Guide to the Progressive Cities and Neighborhood Planning Collection,
1969-2005

Series I: Santa Monica, California
Major changes in Santa Monica city government began when in 1979 Santa Monicans for Renters Rights (SMRR) succeeded with a rent control initiative; that election also brought in two city council members. In 1981, SMRR in coalition with the city's Democratic Club and other groups won majority control and implemented steps to control development and open city administration to popular participation.

The Cornell collection includes extensive local newspaper coverage for 1984-1988; eighteen transcripts of interviews of local officials and activists, and 48 documents ranging from draft memoranda and papers to official city reports.

The experience of progressive government in Santa Monica is referenced in a number of books. See Stella Capek and John Gilderbloom, Community versus Commodity : Tenants and the American city (1992), and Mark Kann, Middle Class Radicalism in Santa Monica (1986).

Series II: Great Britain
The Cornell collection includes material from other countries, and there are efforts underway to build on contacts and research on Sheffield and London (U.K) in the 1980s by Robert Kraushaar and Pierre Clavel. They have deposited a preliminary set of materials from these and other UK places, at total of 258 pieces: documents, interviews and not easily accessible articles.

The British cases had a great deal of published analysis and history. See the journal, Local Economy, and such volumes as Maureen Mackintosh and Hillary Wainwright A Taste of Power: the politics of local economics (1987).

Series III: Berkeley, California
Berkeley had created a liberal city council regime in the 1960s, but its administrative style, dependent on a city manager form of government, clashed with expectations for participatory reforms and redistributive programs that emerged from civil rights and student movements. An "April Coalition" won city council seats beginning in 1969, and was able to generate support by putting initiatives on the ballot. By 1979 the Berkeley radicals, now having adopted a formal structure as Berkeley Citizens Action (BCA) won a working majority of the city council. Under Mayor Gus Newport (1979-86) and Lonnie Hancock (1986-94) the city continued its progressive reforms.

The Cornell collection derives from research by Pierre Clavel and others, and includes 29 interview transcripts, 45 key city documents, and 174 news clippings covering the years from 1974 to 1996.

Series IV: Hartford, Connecticut
In 1969, after the resignation of four members of the city council and summers of rioting made the city seem unmanageable, the Democratic Party leadership appointed young activist Nicholas Carbone to the city council, where he quickly asserted leadership. As majority leader for the next decade, Carbone presided over a series of development agreements that reserved developer profits for city residents, supported the nationally recognized Hartford Food System, and created a number of city practices that favored poor residents.

The Cornell collection comes from research done by Pierre Clavel in the 1980s, and includes interview tapes and transcripts, 93 news clippings from local and other sources, and 68 other documents.

Series V: Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland's "progressive city" experience - apart from the period of Tom Johnson's mayoralty in 1900-1908 - is best known for the tumultuous term of populist Dennis Kucinich in 1977-79. There was also the liberal mayoralty of Carl Stokes in 1967-71, the grass roots organizing supported by the Catholic diocese in the 1970s, the community development organizations that flourished from the 1970s at least through 2005, the investigative journalism of Roldo Bartimole reflected in his bi-weekly or monthly Point of View, and the work of city planner Norman Krumholz with the city and later at Cleveland State University's College of Urban Affairs.

The Cornell collection derives initially from research by Pierre Clavel in the 1980s, and includes interview tapes and transcripts, 24 key city documents, a number of news clippings covering mainly the period 1968-1979, and many issues of Point of View.

The best published treatment of the Cleveland politics in the Kucinich years is Todd Swanstrom, The Crisis of Growth Politics (1985); and on Krumholz' planning it is Norman Krumholz and John Forester, Making Equity Planning Work (1990).

Series VI: Burlington, Vermont
Socialist Bernie Sanders surprised Burlington by winning election for Mayor by ten votes in 1981, ushering in a period of progressive control of the city that was still in effect in 2005. After a year of fierce opposition from the city council, Sanders was able to implement reforms, notably through the establishment of a Community and Economic Development Office (CEDO) in 1983, and the appointment of several key administrators. One result was a set of "good government" reforms: treasurer Jonathan Leopold found ways to save the city significant expenses; and Sanders opened up city hall to citizen participation. There were also new citize3n boards and commissions. There was a program to train women in the construction trades and place them in jobs. The city also exerted control on development in new ways. Most striking may have been the housing programs promoted by CEDO, in concert with the Burlington Community Land Trust, which created "permanently affordable" units and generated community support for city housing policies.

In the 1990s Sanders' successor as mayor, Peter Clavelle, consolidated progressive initiatives. Major features that distinguished the city included city composting and recycling facilities, continued housing development and a host of other innovations.

The collection includes interview tapes and transcripts, 52 key city documents, and over 500 news clippings.

Several books have appeared reporting on progressive government in Burlington. See Greg Guma, The People's Republic : Vermont and the Sanders revolution (1989); and John Davis, The Affordable City (1994). Cornell thesis treatments include Renee Jakobs, Planning and politics : a case study of progressive city administration in Burlington, Vermont, 1981-1983 (1984); Catherine Hill, Bernie Sanders, the working classes' candidate (1989) and Maile Deppe, Reinventing local government : creating a culture of concern, participation, and decision-making a case study of Burlington, Vermont (2000).

Series VII: Chicago and Harold Washington
Washington was known as Chicago's first African American mayor (1983-87), and as a reform mayor who presided over a drastic reduction in patronage jobs, the death of "the machine as we knew it" in the face of massive city council resistance, a period called "council wars." Washington's innovative, neighborhood oriented economic policy is less well known. City planner Robert Mier and a set of local academics and activists had created the Rehab Network and the Community Workshop in Economic Development, and these and their ideas infused Washington's campaign. Mier later became Commissioner of Economic Development, and many others became involved in administrative posts or in continued neighborhood activism pressuring the city administration.

Research by Kenneth Reardon, Xolela Mangcu and Pierre Clavel, and contributions from many others are reflected in the Cornell collection. At this time there are 40 city documents and other items from the neighborhood movement, 32 news clippings covering mainly the years 1980-1988; and eight longer manuscripts and published articles. There is also a 25 minute video, "Harold Washington and the Neighborhoods," produced by Wim Wiewel and Pierre Clavel in 1991.

There is a good deal of retrospective work on the Washington mayoralty. For a general treatment see Gary Rivlin, Fire on the Prairie (1992). There is a number of books. See Pierre Clavel and Wim Wewel, eds., Harold Washington and the Neighborhoods (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1991) for chapters by five persons who worked in city government under Washington, and five community activists and academics. Joel Rast, Remaking Chicago : the political origins of urban industrial change (1999), recounts the development of a neighborhood oriented economic policy and its promulgation for a number of years in the successor mayoralty of Richard M. Daley. Robert Mier's Social Justice and Local Development Policy (1993) recounts Mier's work, with co-authors from among his colleagues. See also Norman Krumholz and Pierre Clavel, Reinventing Cities: Equity Planners Tell Their Stories (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994) for chapters by Mier, Kari Moe and Art Vazquez; and Cornell doctoral theses: Xolela Mangcu, Harold Washington and the cultural transformation of local government in Chicago, 1983-1987 (1997); and Kenneth Reardon, Local economic development in Chicago 1983-1987 : the reform efforts of Mayor Harold Washington (1990).

Other archival sources include the "Harold Washington Neighborhood Papers" collection, at the Chicago Historical Society, and collections at the Harold Washington Library in Chicago.

Series VIII: Boston Under Raymond Flynn
Boston's population had tired of "liberal" politics under the 16 year mayoralty of Kevin White when, in 1983, South Boston populist Ray Flynn and African American "rainbow coalition" advocate Mel King reached a dead heat in the preliminary mayoral election. Flynn prevailed in the general election, ushering in more than a decade of effort to implement redistributive programs, notably around affordable housing, by taxing and otherwise extracting surplus from the city's booming office and upscale housing development. The key innovation was "linkage," a formalization of Hartford-style development agreements that assessed a square foot development exaction on large projects. General acceptance of that led to a series of other programs and policies that gave Flynn momentum and a national platform to argue for similar policies in the face of conservative national governments.

King's "rainbow coalition" had remained in opposition to Flynn, pushing for community control. Later it seemed to decline under successor mayor Thomas Menino. But waves of immigration had made Boston a "majority-minority city" after 2000, and a set of ethnically diverse new political faces gave the rainbow coalition new currency.

The collection reflects research and interviews done by Pierre Clavel and Ken Reardon between 1986 and 2004; a substantial number of interview transcripts, documents, press clippings and articles that were projected for indexing in 2006.

There is a dearth of published accounts of Flynn's mayoralty. Who Rules Boston (1984) provides background from the point of view of local activists. There is a series of articles by Peter Dreier, who was Flynn's Director of Housing. The best critical piece is Marie Kennedy, Chris Tilly and Mauricio Gaston, "Transformative Populism and the Development of a Community of Color" in Dilemmas in Activism: Class, Community and the Politics of Local Mobilization, edited by Joseph Kling and Prudence Posner. Philadelphia: Temple University Press (1990).

Series IX: Other Places
A number of other places in the United States, Canada, Europe and Latin America experienced the sorts of government reform that happened in the cities with major representation in this collection. It is our intent to get a selection of materials from the main such places: Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada; Bologna and other Italian places, and selected Latin American cities.

Madison, Wisconsin is a notable U.S. case for which we have minor coverage, but its longtime progressive mayor Paul Soglin and current progressive David Cieslowitz require a further effort. Other places had notable representation in the Conference on Alternative State and Local Policies in the 1970s, and we are compiling the work of that organization, indicated separately below.

There is some published work on these places: Max Jaggi et al, Red Bologna (1977) was a well known early example; Daniel Chavez and Benjamin Goldfrank, eds., The Left in the City (2004) is a recent review of developments in Latin America. On Canada, see Warren Magnusson, The search for political space : globalization, social movements, and the urban political experience (1996).

Series X: Neighborhood Planning
While in "Progressive Cities" neighborhood activists ran for elective office and won control of city governments, an equally important shift in local government practice is represented in thousands of "neighborhood planning" experiences -- such activities as community organizing, city government inspired participatory neighborhood planning, and the emergence of community development corporations and allied organizations. Research and involvement by Kenneth Rearcon in East St. Louis and several New York City neighborhoods and Pierre Clavel in Community Development Corporations in Youngstown, Ohio, Wiscasset, Maine, and elsewhere have formed the initial basis for these collections, supplemented by a number of dissertations and theses.

Series XI: Other

Community Organizing.

City-Initiated Participatory Neighborhood Planning.

Community Development Corporations.

Other relevant collections in the Cornell University Archives

Much of the background of city policy and neighborhood planning relevant to these cities is contained in collections acquired at various times as part of the larger "Planning Archives" at Cornell. This larger grouping is documented in Urban America: Documenting the Planners, by Elaine D. Engst and H. Thomas Hickerson, catalogue for a 1985 exhibition at the Olin Library. The relevant collections or papers are listed in the Documentation Newsletter, Cornell University Libraries, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives, Vol. XVI, No. 1 (Spring 1990), "Collections on City and Regional Planning," pp. 8-23, which lists some 170 separate collections acquired by that date.

Of particular relevance to the "Progressive Cities and Neighborhood Planning" collection would be the papers of Charles Abrams, Paul Davidoff and Walter Thabit. The Abrams collection has received extensive documentation. See Charles Abrams: Papers and Files - A Guide to the Microfilm Publication. (Ithaca, NY: Department of Manuscripts and University Archives, Olin Library, Cornell University, 1975).

Conference on Alternative State and Local Policies
In the first post-1960s years of U.S. progressive city government, Lee Webb, Derek Shearer and others created the Conference on Alternative State and Local Policies with support from progressive foundations and quarters in the Institute of Policy Studies in Washington DC.

At Cornell University:
Conference on Alternative State and Local Policies records, #6756
Walter Thabit papers, #4215
Paul Davidoff papers, #4250

At Other Institutions:
The Chicago Public Library's Neighborhood History Research Collections