For the past ten years, New York City’s Lower East Side has been undergoing a controversial facelift. Some believe the gentrification is based on greed, destroying the neighborhoods history and aesthetic with luxury-themed hotels and condos, while others support the transformation, upgrading the area into a booming nightlife district packed with bars, boutiques and restaraunts.
Following the career of Sion Misrahi, the most prominent of those responsible for the gentrification, the New York Times writes:
Love or hate the new Lower East Side (dubbed “the Lower East Slide” recently by The New York Post and mocked in the current Time Out New York as home to “hipster zombies”), what is not debatable is that Mr. Misrahi’s strategy of attracting bars and clubs, then vintage clothing stores and sex boutiques, has worked. By fostering an artsy culture, fertile ground was created for economic development, even if some of the original bohemian touchstones are gone.
More at NYTimes
[via Gothamist]
Facebook
Twitter
Digg
Reddit
StumbleUpon
I lived in NY from 1996-2007. I’ve seen the LES change (for both the better and worse). I can’t stand listening to people constantly moan about the ‘controversial facelift.’ Buck up people – get with the program. Bright lights big city. If you want to live some place that will always be the same, NY aint the place to be.
Sorry to sound pissed off, but my god … I’ve been hearing these complaints for as long as I can remember. It’s so tired.
And now I move back to Chicago and hear the same thing about Wicker Park, Ukrainian Village and Bucktown. Killing me … ;)
June 6th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
I live there…it’s not so bad, except on the weekends. Then it turns into the Lower East-Packing District (by far my favorite name for it!), and suddenly you’re inches away from getting hit by a drunken New Jersey ho’s hummer. But during the week it’s nice!
June 6th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
Ian: Thank you, thank you.
To the rest: Life happens. It’s New York. DEAL with it.
June 8th, 2007 at 7:40 am