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Political Science City Planning & Urban Development

Condo Conquest

Urban Governance, Law, and Condoization in New York City and Toronto

by (author) Randy K. Lippert

Publisher
UBC Press
Initial publish date
Jan 2019
Category
City Planning & Urban Development, Urban & Land Use Planning, Urban
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780774860352
    Publish Date
    Jan 2019
    List Price
    $89.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780774860383
    Publish Date
    Jan 2015
    List Price
    $32.99
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780774860369
    Publish Date
    Sep 2019
    List Price
    $32.95

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Description

When condominiums first emerged in North American cities in the 1960s, they were a new kind of housing governed by boards of resident owners volunteering in a community. Condo Conquest shows how the condo and its inner governance have since become something else entirely, taken over – or conquered – by an assemblage of commercial interests specializing in condo law, real estate, security, and property management, as well as growing numbers of non-resident investors. Drawing on the accounts of residents and board directors in Toronto and New York and myriad other sources, Randy Lippert reveals how a growing reliance on commodified technologies, emergent forms of knowledge, and the exploitation of renters are threatening the condo’s future and undermining the integrity of urban communities.

About the author

Randy K. Lippert is a professor in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminology at the University of Windsor.

Randy K. Lippert's profile page

Editorial Reviews

Lippert's argument is based on extensive interviews with owners, condo corporation directors, property managers, realtors, and others in Toronto and New York. Lippert builds his case with a close reading of the documents that delineate condo living: statutes that seem to grow more elaborate with each legislative revision, as well as corporation bylaws, reserve fund studies, house-rules documents, and the shorthand legal opinions that flood into condos from the newsletters of lawyers representing boards, property managers, and builders.

Literary Review of Canada

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