Reviews for Economic Development Programs for Cities, Counties and Towns

The average rating for Economic Development Programs for Cities, Counties and Towns based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-05-26 00:00:00 Jeffrey Jaeger I am a big fan of women's sports, especially soccer, so I wanted to like this book. And it certainly make some good points but in the end fails to make its case: "that coercive … sex segregation in sports should be called out for what it is: a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause" and eliminated. There's definitely a massive amount of sexism in sports, and this well-researched book seems to spell out every single instance, particularly from the 1800s until the 1970s when women were considered too delicate to fully participate and Little League - while being adamantly anti-segregation when it came to race - fought tooth and nail to keep girls from playing even when the girls were as good are better than the boys, of which several examples are supplied. I particularly liked this phrase: "At the turn of the century, women internalized so many messages about female weakness and sex-based limitations, it seems now remarkable that they even got out of bed in the morning, much less found their way onto playing fields." They do make a good case that women and men should be considered on a more individual basis and not automatically segregated. Certainly the bell curves of athletic ability for the two sexes overlap considerably, and the authors again seem to make room for every single instance where a woman outdid a man, or was prevented by arbitrary rules from doing so (see the Little League bit above). That being said, they provide absolutely no recognition for the logical result of eliminating sex-segregated teams: that a very few women would make it onto the combined teams, and all the other women would be out of luck. A lot of their examples are cherry-picked. They note that in the 2003 Boston Marathon among the top 207 runners the women averaged 2:36:55 while the men averaged 2:41:33 and take particular glee in pointing out that the #16-19 finishers were all women and were better than all of the remaining men. They don't bother to mention that out of all 207 (everyone who finished in under 2:50) only 14 were women. Similarly, they make much out of Billie Jean King beating Bobby Riggs in straight sets in the famous "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match while not once mentioning that a few months earlier Riggs beat Margaret Court - then the top woman in the world - in straight sets. And of course there's absolutely no mention that the US national women's soccer team - certainly the poster stars for women's teams everywhere - regularly plays and loses to U-17 boys' teams. After giving multiple examples of how male teams are treated better than female teams, they go into this rant: "Who can fairly argue that the boys from Saugus or Boynton Beach are superior athletes to the girls from Waldorf, Maryland? Why can say their games are more compelling? Why is their athleticism more highly valued? "Organized sport is not a free-market system. Female athletes are not recognized less, paid less, or followed less because they are lesser athletes or offer less compelling play. Rather, male baseball players and male football players are paid hundreds of thousands or millions because we have decided that their games matter more. We have decided males athletes are worth more than female athletes. And we have evolved values and traditions that keep in place practices which enforce athletic, hierarchical gender order, sometimes using public resources to do it." As for the rhetorical questions, I would answer, "Anyone who pays attention to this sort of thing." I'm a huge fan of women's soccer and prefer it to men's soccer. But even I have to admit that men's soccer is faster-paced and more athletic than women's. When I switch to the men's game, it feels as if the field has shrunk (and vice-versa when I switch back). This is an advantage in some ways, as women soccer players have to be more patient and tactical - they have to play prettier soccer - than the men, who can just bull their way through and fire shots from 30 yards out that rocket into the net. That being said, this book makes lots of good points. I would even note that the chief difference between Major League Soccer - the top soccer league for American men - and the Women's United Soccer Association - the original top soccer league for American women - is that people with deep pockets were prepared to lose tens of millions of dollars on the former but were unwilling to lose even a few million on the latter. Most significantly, the book demonstrates that sports are much more important to our society than people realize and denying women opportunities in sports ends up denying them opportunities in life. I just think it goes too far in recommending the elimination of sex-segregated teams, as well as other recommendations like requiring "equal television time for women's sports." But there's a case to be made that we need to do better by our women athletes, and this book makes it.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-07-23 00:00:00 James Pappas Best book I've read on the topic. Straight forward narrative. Relevant. Visonary. I refer to it time and again while addressing these issues. I'm a grad student researching this topic. When I first met with my adviser I had the book in my backpack and my adviser had it on her bookshelf. A must read for all coaches, athletes, sports officials, sports administrators, lawmakers, sports policy makers, parents, and anyone involved in sports male and female including fans.