The Assassination of New York. (book reviews)

Nation, The, November, 1993 by Freeman, Joshua B.

We Own New York

At the close of one of New York City's more dreary mayoral elections comes a call to arms from Robert Fitch that revives nineteenth-century reformer Henry George's emphasis on landownership as a cause of urban woe. (George himself once ran for the city's mayor in 1886 as a labor-backed candidate, electrifying workers and terrifying the political establishment with his attacks on privilege and monopoly.) All but ignoring the issues that have dominated recent New York elections--race, crime, corrupting and administrative incompetence--Fitch insists that the main problem the city faces is a disastrous lack of jobs. With an unemployment rate stuck near the double digits, New York has one of the lowest labor force participation rates of any...