Zoned Out!

Gentrification and displacement of low-income communities of color are major issues in New York City and the city's zoning policies are a major cause. Race matters but the city ignores it when shaping land use and housing policies. The city promises "affordable housing" that is not truly affordable. Zoned Out! shows how this has played in Williamsburg, Harlem and Chinatown, neighborhoods facing massive displacement of people of color. It looks at ways the city can address inequalities, promote authentic community-based planning and develop housing in the public domain. Tom Angotti frames the revised edition of this seminal work with a tribute to the late urbanist and architect Michael Sorkin and his progressive and revolutionary approaches to cities as well as a new preface about changes in city policy since Mayor Bill de Blasio left office and what rights citizens need to defend. The book includes a foreword by the late, distinguished urban planning educator Peter Marcuse and individual chapters by community activist Philip DePaola, housing policy analyst Samuel Stein, and both the editors. "Should the 'highest and best' use of land be determined by the market, or should the right of citizens to live in stable and equitable communities, especially important for communities of color historically victimized by elite power disguised as 'the market,' take precedence? Full of insight and provocation, this volume is essential reading for those scholars, students, and activists searching for alternative courses of action to widespread urban displacement, growing income inequality, and resurgent racial polarization in the United States." -J. Phillip Thompson, MIT, Department of Urban Studies and Planning