My research focuses on fundamental changes in the geography of American inner cities -- particularly the operation of the housing market and shifts in housing policy in driving nearly four decades of gentrification. More specifically I am interested in exploring the role that gentrification, the privatization of public housing and the massive expansion of secondary mortgage markets (and mortgage backed securities) have played in turning an area that suffered from a dearth of capital investment, abandonment, social inequality and segregation into an area that is the target of investment capital and massive new development (albeit with new forms of social inequality). I am also exploring linkages between predatory lending and mortgage foreclosures. More generally, this work represents an interest in the intersection of policy and geography, and particularly how policies exhibit substantially different effects in different geographic contexts. My research has been published in a range of geography and urban studies journals including Environment and Planning A, Urban Geography, Geografiska Annaler B, Urban Studies and Housing Policy Debate.
