Zoned Out! - by Tom Angotti & Sylvia Morse (Paperback)

About the Book

"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"--

Book Synopsis

Common sense solutions for affordable housing that is truly affordable

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 and Sylvia Morse frame 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.

Review Quotes

""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"

About the Author

Tom Angotti (Editor)
Tom Angotti is Professor Emeritus of Urban Policy and Planning at Hunter College, the Graduate Center, and City University of New York, and directed the Hunter College Center for Community Planning & Development. He is adjunct professor at Parsons/The New School and the author of New York for Sale: Community Planning Confronts Global Real Estate, which won the 2009 Davidoff Book Award.

Sylvia Morse (Editor)
Sylvia Morse is a lifelong New Yorker who has dedicated her work to advancing community planning, the solidarity economy, and housing justice. She has worked with New York City nonprofits, city agencies, and grassroots organizations on local land use struggles, development of worker-owned cooperative businesses, and a range of housing programs and policy issues. She has a master's degree in urban planning from CUNY Hunter College.