Capital City

Gentrification and the Real Estate State

By: Samuel Stein

Narrated by: Emily Beresford

Our cities are changing. Around the world, more and more money is being invested in buildings and land. Real estate is now a $217 trillion-dollar industry, worth 36 times the value of all the gold ever mined. It forms 60 percent of global assets, and one of the most powerful people in the world - the president of the United States - made his name as a landlord and developer.

Samuel Stein shows that this explosive transformation of urban life and politics has been driven not only by the tastes of wealthy newcomers, but by the state-driven process of urban planning. Planning agencies provide a unique window into the ways the state uses and is used by capital, and the means by which urban renovations are translated into rising real estate values and rising rents.

Capital City explains the role of planners in the real estate state, as well as the remarkable power of planning to reclaim urban life.

©2019 Samuel Stein (P)2019 Tantor

socialism

story, concept, socialistic promotion was not realistic. united states is and will be capitalistic but we can still provide social programs. pushing this concept will cause uprise of capitalism and they will vote out all social programs

Narration isn’t good

Interesting and important book, but was hard to listen to and gave me headaches while listening.

The Marx of urban planning

Like the communist manifesto, the critique of capital is spot on but the suggested alternatives leave the reader incredulous. There were some very interesting points being made by the author but I don’t see a world where we collectivize land and abolish property rights.

Brilliant book, poor narration

The book is absolutely amazing, one of the best urban planning books ever written. But the narration isn’t great, to the point where it’s distracting.

must read

very informative piece on the housing crisis in the United states and how our oligarchic political-economic system created it.