LEGEND AND THE AGENDA FOR URBAN REFORM - RESPONSE

Fascination with the language of economics, combined with an overwroug ht fear about engaging in speculation that fellow social scientists wi ll deem too soft, has depleted and made brittle the lexicon with which scholars try to account for central city decline and from which they hope to construct remedies. Monti's paper performs a service by buildi ng on the concept of local citizenship and by introducing the concept of legends into the serious dialogue about urban redevelopment. Citize nship is part of the glue that holds communities together when models premised on narrow self-interest predict fragmentation and flight. Urb an legends may provide a window into the psychosocial processes that h ave eroded the optimism and sense of shared interests that are prerequ isites to a collective movement for urban revitalization. By overinves ting in the redemptive power of urban legend, however, Monti risks pro viding false encouragement to those who would like to believe that the deep problems affecting our cities can be washed away without hard wo rk, resources, and political will.