Bloomberg's New York: Class and Governance in the Luxury City (Geographies of Justice and Social Transformation): 6

Bloomberg’s New York is both a powerful and nuanced argument for undertaking detailed empirical analysis of urban economics and governance under neoliberalism.

–Kristina E. Gibson “Social and Cultural Geography“

A very substantial contribution to the study of politics and governance in New York City and to scholarship on urban development politics more generally. Brash’s ability to move gracefully between conceptual issues and empirical detail makes the book highly readable and even entertaining; the chapters on the Hudson Yards case, for example, should be required reading for courses on urban planning.

–William Sites “author of Remaking New York: Primitive Globalization and the Politics of Urban Community“

Brash’s detailed case study shows the strengths and weaknesses of the tactics and strategies adopted by community groups in circumstances that, while exceptional, can be easily analogized to those surrounding large-scale redevelopment projects in other strong real estate markets. . . . Brash himself recognizes that effective resistance against the Bloomberg Way must go beyond this unmasking; it must offer an alternative linking of governance, urban imaginary, and class.

–Juan Rivero “Journal of Planning Education and Research“

Brash’s insightful book provides the first thorough examination of the Bloomberg administration–increasingly touted as an example to follow by cities across the nation–and in so doing extricates the antidemocratic dimensions involved in the corporatization of urban government. Bloomberg’s New York should be immediately influential across urban studies disciplines.

–Arlene Dávila “author of Barrio Dreams: Puerto Ricans, Latinos, and the Neoliberal City“

[B]rilliant. . . . Written with an academic audience in mind, the book uses a well-reported history of the Hudson Yards master plan/Olympics wet dream to lay out a devastating critique of the CEO mayor, his vision of the city as a product to be marketed, and citizens as passive consumers of it.

—Village Voice

Brash persuasively argues that Michael Bloomberg’s image as a ‘CEO Mayor’ who governs New York in a nonpolitical and nonideological way does not reflect the agenda behind ‘Bloomberg’s Way.’

—Choice

JULIAN BRASH is an associate professor of anthropology at Montclair State University. His work has been published in Urban Anthropology, Critique of Anthropology, Social Text, Cultural Geography, and Antipode.