From Welfare State to Real Estate: Regime Change in New York City, 1974 to the Present

by Kim Moody

City of Quartz meets Gotham —the dark side of the glittering metropolis.

New York is a city of outlandish wealth and extreme deprivation, where the abundance of high-rise office space and luxury housing belies a poverty rate of nearly twice the national average. In From Welfare State to Real Estate , prominent labor activist Kim Moody argues that the city's business elite has tilted the political structure toward an agenda that puts real estate development ahead of human needs. The result is a new Gilded Age in America's first city, overseen by the nation's first billionaire mayor.

Tracing this trend to its roots in 1975, when New York's once-generous welfare state was abandoned during a time of financial crisis, Moody shows how business leaders managed to seize an unprecedented degree of influence in local politics. From Koch to Bloomberg, the developmental bulldozer has extended its reach, placing more pressure on the city's beleaguered and divided working class. From Welfare State to Real Estate offers the first historical narrative of the key turning points in this process, from the redevelopment of Times Square to the current fight over Brooklyn's Atlantic Yards. It looks beneath the skyline to analyze the power struggles that have shaped this global city in the twenty-first century.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Urban Studies

340 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2007

Reviews

[Atif Taj · Rating 3 out of 5]

NYC poverty rate among all ethnics is more than the national rate and this is the most elite city we are discussing about. The taxation on elites has been decreased while at the same the elite class is the main benefactor of tax expenditures with abatement, credits, and tax free zones. The affordable housing is negligible.

Every mayor since Abraham Beame followed classic Neoliberal Theory: Starve it, complain of its deficits, sell off bits, then privatize the whole thing.

[Katelin Penner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book a lot - goes into Bloomberg as well as rest of post-fiscal crisis mayors which I appreciated.

[Katie Goldstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book about development in nyc and the the construction of new power relations post-1975. It is excellent on showing how New York City is a neo-liberal city which public programs being cut while simultaneously private developers are given a free for all on development and real estate in all of the five boroughs. Social services were systematically cut while any kind of community input was taken away while Wall Street created a super-rich class that sought to build housing and services for the upper class. GREAT!

[My Bookshelf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aaron Amaral from DC 37 Legal recommended I read this. It's an interesting analysis about the power shift that's taken place in NYC over the past 35 years. I was hoping for more analysis and less journalistic narrative; parts of the book lulled me to sleep while riding the subway.