Lisa's Reviews > Disillusioned: Five Families and the Unraveling of America's Suburbs

I would rate this book lower for readability (boring with too many details) but I have gone with an average rating for the thorough reporting. The author described how suburbs were built for segregation and white privilege then when they begin to be integrated white families move further out again. White flight to the suburbs drove up debt and bonds for services such as sewage and schools. He followed families outside Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Pittsburgh. The communities prioritized policing to address nonexistent crime then ran to exurbs when POC arrived since these families eventually reached middle class status. These over-leveraged communities were left with debt and crumbling infrastructure. He compared the process to slash and burn agriculture, building amenities for residents while raising debt for future communities to pay, fleeing by the time infrastructure was crumbling and finances dire. I thought that too much of his emphasis was on school systems and he didn’t pay enough attention to solutions and policy recommendations. The five cases got too overwhelming to follow. I would have liked more about issues other than schools and less focus on the details of each family.