City planners across the planet have recently adopted gentrification led by creatives as a development strategy for increasing the wealth of cities while also promoting inclusiveness, diversity and social integration, all of which are important to these cities’ engagement in global networks, as well as increasing capital with minimum political objection. An all-round win. However, faced with growing socioeconomic inequalities within major cities over the same period— and between global urban hotspots, or what are called ‘superstar cities’, such as New York, London, Shanghai, Dubai and the rest—even Richard Florida, proselytiser-in-chief for creative gentrification as the path to urban ‘renewal’, ...