{"product_id":"naked-city-9780199794461","title":"Naked City","description":"\u003cp\u003eAs 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.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sharon Zukin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43573116010557,"sku":"9780199794461","price":64.95,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/7689\/2989\/files\/9780199794461.jpg?v=1788510975","url":"https:\/\/www.palmleaf.com.au\/products\/naked-city-9780199794461","provider":"Palmleaf","version":"1.0","type":"link"}