Build or Die

Cities like New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco are in crisis. Chronic housing shortages are driving countless middle-class and working-class households out of high-opportunity areas. Homelessness is skyrocketing. Cars continue to rule city streets, poisoning the climate and putting everyone’s health and safety at risk. And city governments, instead of rising to meet the challenge, are increasingly dysfunctional and unaccountable. Build or Die traces the history of a disaster a century in the making, detailing how shortsighted and reactionary policy decisions led to the interlocking crisis that threatens America’s great cities.

Veteran urban policy analyst and journalist Ned Resnikoff cuts through the noise surrounding these issues, revealing exactly how we got here, and describes the work that a generation of urban reformers and activists have already been doing to make their communities more sustainable, egalitarian, and democratic. The crisis facing our cities isn’t due to rising crime or urban decay. It’s because of their inability to manage unprecedented economic growth and prosperity.

Drawing on his experience at the forefront of the modern urbanist movement, Resnikoff makes the case for how cities can make that growth work for everyone by building more homes, investing in transit and walkable communities, and restoring democratic accountability to local government.

The health of a nation depends in no small part on the health of its cities. Build or Die charts a path to healthier, more vibrant cities and reveals why saving them must go hand in hand with the revitalization of democracy itself.