George Galster, "Driving Detroit: The Quest for R-E-S-P-E-C-T in the Motor City

In this urban book talk event co-sponsored by Penn’s Urban Studies program, author George C. Galster, Clarence Hilberry Professor of Urban Affiars, Wayne State University, spoke about his forthcoming book which paints a comprehensive portrait of Greater Detroit, helping readers to not only see but understand why Detroit’s social, cultural, political, institutional, commercial, and built landscape is the way it is. The book describes the region’s geo-political environment and evolving economic and population patterns, then traces the historical struggles between employers and unions, blacks and whites, showing how the geography, local government structure, and sociological forces created a housing development system that has led to the abandonment of the city core.