CAPITAL CITY

The White Problem in Planning

REVIEW | CAPITAL CITY:

Gentrification and the Real Estate State

AUTHOR/ SAMUEL STEIN

Review by W. Pierce Holloway

Verso, 2019. 199 pages. Gentrification, a phrase uttered at the same frequency as “Instagram” or “climate change”, has become a phenomenon deeply intertwined with cities across the world. Its touch on a neighborhood is easily identifiable, with speedily built mixed use condos replacing working class apartments at an alarming rate. While pockets of individuals welcome the new housing and amenities it brings, deep-rooted residents face exponentially rising property taxes and rents, placing their one-time home beyond financial reach. The momentum behind increasing development in the United States is born from social, political, economic, and cultural pressures. These forces have culminated in real estate representing 60 percent of global assets and a real estate mogul becoming U.S. president.

In Capital City, Stein explores in straightforward terms the various pushes and pulls of real estate development that have shaped our modern urban fabric. Capital City investigates not only the influences and desires of the wealthy, but how city planners facilitate development in order to increase property tax revenues. Stein explains how often the blame of gentrification is laid on the shoulders of private developers and yet, city planners and other municipal forces frequently enable, if not accelerate, gentrification. Here, Stein draws a false conclusion that city planners understand real estate and larger financial implications. Frequently, planners make their decisions outside of the realm of real estate finance and are more concerned with adhering to zoning codes and public complaints.

The first half of Capital City presents a broad overview of what is gentrification, its fingerprint on cities, and its wake of displacement. Stein presents several case studies of neighborhood gentrification, many of which unfold in a common pattern. First, a building offering affordable or working-class housing falls into slight disrepair. Next, the building is deemed blighted and presented as an opportunity for community revitalization. Typically, the redevelopment is fought by residents, heavily incentivized by politicians, and finally enabled by zoning boards. This process culminates with developers reaping exorbitant profits, while the social capital of the community members is fractured. This destructive finale of gentrification is prominently on display when Stein dedicates a chapter of the book to the real estate-centered family history of Donald J. Trump. The chapter chronicles the Trump family’s pattern of leveraging political motivations for community revitalization and housing needs to maximize profits while minimizing public good.

While Stein does not pull his punches when criticizing city planners and policy makers, he does offer sympathy and a way forward.

“We can and should be mad at planners, but ultimately they cannot undo real estate’s grasp on the city until people wrest power back from those who profit off land.” (p. 193)

Admittedly, Stein uses New York City as the reference point for nearly all examples of real estate development’s side effects and political influence. While understandable, as Stein has lived and studied real estate development in New York City for many years, the limited geographic scope of Capital City is a detriment to its usefulness to planners outside of large metropolitan areas. By increasing the diversity of reference points for real estate development, ranging from the small town to the large metropolitan area, Stein would provide more tangible examples for individuals and planners alike who have never set foot in New York City. Moreover, gentrification as a field of study is as vast as it is complex. The intricacies of gentrification necessitate more than 199 pages to see the many paths that gentrification encompasses and draw deeper connections than what is presented.

Furthermore, Samuel Stein is a doctoral candidate in geography at the City University of New York, yet there is not one map to be found in Capital City. Stein’s analysis of gentrification would be greatly aided by the inclusion of maps displaying the spatial story of where rezoning and redevelopment occurs or what income groups live in the impacted areas. I wonder what conclusions the reader would come to if presented data on gentrification’s displacements and economic impacts in table and map form? indigenous areas that make up present-day Broadway, and the displacement of Black and Brown populations in Brooklyn.

Stein provides ample evidence to address a variety of developmental situations in the New York boroughs, from Manhattan skyscrapers to Brooklyn brownstones. Stein, to his credit, does manage to offer tangible avenues for change to address gentrification. In the last section of Capital City, he presents a five-point anti-gentrification plan released by “New York City Not for Sale,” as well as action items that came out of the Occupy Wall Street and other socialistic movements. Nearly all action items presented propose substantial shifts in the current development and profit driven structure of our cities to systems focusing more on public empowerment and democratizing development.

“Plans can change; planners can change; but nothing will change simply because it ought to.” (p. 158)

Stein concludes with a vision for the future, one where housing and development is centered around quality of life and equitability over the existing profit-motivated capitalist system. His strong background in anti-gentrification organizing and urban studies provides the reader with a general understanding of the forces that influence development and the forces that incentive municipal governments to increase property values. Capital City provides readers new to city planning with the tools to begin looking at development with a critical eye and an appetite for reform.

For anyone unfamiliar with the social, economic, and political forces influencing development and real estate speculation in the United States, Stein provides an approachable introduction. Capital City cites specific instances of real estate’s destructive influence in communities, including a history of the