This book analyzes the Neighborhood Preservation Initiative (NPI), which demonstrates how comprehensive community development efforts can be effectively organized to help preserve working class neighborhoods. The NPI is a comprehensive community building initiative active in 10 neighborhoods within nine cities. Its approach is to catch places before the social, physical, and economic forces of decline set in, capitalizing on and reinforcing neighborhood assets and strengths. The book grew out of an evaluation study of the NPI and presents case chapters drawn from case study reports. Researchers conducted key informant interviews, assembled local data, and identified, analyzed, and explicated the factors most important for understanding the workings and effects of the local NPI sites. Seven case chapters focus on: (1) "Preventive Intervention: Revitalizing Working-Class Urban Neighborhoods"; (2) "Framing the Neighborhood Preservation Initiative"; (3) "Philadelphia's Frankford Community: Epitome of the NPI Model"; (4) "San Francisco's Chinatown: Power of an Organized Community"; (5) "Memphis's Vollintine-Evergreen: An Asset-Based Strategy To Improve Neighborhood Marketability"; (6) "Revitalizing East Boston: The Bonds of Community Collaboration"; and (7) "Reflections." Two appendices present a list of NPI local partners and national advisory board members of the NPI. (Contains 80 endnotes.) (SM)