Community-based development organizations (CBDOs) appear to be a major force for the economic and physical rejuvenation of distressed, low-income communities. A CBDO is a private nonprofit group that serves a low-income community or constituency, is governed by a community-based board, and is an ongoing producer, with at least one completed…

Argues that Neighborhood Development Organization (NDO) staffs and volunteers have a faulty understanding of the political economies of poor urban communities, and have adopted a free market orientation. Recommends an alternative "organizing-driven" model of community development. (FMW)

The economic and physical decline of urban neighborhoods has become a widespread and widely misunderstood phenomenon in post-war America. It has not been restricted to aging central cities: most growing cities and many suburbs possess areas of decay as well. After decades of changing occupancy, dwellings have fallen into disrepair, and the quality…