Gentrifying New York’s Lower East Side

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]