On this edition of Your Call, UC Berkeley geography professor emeritus Richard Walker discusses his new book, Pictures of a Gone City: Tech and the Dark Side of Prosperity in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Walker calls San Francisco the “jewel in the crown of capitalism, the tech capital of the world and a gusher of wealth from the Silicon Gold Rush.” But there is a dark side to success on the Left Coast: extreme inequality, displacement, underpaid workers, and a relentless housing crisis. Why has the tech boom excluded so many people, particularly people of color and immigrants? What will it take to tackle these issues?
Guest:
Richard Walker, professor emeritus of geography at UC Berkeley, chair of the campus’s California Studies Center, author of Pictures of a Gone City
Richard Walker will be speaking at the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at 4pm on Thursday, April 26 / 2521 Channing Way in Berkeley
Web Resources:
The Brooklyn Rail: Only Connect: A Review of Richard Walker’s Pictures of a Gone City
East Bay Express: Why Is There a Housing Crisis?
UC Berkeley: In ‘Gone City,’ geographer questions Silicon Valley’s boom times
