Eric Peterson, PhD, is a labor organizer in San Francisco. He also edits Market Failure, an occasional publication focused on housing.
Proposals for market-based solutions to the housing crisis have precedents in the elite-driven housing policy of the 20th century. Those policies favored business interests at the expense of poor and working-class people while worsening racial divides.
The long-running Netflix reality show Selling Sunset often veers into the territory of Real Housewives–style drama. But it also provides a close-up look at the investor-fueled irrationalities of the luxury real estate market.
How did a brand of gay-friendly values become synonymous with those most prized by capitalist urban redevelopment?