How to Build Urban Tech Centers Without Encouraging Inequality

Are so-called “tech ghettos” an inevitable product of any city-based boom in the tech sector? That’s a question explored by a new report from Britain’s Royal Town Planning Institute.

Too often, the report notes, cities experience major growth in tech industries without noticeable positive effects for the wider communities in which these businesses are located. The result is a two-speed economy plagued by economic segregation and even displacement for longer-term residents who can neither afford local rents nor access the new jobs created by the boom.