About this Event
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: How America Is Suffocating Its Cities and What to Do About It 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.Join Build or Die author Ned Resnikoff, California Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, and Economic Security Project co-founder Natalie Foster for a conversation about what ails America's great cities—and how we can revitalize both urban America and American democracy.
Ned Resnikoff is an independent writer and urban policy analyst. His work has appeared in The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, The New Republic, The Nation, Dissent, and The Atlantic, among other publications. He writes Public Comment, an online newsletter about cities and democracy.
Natalie Foster is author of The Guarantee: Inside the Fight For America’s Next Economy and co-founder and former President of Economic Security Project, an organization dedicated to building economic power for everyday Americans. She's a Senior Fellow at the Aspen Institute Future of Work Initiative.
Assemblymember Buffy Wicks represents the East Bay in the California State Assembly, with a district spanning the communities of Oakland to Richmond, and includes the Cities of Berkeley, El Cerrito, and others. Wicks is currently Chair of the Appropriations Committee, after serving as Chair of the Assembly Housing Committee for two years prior. She has a track record of taking on the toughest fights to solve the state’s housing crises. In addition to this work, she focuses heavily on protecting the social safety net, keeping kids safe in the digital world, and championing the rights of women and working families. A lifelong organizer, Asm. Wicks previously served for President Barack Obama for six years.
Event venue & nearby stays
Clio's Books, 353 Grand Avenue, Oakland, United States
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