ITEM: Rehabilitation of Sub-Standard Housing Areas. Fred R. Catlett. Washington, D.C. 1942. Rare. 12pp. Very good condition. $75
Ref: JF Ptak Science Books Post 1252 (Rapid Post)
Part of the series Blank, Empty and Missing Things
Fred Catlett's Rehabilitation of Sub-Standard Housing Areas (1942) isn't so much about "rehabilitation" of the houses themselves but to their neighborhoods and surrounding areas--the "inadequate" housing would be demolished, disappeared, replaced, to re-insure the valid tax basis of the larger area/neighborhood. Nothing is said about where the original people would go while their old neighborhoods were being razed or whether or not they would return to the new housing.
The vocabulary here isn't so surprising in and of itself, but rather with teh overwhelming completeness of it. I'd suspect that at some point Mr. Catlett ("Member Federal Home Loan Bank Board") would throw some sort of bone to the interests of the occupants of those substandard houses, some interest or emphasis to the people involved. And even though the pamphlet is only 12 pages long, maybe 5000 words, it was certainly long enough to share some concern or kindness to the occupants of those houses.
"Better housing projects break up slums but not until fine homes have decayed and been ruined and many thousands of dollars in loses have been suffered"writes the author. I understand that the man was protecting the material bases of his institution, but to have the entire document be absent of any consideration to the people being houses I find remarkable. (The original pamphlet is available from our blog bookstore.)
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