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The New Urban Crisis: How Our Cities Are Increasing Inequality, Deepening Segregation, and Failing the Middle Classand What We Can Do About It Hardcover – April 11, 2017

by Richard Florida (Author)

36 customer reviews

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In recent years, the young, educated, and affluent have surged back into cities, reversing decades of suburban flight and urban decline. And yet all is not well, Richard Florida argues in The New Urban Crisis. Florida, one of the first scholars to anticipate this back-to-the-city movement in his groundbreaking The Rise of the Creative Class, demonstrates how the same forces that power the growth of the world's superstar cities also generate their vexing challenges: gentrification, unaffordability, segregation, and inequality. Meanwhile, many more cities still stagnate, and middle-class neighborhoods everywhere are disappearing. Our winner-take-all cities are just one manifestation of a profound crisis in today's urbanized knowledge economy.

A bracingly original work of research and analysis, The New Urban Crisis offers a compelling diagnosis of our economic ills and a bold prescription for more inclusive cities capable of ensuring growth and prosperity for all.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Richard Florida offers a brilliant assessment of the varied and evolving challenges facing our cities today. At a time when cities are more important than ever to our economic and political future, The New Urban Crisis is essential reading for urban leaders and all city-dwellers."―Richard M. Daley, former mayor of Chicago

"The New Urban Crisis bracingly confronts [the] tension between big-city elites and the urban underclass."―Wall Street Journal

"[Richard Florida] vividly expose[s] how gentrification, followed by rising housing costs, concentrated affluence, and glaring inequality has pushed the displaced into deteriorating suburbs far from mass transit, employment, services, and decent schools.... [The New Urban Crisis is] nuanced and proposes solutions."―Washington Post

"Florida draws subtle, thoughtful inferences from his research, and he writes in slick, approachable prose.... Throughout, the author remains an idealistic, perceptive observer of cities' transformations. A sobering account of inequality and spatial conflict rising against a cultural backdrop of urban change."
―Kirkus Reviews

"Urban planners should consider the case being made for the need to address a new urban crisis. A thought-provoking work for those interested in all stages of urban planning and placemaking."
―Library Journal

"The New Urban Crisis deserves to stand alongside Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century as an essential diagnosis of our contemporary ills, and a clear-eyed prescription of how to cure them."―Steven Johnson

"Richard Florida demonstrates again that he is one of the most discerning (and provocative) observers of the great metropolitan migrations of the past 60 years."
―Governor John Hickenlooper, Colorado

"Cites are engines for prosperity and progress, but it's essential that the benefits extend far and wide. Florida proposes promising ideas for building stronger cities that offer greater opportunities for all."―Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York City

"Richard Florida is the great pioneer thinker who first explained how the influx of creative people was reviving cities. Now he takes the next step: looking for ways to make this urbanism more inclusive."―Walter Isaacson

"This is the book we have been waiting for. Richard Florida is the greatest American urbanist of our time....This is an indispensable read for policy makers, students, educators, and all urban dwellers alike."
―Mayor Eric Garcetti, Los Angeles

About the Author

Richard Florida is university professor and director of cities at the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto, a distinguished visiting fellow at NYU's Schack Institute of Real Estate, and the cofounder and editor-at-large of the Atlantic's CityLab.

Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Basic Books; 1 edition (April 11, 2017)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0465079741
ISBN-13: 978-0465079742
Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1.2 x 9.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 36 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #88,498 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #19 in Books > Business & Money > Economics > Urban & Regional
- #38 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > United States > Local
- #60 in Books > Arts & Photography > Architecture > Urban & Land Use Planning

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David Shulman

An Indictment of Urban Liberalism

July 1, 2017

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I know urban planning professor Richard Florida did not intend it, but his new book represents an indictment of urban liberalism. To Florida the motive force in urban America is “The Rise of the Creative Class,” the title of a highly influential book he wrote in 2002. The creative class consists of occupations in the sciences, the arts, music, entertainment, media, management, finance, healthcare and education; in other words the educated elite. Sitting below them is the working class who represents blue collar workers and the service class consisting routine jobs food service, hospitality, maintenance and retail. In other words people like Florida, despite his humble roots, determine the destiny of a city. And to him the defeat of Hillary Clinton and the victory of Donald Trump in last year’s presidential election meant that the barbarians were at the gates. That may be true but the seeds urban liberalism failures were already planted well before the arrival of Trump. As an aside, my guess is that if Hillary won, Florida would now be sitting in a high post at HUD.

As Florida accurately notes the influx of the creative class into the cities of America brought with it rising real estate prices that exacerbated pre-existing income inequality, racial segregation and spatial segregation of the well-off from the poor. This has been especially true in the super star cities of New York and Los Angeles and the education/tech hubs of Boston, San Francisco and Washington D.C. In those cities the demand-driven house price increases were exacerbated by the planning and zoning controls put in place by the very creative class that Florida champions. If you don’t believe me, just look at the over-the-top real estate ads that appear regularly in The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times. As a result the creative class has been enriched and the middle class is being forced out. Thus in urban America zoning is the engine of economic inequality.

All of this was true from the 1980s on and most, if not all of it, were accomplished under the auspices of urban liberal regimes. Florida’s major error is that he conflates social liberalism with economic liberalism. While his creative class may largely support immigration, gay rights and a high degree of tolerance for different lifestyles; they do not necessarily believe that social liberalism requires them to make personal sacrifices with respect to their tax burden, the schools their children go to and the location of affordable housing in their neighborhoods. For example the liberal voters of Los Angeles just voted to tax themselves to provide housing for the homeless. However there are no neighborhoods volunteering to accommodate such housing.

Now Florida to his credit understands all of this. He offers several commendable proposals to offset the income inequality generated by his creative class. I fully agree with him that urban/suburban densities ought to be substantially increased, additional density bonuses ought to be issued to allow for an affordable housing component in major developments, property taxation should build on the ideas of Henry George by taxing site value alone rather than land and improvements, transportation infrastructure should be expanded to accommodate higher densities, and low income earners need an expanded earned income tax credit. Further he sensibly understands that rent control is not part of the solution.

Where I would disagree with him is that he advocates a substantial increase in the minimum wage on metro-area by metro area basis. The problem here is that substantially higher minimum wages may worsen the problem it seeks to solve and recent research out of the University of Washington on Seattle’s minimum wage tends to support my skepticism. We are also in an age of artificial intelligence and that will work to obliterate routine task jobs in food service and retail.

Where I really differ with Florida is that he thinks that his creative class will support substantially increased urban densities. Here I am very skeptical because it is the legally savvy creative class who has refined protesting new developments to a high art. Listen, I hope he is right, but I am not holding my breath. Three last points, he leaves out a discussion on self-driving vehicles which might work to decrease urban densities by making long distance commuting far easier. He fails to even mention the underbelly of every major city in America, unfunded pension liabilities largely created by that bulwark of urban liberalism, the public employee unions. And third he is silent on the state sponsored child abuse that takes place in all too many urban school systems. I am hopeful he will discuss these three items in a future book.

Despite my critique, Florida’s data driven analysis told us how we got to this place in urban America today and for that he deserves much credit.

48 people found this helpful49 people found this helpful

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James W. Hickman

This is an excellent follow-up on Richard Florida's earlier publications where he predicted ...

October 23, 2017

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This is an excellent follow-up on Richard Florida's earlier publications where he predicted the current flock of professionals into the city limits of many cities including my city, Richmond, VA. This book speaks to the unintended consequences of that migration. His words describe what i am seeing materialize around me.

2 people found this helpful3 people found this helpful

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John R. Oppenheim

A great supplement to understanding America and other countries' problems in the super cities.

August 22, 2017

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If you read some mother books about how we got to where we are today "The New Urban Crisis " expands on the theme of what had happened here in America. The plight of the poor and the shortage of housing needs to be addressed in order to move forward as a country.

This book shows us where we are and how we can get to a better place by understanding that the mega cities that have grown up are both the problem and the solution to a happier society

One person found this helpful2 people found this helpful

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MCAPKING

Worth it

July 30, 2017

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This is one of the books i keep next to my bed for times when i'm trouble falling alseep. That being said, it is a very well written book, and the research seems very ligitimate and thorough.

One person found this helpful

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Mostly OK but could profitably have been 50 pages shorter

April 26, 2017

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This book is a perfectly respectable magazine article stretched into an adequate but somewhat less brilliant book. Many of his key points are (to me) common sense: housing prices in some metro areas are out of control, zoning is partially responsible, the problem isn't limited to suburbs, and there's a lot of segregation out there.

What I liked the most: Florida complies lots of factual data, and here and there makes a point that is actually interesting. For example:
1. he notes that housing prices have grown by 3.5 percent per year in San Francisco since 1950- more than twice the national average.
2. Florida discusses the toxic impact of land use regulation that limits the housing supply; for example, he cites one study suggesting if everyone who wanted to live in cities like San Francisco and New York could afford to live there, the resulting wage increase would add 13.5 percent to America's GDP.
3. The conventional wisdom is that high housing costs make high-cost metros a bad deal. Florida suggests that (especially for the upper and upper middle classes) the benefits of higher wages outweigh this cost. After housing costs, the average worker has $42,120 left over in New York, and just over $26,000 left over in low-cost Las Vegas. However, this impact varies by class: in the "creative class" (Florida's term for high-income workers) the New Yorker comes out $18,000 ahead, but for the low-wage "service class" the New Yorker only comes out $3,000 ahead. For what's left of the industrial working class, New York only comes out $240 ahead (which I suspect is canceled out by New York's higher taxes).
4. Ch. 7 includes lots of charts and maps showing how metro areas vary. In high-cost, prosperous New York and San Francisco both cities and suburbs have rich areas and poor areas. But in other regions, suburbia has the lion's share of regional wealth. Despite all the public discussion of gentrification, there is no metro area where wealth is concentrated in cities.
Like many liberals, Florida complains about inequality. He writes that inequality "can be, and often is, a drag on economic growth." But a page later he writes: "very few US cities or metro areas have been able to combine high levels of economic growth with low levels of inequality." I'm not sure how these positions fit together.
The last two chapters are the weakest and probably should have been left for another book. In his chapter on global urbanization, he writes that for much of the developing world, "urbanization has been a near total failure." But after showing that even third-world cities are more productive than their rural neighbors, he writes just five pages later: "urbanization, warts and all, is better than the alternative." I am not sure how these statements fit together.
His last chapter is a hodgepodge of tax-and-spend remedies. Unlike extreme progressives, he does not favor huge increases in government regulation; for example, he is skeptical of rent control and favors new housing construction. But unlike conservatives he favors a more generous welfare state and a higher minimum wage. These issues are sufficiently complex that Florida probably should have left them for his next book rather than giving them cursory treatment in this one.

33 people found this helpful34 people found this helpful

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Särelä Mikko

Great book!

December 21, 2017

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This was a great book on the topic of urban change and I learned a lot from it. Definitely recommended reading...

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Bill Endsley

Three Stars

August 6, 2017

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A bit repetitive in the middle, but a must read for those in urban planning.

One person found this helpful2 people found this helpful

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Daniel Olarte

Five Stars

February 20, 2018

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A great and surprising book about how cities are our doom and our only way forward.

One person found this helpful

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