{"product_id":"sharon-zukin-naked-city-9780199794461","title":"Naked City","description":"As cities have gentrified, educated urbanites have come to prize what they regard as \"authentic\" urban life: aging buildings, art galleries, small boutiques, upscale food markets, neighborhood old-timers, funky ethnic restaurants, and old, family-owned shops. These signify a place's authenticity, in contrast to the bland standardization of the suburbs and exurbs. But as Sharon Zukin shows in Naked City, the rapid and pervasive demand for authenticity--evident in escalating real estate prices, expensive stores, and closely monitored urban streetscapes--has helped drive out the very people who first lent a neighborhood its authentic aura: immigrants, the working class, and artists. Zukin traces this economic and social evolution in six archetypal New York areas--Williamsburg, Harlem, the East Village, Union Square, Red Hook, and the city's community gardens--and travels to both the city's first IKEA store and the World Trade Center site. She shows that for followers of Jane Jacobs, this transformation is a perversion of what was supposed to happen. Indeed, Naked City is a sobering update of Jacobs' legendary 1961 book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Like Jacobs, Zukin looks at what gives neighborhoods a sense of place, but argues that over time, the emphasis on neighborhood distinctiveness has become a tool of economic elites to drive up real estate values and effectively force out the neighborhood \"characters\" that Jacobs so evocatively idealized.","brand":"Oxford University Press","offers":[{"title":"Used - very good","offer_id":53511672365398,"sku":"9780199794461-V","price":18.89,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0925\/5829\/5382\/files\/product_image_9780199794461_1.jpg?v=1781687574","url":"https:\/\/www.momoxbooks.com\/products\/sharon-zukin-naked-city-9780199794461","provider":"momoxbooks","version":"1.0","type":"link"}