Shadows of a Sunbelt City : The Environment, Racism, and the Knowledge Economy in Austin.

Cover -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Part I: Forces of Growth -- CHAPTER 1 The Making of a Globalized Austin The Environment, Racism, and the Knowledge Economy -- CHAPTER 2 The Value of Knowledge The Expansion of the University of Texas, Urban Renewal, and the Blackland -- CHAPTER 3 Bringing In the State State Entrepreneurialism, the University, Land Development, and the High-Technology Sector -- Part II: Urban Transformations -- CHAPTER 4 Sustaining a Higher Quality of Life The Environment, Crime, and the Remaking of Austin's Downtown -- CHAPTER 5 Contesting Sustainability "Smart Growth" and the Redevelopment of Austin's East Side -- CHAPTER 6 What Is Past Is Prologue Urban Governance, Comprehensive Planning, and Political Reform -- REFLECTIONS: Outside the Shadows -- Bibliography -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Z.

Austin, Texas, is often depicted as one of the past half centuryÆs great urban successstoriesùa place that has grown enormously through ôcreative classö strategies emphasizing tolerance and environmental consciousness. In Shadows of a Sunbelt City, Eliot Tretter reinterprets this familiar story by exploring the racial and environmental underpinnings of the postindustrial knowledge economy. He is particularly attentive to how the University of Texasùworking with federal, municipal, and private-sector partners and acquiring the power of eminent domainùexpanded its power and physical footprint. He draws attention to how the universityÆs real estate endeavors shaped the local economy and how the expansion and upgrading of the main campus occurred almost entirely at the expense of the more modestly resourced communities of color that lived in its path.This book challenges AustinÆs reputation as a bastion of progressive and liberal values, notably with respect to its approach to new urbanism and issues of ecological sustainability. TretterÆs insistence on documenting and interrogating the ôshadowsö of this important city should provoke fresh conversations about how urban policy has contributed to AustinÆs economy, the way it has developed and changed over time, and for whom it works and why. Joining a growing critical literature about universitiesÆ effect on urban environments, this book will be of interest to students at all levels in urban history, political science, economic and political geography, public administration, urban and regional planning, and critical legal studies.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.