Decades ago the young and the middle class abandoned cities for the soul deadening suburbs. The result was a long term weakening of the fabric of cities and of urban life.Suddenly, as trends and attitudes changed, as the young, the hip, the affluent and empty nester boomers returned to cities, gentrification has come to these once troubled metropolitan centers. Cities like Oakland, San Francisco, New Orleans and even Detroit have come alive.
Today, the push back to gentrification from long time city residents, from those impacted by increasing rents and increasing prices, has become a crusade. Developers and city government, essentially responding to market demands, have become the villains.
But what impact is gentrification actually having on cities and who should decide what a city is and what’s best for it? That what Peter Moskowitz looks at in How to Kill a City: Gentrification, Inequality, and the Fight for the Neighborhood
.My conversation with Peter Moskowitz:
