This is the third of three essay assignments that are worth 100 points (10% of the final grade). The title should be
“Capital City”. It intends to help students think critically about material they have encountered in their studies and
to express clearly their thoughts about them in writing. You are expected to read and watch the assigned material
carefully, think about them, and write a response to them. Make sure that your response is substantive and wellsupported by your arguments. You may agree, you may disagree, but at the end you need to make your point
clearly and with well-developed arguments.
ASSIGNMENT MATERIAL:
Stein, Samuel. Capital City: Gentrification and the Real Estate State (Verso, 2019)
“Long Island Divided: How real estate agents treated undercover clients on Long Island”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqN-D3f49fE
“Real Estate Wars: Inside the class and culture battle that’s tearing San Francisco apart”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVVO8b4vvis&t=59s
Dolack, Pete (2017) “When Housing is a Commodity Instead of a Human Right” CounterPunch
https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/05/12/when-housing-is-a-commodity-instead-of-a-human-right/
“London’s out of control Ponzi booming property sector”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dINbQGgVEN8&t=1272s
SPECIFIC TASK:
Your specific task for this assignment will be to explain the book Capital City: Gentrification and the Real Estate
State to a college-level audience. Additionally, I am interested in your response to the other assigned material as
they relate to this book’s themes.
Obviously, it would be wise to take into careful consideration the other material highlighted for you on this
instruction sheet. You should write a well-organized, thoughtful brief essay.
Of course, everything we read for this course can be useful in one way or another, especially to help frame and
contextualize your response. If you would like to use peer-reviewed literature, you can do so if you cite
appropriately, using one of the established formats (i.e. Chicago, APA, etc). However, this should be your
response to the readings and videos .