Join The Rent Brigade's reading group! We will be reading a book each month, as part of an ongoing series in political education for our members. First up is Making a Better World by Don Parson.

To register, you must first become a member: rentbrigade.org/membership.

We will meet at a private residence. The address will be made available upon registration. Please come having read the entire book, though you will not be excluded if you haven't.

Making a Better World by Don Parson

With sharp historical perspective, Making a Better World traces the rise and fall of a public housing ethic in Los Angeles and its impact on the city's built environment. In the caustic political atmosphere of Joseph McCarthy's America, public housing opponents accused the city's housing authority of communist infiltration, effectively eliminating the left from debates over the city's development. In place of public housing, conservative forces promoted a pro-private growth agenda that redefined urban renewal and reshaped modern Los Angeles. No conventional public housing projects have been constructed in Los Angeles since 1955. In this era of skyrocketing housing prices, especially in urban areas, Don Parson's examination not only gives us the recent history of a city, but also opens up a new debate on a current national crisis in providing shelter for low-income Americans.