"Red Hot City" details how Atlanta policies led to racial exclusion

If you're looking for a coherent and detailed explanation of what’s driving Atlanta's drastic racial and economic divide, a Georgia State University professor's book on the topic needs to be on your reading list.

Driving the news: Dan Immergluck's "Red Hot City: Housing, Race, and Exclusion in Twenty-First-Century Atlanta" is now on sale.

"Red Hot City" explores how government policies, gentrification and growth have led to the exclusion of people of color and low-income residents from Atlanta while its suburban communities have grown in diversity.

• In turn, Red Hot City recounts how those same suburban cities and counties deployed their own tools to exclude low-income — most of whom are people of color — from their communities.

What they're saying: Immergluck told Axios that with every major project in Atlanta, he wants city leaders to think about who "they are developing the city for, and what type of city do they want it to be."

• To reverse the detrimental effects gentrification has had on Atlanta for the last 25 years, policymakers should be more proactive about incorporating affordable housing in all major projects, Immergluck told Axios.
• "That means setting aside resources — dollars and land — to create affordable housing," he added. "They also need to more aggressively protect existing residents from the shocks of rising land values near these projects."