Nearly 60 percent of adults received public assistance, and only 5 percent of fifth grade children were able to meet state academic performance standards.
A local philanthropist, Tom Cousins, wanted to improve the quality of life in this neighborhood by de-concentrating its poverty.6 But he understood that East Lake’s problems were interconnected: Replacing substandard housing would do little to attract families to the neighborhood if it lacked good schools, but schools couldn’t perform well if students feared for their safety, arrived hungry,  4  Jane Jacobs (1961), The Death and Life of Great American Cities (New York: Random House).