Cities are sinking. Capitalists solution: sell a new real estate, layered on top.
Most modern cities are built near large body of water, so I think this works?
The city is sinking. The capitalists do not care about investing for returns that 1) come in a very long time and 2) not in the form of money, so they ditched the idea of environment-saving projects entirely.
How can I make money on this situation? AHA!
The big players of the city land management i.e. shortsighted planners, (possibly bribed/lobbied) government agencies, real estate investors, think it's just in their interest to stack another layer on top of the existing city. "Grand new real estate, prestigious because why not, and sells at very low price of one billion dollars!1" Said their advertisements.
Sure, it will be expensive to build this one massive concrete bed2 several dozen meters in the air. 87
But don't worry, it will be built by siphoning government subsidies! Of course, the revenues will benefit the capitalists..
It will be an overpriced megablock for the first buyers, but the capitalists will keep advertising and growing this "new layer of city" thing. Common middle-class people is "lured" by the idea of prestige or decent, comfortable living on this new area. Supply and demand (plus maybe competition to sell this new hyped area) will drive the prices to somewhere within reach of upper-middle class, making the area the "dream" for middle and lower-class.
Fast forward several decades after this boom: the city now has an upper layer of concrete, with the richer families of the community naturally being/wanting to be on the top layer. The capitalists made their fat stacks, the city is sinking even more, but hey, who cares about those peasants? "If they want to live in the comfortable, currently-far-from-sinking higher area of the city, they should work hard, invest, make money, etc etc to get that! Decent life comes with hard work!" The lower part becomes a swampy wasteland just several more decades later..
1 Just an illustrated price for some terribly overpriced real estate but still within reach of some very rich people.
2 Could be concrete, could be handwavium. Could be very expensive, could be moderately expensive. But the idea stands. 222