Description
Book SynopsisAn incisive examination of how growth-at-all-costs planning and policy have exacerbated inequality and racial division in Atlanta. Atlanta, the capital of the American South, is at the red-hot core of expansion, inequality, and political relevance. In recent decades, central Atlanta has experienced heavily racialized gentrification while the suburbs have become more diverse, with many affluent suburbs trying to push back against this diversity. Exploring the city's past and future,Red Hot City tracks these racial and economic shifts and the politics and policies that produced them. Dan Immergluck documents the trends that are inverting Atlanta's late-twentieth-century poor-in-the-core urban model. New emphasis on capital-driven growth has excluded low-income people and families of color from the city's center, pushing them to distant suburbs far from mass transit, large public hospitals, and other essential services. Revealing critical lessons for leaders, activists, and reside
Trade Review"The inner city and the suburbs have flipped as low-income residents and people of color are being pushed farther out of Atlanta. Immergluck provides a look into past housing policies that have affected this outcome while also providing a path to a future of more equitable, livable cities." * Realtor Magazine Online *
"In cities from Oakland to Atlanta to Minneapolis, decades of racial housing discrimination have combined with elite-oriented development strategies to create a reality where neighborhoods gentrify, investors profit, and vulnerable people suffer. . . . Immergluck . . . explain[s] how that reality came about—and how we might disrupt it." * The New Republic *
"Immergluck exposes dizzying networks of politicians, developers, financial investors, and cultural brokers—embedded in public and private institutions that span from local government to global markets—that persistently have redistributed wealth and power from Atlanta’s (GA) Black to White communities. . . . Immergluck’s storytelling has many strengths." * Journal of the American Planning Association *
"Immergluck...questions Atlanta’s reputation as "the 'Black Mecca'" with this quietly searing book. . . . Readers interested in urban politics in the South, gentrification and redevelopment in southern cities, and inclusive housing policies will find this research necessary reading. Summing Up: Essential. General readers through faculty; professionals.” * CHOICE *
"Immergluck provides a case study of everything a city can do to worsen affordability. . . . Readers of
Red Hot City will not be surprised, and can start preparing to protect and expand their city’s affordable housing stock before it is too late." * Beyond Chron *
"This book would be an excellent addition to many bookshelves. The real estate developer would do well to add it (if they dare), as would the aspiring mayor, as would anyone who wants to make sense of one of America’s most important cities." * Journal of Urban Affairs *
Table of ContentsContents
Preface
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. Building the Racially Segregated Southern Capital
2. The Beltline as a Public-Private Gentrification Project
3. Planning, Subsidy, and Housing Precarity in the Gentrifying City
4. Subprimed Atlanta: Boom, Bust, and Uneven Recovery
5. Diversity and Exclusion in the Suburbs
Conclusion
Notes
Index
