Community development corporations, participation, and accountability: The harlem urban development corporation and the bedford-stuyvesant restoration corporation

This article suggests that evaluating the success or failure of community development corporations (CDCs) can be aided by understanding the political and historical contingencies that surrounded the founding of CDCs. Taking early politics and history into account, furthermore, allows one to see how issues like community accountability are balanced with other demands on the organization. The article uses this kind of examination to make a general assessment about the impact of CDCs on community development and neighborhood improvement. This article is a case study of the early history of two "first-wave" CDCs in New York City: the Harlem Urban Development Corporation and the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation. The discussion covers the early period of each organization from the mid-1960s to the 1980s.