Charles F. Palmer ~ Adventures Of A Slum Fighter (1955 – Full Text)

Charles Forrest Palmer (December 29, 1892 – June 16, 1973) was an Atlanta real estate developer who became an expert on public housing and organized the building of Techwood Homes, the first public housing project in the United States. He would later head up both the newly created Atlanta Housing Authority and the Chamber of Commerce.

About this book – By Beardsley
ONE OF THE most glaring obstructions to a better
life for millions of our people is the obsolete design and
structure of our cities. Already we are acutely aware that the
conditions of our metropolitan schools, hospitals, transport
and recreation facilities are intolerable. And worst of all are
the slums.

That’s why this book interests me so much. It’s the author’s
adventures in wiping out slums. These are facts, not theories,
because as a practical real-estate man he has done what he
writes about. Reading like a novel, this book proves that
slums cost us taxpayers more to keep than to clear; that the
battle against child delinquency, disease, and vice is the battle
against the slum.

The response to these ills of our cities has been wholesale
flight from the city itself, but not from the city as such. The
city remains “la source” as it has been since time immemorial.
Accordingly, the cities will not wither away; they will be
rebuilt.

The rebuilding of our cities is, therefore, one of the grand
projects for the years immediately ahead. The programs will
be varied creative and imitative. The emphasis will be here
on one objective, there on another.

Where better to start than with the slums! This book of a
businessman’s adventures tells what other countries have
been doing for years, of the little we have done, and of the
big job ahead for all of us.

The book: https://archive.org/adventuresofslum.txt