Local governments must often make unpopular decisions about how to deal with areas of substandard housing and roads. In poor or run-down neighborhoods, it can be difficult to determine whether the cost of fixing up old buildings is worth the expense.

In the 1960s, some parts of Charlotte's urban neighborhoods had become so run-down that the city decided to tear them down entirely rather than fix them up. Under this urban renewal program, nearly every home, school, business, and church in the Brooklyn neighborhood was demolished. The families who lived there were forced to move away. When Brooklyn ceased to exist, so did its name. The new roads and buildings that replaced the old give no hint of the close-knit community that for decades made Brooklyn its home.

The photograph above is part of a larger graphic [1] illustrating the process of urban renewal in Charlotte