Book Review of How Urban Planners Promote Gentrification & Private Profits

Gentrification is a natural byproduct of capital investments guiding urban development

Book Review of Samuel Stein’s Capital City — Gentrification and the Real Estate State

Urban planners are either praised or criticized for designing our cities. Planner Samuel Stein’s Capital City — Gentrification and the Real Estate State, falls in the second camp, accusing planners of being unwitting advocates for capitalism. Even though planners see themselves as protectors of the common good, Stein says they hurt most people by “turning everyone’s space into someone’s profit.”

According to Stein government planning is tied to private real estate interests; we are at that point in history where the bulk of private capital flows from investing in manufacturing to land. The result is a “Real Estate State” that facilitates this transition, not only in the United States but throughout the world. He documents how real estate now “makes up 60% of the world’s assets, and the vast majority of that wealth — roughly 75 percent — is in housing.”

This trend did not begin overnight. Surprisingly, he blames President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation establishing the Federal Housing Administration to standardize, regulate and insure home mortgages. Although it…