In The City Builders Susan S. Fainstein provides a contemporary analysis of the creators of the urban built environment - the property developers, politicians, planners and community leaders who, together with their advisers and financial backers, constitute one of the major forces of urban transformation. Focusing on the global cities of New York and London, this book explores the ways in which the property development industry attempts to shape as well as respond to market demand in the boom and bust years of the 1980s and early 1990s.