Atlanta: Race, Class, and Urban Expansion (Comparative American Cities)

Rating:
Summary: one of the better books about Atlanta
Review: Atlanta continues to fascinate policy analysts -- not just because of its all too common sprawl, but because Atlanta politics combines two features not commonly seen together: African-American domination of the electoral process and business domination of development policy. If you are going to read one book about Atlanta, read Keating's. Keating explains how business worked with the African-American elite to shape Atlanta, and generally is quite critical of the results. My only quibble: as the editorial reviews indicate, Keating is not happy about how Atlanta turned out. I wish he had explained whether he thinks a less pro-business city government would have achieved better results. Certainly, demographically similar cities with more populist, anti-business leaders (such as Marion Barry's Washington) do not have superior public service or less middle-class flight than Atlanta.