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This paper analyzes the geography of super-gentrification in US cities, the further intensification of class upgrading after a neighborhood has already been gentrified. Building a national longitudinal tract database of gentrification intensity indicators, we analyze where this process has occurred across the 45 most populous metropolitan regions. We develop a method for quantifying metro-specific gentrification indices, then compare the class and racial demographics of super-gentrified tracts against other kinds of affluent places. We also interpret these national patterns with a case study of gentrification’s broader geographies in the New York City metropolitan region. While super-gentrification is most commonly researched in global mega-cities, we found a wider geography, including substantial suburban and smaller city patterns. We also found that supergentrified neighborhoods are less racially diverse than other gentrified neighborhoods, and are more demographically similar to historically affluent (but not recently gentrified) neighborhoods. The study contributes to a national comparative analysis of gentrification intensity patterns, and a longitudinal analysis of what happens after a neighborhood has already been gentrified. 

We live in an age of extreme and worsening urban inequality. One result is the increased prevalence of “VIP urbanism”—the idea that cities govern land use through two sets of rules, one of them reserved for “very important people”. The first set of rules applies to most urbanites, through de jure laws and standardized bureaucratic policies. However, in many places a second set of practices operates quietly alongside the official rules, as a de facto system of loopholes, easements, exemptions, lobbying, and veto power that enable some actors to shape cities in ways that violate the spirit—and sometimes even the letter—of the law. This special issue presents empirical research and theoretical commentary on the VIP urbanism phenomenon, with cases including Bengaluru, Hong Kong, Milan, New York City, Paris, Valparaiso, and Venice. The authors identify how preferential treatment for elites has impacted urban governance in a diverse geography of cities, and evaluate how these practices have been contested by social movements and other urban stakeholders.