Rising informality in cities as a consequence of urbanization is causing a global movement to relocate poor and informal settlements to the urban periphery. To better understand why and how some informal settlements are able to resist eviction and remain in prime center-city locations, this research is focusing on power dynamics between urban political actors. Properties of social relationships of informal communities, state bureaucracy, universities, and private sectors, and the identification of the interests of stakeholders in their decision-making processes are used to explain the informal and formal processes in the resistance movements by the vulnerable communities. Legibility according to Scott (1998) is a condition where the state positions the societies as legible in order to govern. In community-level social movements of eviction resistance, state legibility is an important factor to balance the power dynamics between the state and the vulnerable communities. This research identified that state legibility to the informal settlement resistance movements is caused by the existence of complex interactions between informal settlements, the state, and influential non-state actors to achieve their individual goals, while bound by a shared meaning. Legibility of the state exists because of the state utilization of regulatory uncertainty and bureaucratic informality to support the existence of shared meaning with the informal settlements.