Naked City : The Death and Life of Authentic Urban Places

As cities have gentrified, educated urbanites have come to prize what they regard as "authentic" urban life: aging buildings, art galleries, and funky ethnic restaurants.But as Sharon Zukin shows in Naked City, the pervasive demand for authenticity has helped drive out the very people who first lent a neighborhood its authentic aura: immigrants, the working class, and artists.Through a guided tour of six archetypal New York City neighborhoods, Zukin shows how the emphasis on distinctiveness has become a tool of economic elites to drive up real estate values and force out the neighborhood "characters" that people often idealize.With a journalist's eye and the understanding of a longtime observer, Zukin's panoramic survey of the city explains how our desire to consume authentic experience has become a central force in making cities more exclusive.