade. Journal of the American Planning Association68 (4): 435-449.
34.
Milroy, Beth Moore, and Susan Wismer.1994. Communities, work and public/private sphere models. Gender, Place and Culture1 (1): 71-90.
35.
Miranne, Kristine B., and Alma H. Young, eds. 2000. Gendering the city: Women, boundaries and visions of urban life. New York: Rowan & Littlefield.
36.
Needleman, Martin, and Carolyn Emerson Needleman.1974. Guerrillas in the bureaucracy: The community planning experiment in the United States. New York: John Wiley.
37.
Oakley, A.1974. The sociology of housework. New York : Pantheon Books.
38.
Pardo, Mary.1995. Doing it for the kids: Mexican American community activists, border feminists? In Feminist organizations: Harvest of the new women's movement, chap. 23, edited by Myra Marx Ferree and Patricia Yancey Martin.Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
39.
Peattie, Lisa.1994. Community and interests in advocacy planning. Journal of the American Planning Association Spring: 151-53.
40.
Piven, Frances Fox.1970. Whom does the advocacy planner serve?Social Policy1:32-37.
41.
Piven, Francis Fox, and Richard Cloward.1971. Regulating the poor. New York: Random House.
42.
Sandercock, Leonie.1994. Citizen participation: The New Conservatism. In Community participation in practice: The community participation handbook: Resources for public involvement in the planning process, 2nd ed., edited by Wendy Sarkissian and Donald Perlgut. Murdoch, Australia: Institute for Science and Technology Policy, Murdoch University.
43.
Sharp, Elaine B.1981. Organizations, their environments, and goal definition . Urban Life9 (4): 415-439.
44.
Silver, Christopher.1985. Neighborhood planning in historical perspective. Journal of the American Planning Association Spring: 161-74.
45.
Spain, Daphne.2001. How women saved the city. Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press.
46.
Staeheli, Lynn A.1996. Publicity, privacy and women's political action. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space14 (5): 601-19.
47.
———. 2004. Mobilizing women, mobilizing gender: Is it mobilizing difference?Gender, Place and Culture11 (3): 347-72.
48.
Swindell, David.2000. Issue representation in neighborhood organization: Questing for democracy at the grassroots. Journal of Urban Affairs22 (2): 123-37.
49.
Urban revitalization/Reno finances neighborhood board projects. 2000. American City & County115 (11): 20.
50.
von Hoffman, Alexander.2003. House by house, block by block. The rebirth of America's urban neighborhoods. New York: Oxford University Press.
51.
Wekerle, Gerda, and Linda Peake.1996. New social movements and women's urban activism. In City lives and city forms: Critical research and Canadian urbanism , edited by J. Caulfield and Linda Peake.Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
