He completed a PhD at UC Berkeley in city and regional planning in 1972 with a thesis on the legal and financial implications of home ownership for low income families.

Marcuse began his career as a lawyer in New Haven and Waterbury, Connecticut, where he served as majority leader of the board of aldermen from 1959 to 1963.

He wrote extensively on gentrification, various forms of ghettoization (imposed ghettos, "enclaves," and "citadels"), the right to the city and the Occupy movement.

[7] He argued in 1974 that rail transit primarily benefitted the middle-class and wealthy real estate owners, promoted sprawl, and was funded by regressive sales taxes.

Marcuse called the process of participation a "sham",[8] and said the plan focused narrowly on infrastructure and environmental threats without comprehensively evaluating the city's economic and racial inequalities.