Who owns the city?
Saskia Sassen – “Does the massive foreign and national corporate buying of urban buildings and urban land that took off after the 2008 crisis signal an emergent new phase in major cities? I want to examine the details of this large corporate investment surge and, most importantly, why it matters to a city. Are not cities about density and built-up terrain? I will argue that not all densities are the same, and that some actually de-urbanize the city by eliminating urban tissue (little streets and squares, mixed small-scale uses, etc) and turning whole sections of a city into basically office enclaves and luxury apartment towers. Importantly, cities are the spaces where those without power get to make a history and a culture, thereby making their powerlessness complex. We will lose this type of making that has given our cities their cosmopolitanism if the current large-scale buying continues.”
[Read article in the Urban Age website]
Reading Development 