Joseph Grosso traces the history of New York's transformation back into a gilded city, and asks what can be done about it. He examines New York's deindustrialization and the elite planning and design that followed; New York's financial crisis of the mid-1970s and the policy decisions made in its wake; New York's housing crisis; and the history of public housing across the United States. Making the history of gentrification and deindustrialization widely available and understood is a crucial tool in combating housing crises which continue to spread in cities around the world as more and more houses are left empty, to be used for global investments instead of for living.

Fresh, lively, accessible, Grosso brings the issues of gentrification, deindustrialization, homelessness, and militarized policing, so easily ignored, to the fore.