Changing urban fabrics: Thinking through the lopsided city

Abstract

In response to DeVerteuil's recent article in this forum, “Urban Inequality Revisited: From the Corrugated City to the Lopsided City,” I offer a generally positive appraisal—considering his call to re-focus class in urban studies and providing further context to his arguments about uneven spatial development and inter-city relationality. I also offer something of a critique, or what might be read as a clarification, which serves to further complicate the notion of class inequality and its representation in “lopsided” city fabrics. Perhaps we should pay mind not only to powerful, extreme architectural verticality as a manifestation of growing class inequality, but also to powerful, less spectacular, horizontal built environments that nevertheless prove to be likewise significant reflections of this expanding divide.