The Battle over Gentrification and Future of Our Cities

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:

The Naked City

While those that love cities often claim to love their authenticity,  we still want them to have the latest trendy cafe, boutiques, and galleries that are often at odds with the very authenticity we claim to want.  How do we reconcile this desire for convenience and modernity with diversity, quirkiness and and a genuine urban landscape? This is what Sharon Zukin shows us in Naked City: The Death and Life of Authentic Urban Places.   She looks at what gives neighborhoods a sense of place, but also why that very sense often prices them out of the market for all but the elite. How does authenticity become exclusivity?

My conversation with Sharon Zukin:

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