Climbing Mount Laurel: The Struggle for Affordable Housing and Social Mobility in an American SuburbDouglas S.Massey, LenAlbright, RebeccaCasciano, ElizabethDerickson, and David N.Kinsey. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013.

Abstract

Climbing Mount Laurel: The Struggle for Affordable Housing and Social Mobility in an American Suburb Douglas S. Massey, Len Albright, Rebecca Casciano, Elizabeth Derickson, and David N. Kinsey. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013.At the core of the American Dream is the promise of social mobility-that anyone who works hard, plays by the rules, and desires a better life for himself or herself and his or her family will find both opportunity and equality of opportunity in American society. All one needs is initiative and determination along with a strong work ethic, and every American, no matter his or her origins or roots, has an equal chance of being a part of the American success story. It may take longer for some and the road may be harder for others, but, for all who hope to get there and are willing to do the hard work it takes to get there, the possibilities are limitless and the horizons are unlimited.Just how limitless or, for that matter, limited is the American Dream is the subject of Climbing Mount Laurel: The Struggle for Affordable Housing and Social Mobility in an American Suburb by Douglas S. Massey, Len Albright, Rebecca Casciano, Elizabeth Derickson and David N. Kinsey. Drawing from a rich assortment of quantitative methodologies, incorporating the most advanced forms of research designs and statistical analyses, and supplementing its sociological findings with scores of charts, graphs, diagrams, and tables, the social science in Climbing Mount Laurel is impeccable. But what is even more remarkable is the story the authors tell-delving deeply into American history, economics, politics, policy and law-and how telling that story is.As it relates to the battle over affordable housing in America, the contours of the story are well known. On the one side are millions of Americans from poor and working-class families, largely, but not exclusively black and Latino, who are trapped in deteriorating neighborhoods rife with dilapidated housing, blighted infrastructure, under-re sourced school systems, limited job opportunities, widespread environmental hazards, low quality health care, and high crime rates and who aspire to a better life in a more favorable setting. And on the other side are millions of American from middle-class and more affluent families, largely, but not exclusively non-Hispanic white, who live in comfortable-to-up scale suburban communities replete with attractive homes, topnotch schools, well-maintained services, ample employment, abundant greenery and plentiful recreation with a vested interest in keeping affordable housing-and all the disreputable elements that come with it-out of their neighborhoods.Showing how difficult it can be to get even one single affordable housing project approved and completed in one tiny sliver of one American suburb, the authors of Climbing Mount Laurel use the example of Mount Laurel, New Jersey as a case study in both social mobility and impediments to social mobility in America. From the time initial plans were first conceived in the late 1960s for a thirty - six-unit affordable housing project in the affluent suburb of Mount Laurel-to the township's quick rejection of that request-through two court decisions by the New Jersey State Supreme Court, one in 1975 and the other in 1983, ruling in favor of the project-to more than fifteen years of public hearings, negotiation, stalling, arbitration, planning and development-to the start of construction of the Ethel Lawrence Homes in 1999 some thirty years after the project was first proposed-to the first residents moving into the first one hundred housing units in 2000 and then a second round of residents moving into an additional forty units in 2004, seven American presidents have moved in and out of the White House.Given all this, the authors of Climbing Mount Laurel could have easily spent the bulk of their book dwelling on villains. …