How 'urban renewal' went from a vision for public good to a private enrichment scheme

The Real News Podcast · Aug 10, 2023 · 50m

America's numerous struggling cities face the unenviable task of addressing crumbling physical and social infrastructure, housing and affordability crises, and unemployment on shoestring budgets (after you account for the massive slices handed to police) and public debt. In the age of neoliberalism, the solution is all too often to turn to the private sector—which usually only results in an upward transfer of public wealth into private hands without substantial improvement to the problems at hand. Urban development, particularly in a city like Baltimore, is especially egregious in this…