Organizing Access to Capital: Advocacy and the Democratization of Financial Institutions

250 Pages·2003·33.39 MB·English

by  Gregory D. Squires

Organizing Access to Capital
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Organizing
Access to
Capital
Advocacy and the
Democratization of
Financial Institutions
EDITED BY
Gregory D. Squires
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS
PHILADELPHIA
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TempleUniversity Press, Philadelphia 19122
Copyright© 2003 byTempleUniversity
Allrights reserved
Published2003
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
i§Thepaperusedin this publicationmeets therequirementsofthe
American National StandardforInformationSciences-Permanence
ofPaperfor PrintedLibraryMaterials, ANSI Z39.48-I984.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Organizingaccess to capital: advocacyandthe democratizationof
financial institutions/ editedbyGregoryD. Squires.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN 1-59213-025-9 (cloth: alk. paper)-ISBN 1-59213-026-7
(pbk. :alk. paper)
I. Bankloans-UnitedStates. 2. Financialinstitutions-United
States. 3. Communitydevelopment-UnitedStates-Finance.
4. Economicassistance, Domestic-UnitedStates. 1. Squires,
GregoryD.
HGI642.U5 074 2003
332.I'2-dc2I 2002035273
24 6 897 3 I
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Contents
In Memory of Gale Cincotta vii
Acknowledgments ix
I. INTRODUCTION: THE ROUGH ROAD TO
REINVESTMENT I
GregoryD. Squires
2. WHERE THE HELL DID BILLIONS OF DOLLARS
FOR REINVESTMENT COME FROM? 27
Joe Mariano
3. GIVING BACK TO THE FUTURE: CITIZEN
INVOLVEMENT AND COMMUNITY STABILIZATION
IN MILWAUKEE 43
William R. Tisdale and Carla J. Wertheim
4. TAKING IT TO THE COURTS: LITIGATION AND
THE REFORM OF FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS 55
John P. Relman
5. FROM LIVING ROOMS TO BOARD ROOMS:
SUSTAINABLE HOMEOWNERSHIP DEALS WITH
BANKS AND INSURERS IN BOSTON 72
Thomas Callahan
6. A CITYWIDE STRATEGY: THE PITTSBURGH
COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT GROUP 85
StanleyA. Lowe and John T Metzger
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vi CONTENTS
7. FILLING THE HALF-EMPTY GLASS: THE ROLE OF
COMMUNITY ADVOCACY IN REDEFINING THE PUBLIC
RESPONSIBILITIES OF GOVERNMENT-SPONSORED
HOUSING ENTERPRISES 102
Allen J. Fishbein
8. FIGHTING PREDATORY LENDING FROM
THE GROUND UP: AN ISSUE OF ECONOMIC
JUSTICE 119
Maude Hurd and Steven Kest
9. COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT IN A GLOBALIZING WORLD:
TO HOLD BANKS ACCOUNTABLE, FROM THE BRONX
TO BUENOS AIRES, BEIJING, AND BASEL 135
Matthew Lee
10. RESEARCH, ADVOCACY, AND COMMUNITY
REINVESTMENT 154
Malcolm Bush and Daniel Immergluck
I I. THE ESSENTIAL ROLE OF ACTIVISM IN COMMUNITY
REINVESTMENT 169
John Taylor and Josh Silver
12. PROTEST, PROGRESS, AND THE POLITICS OF
REINVESTMENT 188
Peter Dreier
13. EPILOCUE: WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? 221
Gregory D. Squires
About the Contributors 225
Index 229
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In Memory of Gale Cincotta
Organizingandadvocacyeffortshavetransformedneighborhoods throughout
the United States by turning the financial services industry from an engine
of redlininginto an agent of reinvestment. One person stands out as the pio
neer who brought these problems to the public's attention and devised effec
tive remedies. Gale Cincotta, the mother of the Community Reinvestment
Act, is truly one of the few heroes of our age. Sadly, Gale died on August 15,
2001, whilewewerewritingthisbookand, moreimportantly, engaginginfur
thering neighborhood reinvestment. As chairperson of National People's
Action and director of the National Training and Information Center, Gale
took an idea that came out of the neighborhoods and turned it into a move
ment. Thisbookisdedicatedtoher, tothevitalworkshedid, andto theincal
culable influence she had on everybody engaged in reinvestment around the
country.
Gale probably would not have cared much about this book one way or
another. She was driven far more by the exercise of power to achieve desired
results. She excelled at simple statements: "We want it, they got it, let's go
getit." "Wehavefoundtheenemyanditisn'tus." "Weworkmiraclesbecause
it's part of the program." These comments, coupled with her ability to run
rings around the bankers and others she faced down over negotiating tables
and at the front doors of their homes and offices through the years, were part
of her combination of toughness and sensibility.
Someofthecontributors to thisvolumewereclosepersonalfriends andcol
leagues of Gale. We were all transformed and inspired by her work. Gale led
the effort that created a federal ban on redlining, produced the evidence that
showed the world what was going on in the financial services world, and
trained the cadreoforganizers around the countryto make these tools work.
Ihope thatin some smallway this bookwill honorhermemory, buildonher
legacy, and improve the lives of families in all communities.
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Acknowledgments
Many individuals and organizations have made this book possible. As editor,
Iwant to thank all of the contributors for their work, andnot just that which
went into this book. The Department of Sociology at George Washington
Universityhasprovidedasupportiveenvironmentthathas enabledmeto con
tinue my work on organizing and advocacy. We would all like to thank the
Charles Stewart Mott Foundation for its generous support of this project.
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