by P.E. Moskowitz
Bold Type Books
8/12/2025, paperback
SKU: 9781645030744
"An exacting look at gentrification" (New York Times Book Review)--and the lives devastated in the process
The term gentrification has become a buzzword to describe the changes in urban neighborhoods across the country, but we don't realize just how threatening it is. It means more than the arrival of trendy shops, much-maligned hipsters, and expensive lattes. The very future of American cities as vibrant, equitable spaces hangs in the balance.
A vigorous exposé revealing who holds power in our cities, How to Kill a City uncovers the massive systemic forces behind gentrification in New Orleans, Detroit, San Francisco, and New York. Now with a new preface reflecting on the present-day political landscape surrounding the housing crisis, How to Kill a City is essential reading for anyone who cares about the fate of our cities and our nation.
Reviews:
"Gentrification takes a community's personal tragedy, loss and destruction, and monetizes it. Understanding how this happens, and how individuals may unwittingly find themselves a part of it is what makes Moskowitz's book so important. It isn't a lesson about what happened, it's a warning about what is happening now."-- Truthout
"A fascinating analysis of late-stage gentrification in which corporate control of cities renders them uninhabitable to most people. Showing how gentrifiers exploit 'someone else's loss' as a consequence of long histories of racist policy, Peter Moskowitz calls for a global movement against this 'new form of segregation, ' defining housing as a human right rooted in community instead of real estate profit."-- Sarah Schulman, author of Gentrification of the Mind and The Cosmopolitans
"Peter Moskowitz offers a smartly written and fiercely logical indictment of city governments for selling out longtime residents to aggressive developers and rich investors, and calling it growth. This book is a wake-up call to communities to say no to state-sponsored gentrification and join together to resist their own demise."-- Sharon Zukin, author of Naked City: The Death and Life of Authentic Urban Places
About the Author:
P.E. Moskowitz is the author of three books, including Breaking Awake: A Reporter's Search for a New Life, and a New World, Through Drugs. They are a frequent contributor to publications including New York magazine, GQ, and The Nation. They run the newsletter Mental Hellth, which explores how capitalism affects our psyches. They were born and raised and live in New York City.