This paper examines the role of state affinity in community struggles against authoritarian, neoliberal urban transformation projects (UTPs) in Turkey. It argues that as neoliberal hegemonic devices, UTPs produce contentious political spaces within which communities negotiate, resist, or comply with state-imposed, pro-market rationales. As an alternative to depictions of subaltern communities in mobilization as totally 'co-opted' or 'victimized' in neoliberal development or as 'unwilling' or 'unable' to produce a collective rights identity, the analysis offers a more complicated picture of community resistance, inactivity, and co-optation. To do this, it adopts a combination of Henri Lefebvre's theory of production of space and Antonio Gramsci's theory of hegemony. The concepts of common sense and good sense (Gramsci) and moments (Lefebvre) are operationalized in analyzing divergent community mobilizations and their complicated responses to top-down UTPs. The analysis is based on the findings from original ethnographic research on two ethnically distinct working class neighborhoods under UTP threat in Gebze, a satellite city of Istanbul. It compares communities' affinity with the state ideology (Sunni-Turkish, neoliberal) by looking at their ethnic identities and social histories. The article aims to contribute to recent Neo-Gramscian approaches to urban politics and governance.