The New York Times profiles the real estate developer, an arch-villain of contemporary society who, by some accounts, makes too much money, bulldozes humble neighborhoods to make room for the rich, and wills inequality and displacement as a matter of business. 

But is there another side to the story? Are real estate developers bad or can they be good, too?

Carol Galante, a former nonprofit housing developer, defends the development, in general. She tells The New York Times, “In places where frankly there isn’t a lot of development happening, how is that working for you right now? In terms of getting increased housing affordability, it’s obviously not.”

Galante also takes aim at the notion that developers make too much profit, adding, “There is just a total lack of understanding of the economics of building new housing today, of the math behind it, and what developers actually make or don’t make. This is not your father’s subdivision process of the 1950s.”