The New Urban Crisis: How Our Cities Are Increasing Inequality, Deepening Segregation, and Failing the Middle Class—and What We Can Do About It

Urban studies expert Florida (The Great Reset), who first gained acclaim studying the ascendancy of the “creative class,” now explores the broader effects of its rise in this timely, data-rich, and accessible work. Florida notes that while people fare better economically in large, dense cities, those cities are also experiencing rising inequality, housing costs, and economic and racial segregation. Moreover, these problems are spreading to the suburbs, the onetime model for improved living standards. These divisions are particularly strong in “superstar cities” such as New York, San Francisco, and London, where concentrated wealth makes the urban core inaccessible to all but the most privileged people. A series of maps show how service workers’ neighborhoods have been steadily pushed to the periphery. This worrisome dynamic isn’t confined to North America and Western Europe, as Florida’s research shows. He recommends changing tax schemes to reflect the value of urban land, rather than the property developed on top of it; intensifying support for mass transit; increasing affordable rental housing in urban core areas; and focusing on schools and better wage conditions in the poorest neighborhoods. These prescriptions are all sound but—in the current political climate—particularly difficult to achieve. Agent: Jim Levine, Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency. (Apr.)