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HIPSTER_GENTRY
April 20, 2013
June 4, 2013
I like this Jen Sorensen cartoon quite a bit:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/04/17/1202254/-The-gentrification-cycle
It's four panels depicting different
people grumbling about changes in their My commentary here relies a
neighborhood, as new groups of people lot on having seen the image,
start using it in different ways. which means it's not such a
good fit for "the doomfiles".
There are multiple places where
artistic license was exercised to get But then, what is?
it to work, and those devilish details
are where things get interesting.
For one thing, if it's actually
a "cycle", it's missing a step: They wouldn't
there needs to be a 4th link, make a mistake
something must cause the neigborhood like that over
to fall out of fashion, become at xkcd.
abandoned, and get reclaimed by
a wave of new immigrants.
Really, it's not a cycle, but a
sketch of history, and history
may loop often, but not consistently.
In the first panel, we have
"working-class minorities displaced
by hipsters" -- clearly the author is This then made the neighborhood
thinking of San Francisco's Mission appealing to professional
district, a Latino neighborhood types, notably in the computer
adopted by a boho crowd circa 1980. biz, who don't seem entirely
clear on their allegiance,
The "hipster" couple walking down but like being in the proximity
the steet has a distinctly beatnik of the boho crowd, which takes
look. us to the second panel.
Really, this seems to FLAME_OUT
conflate two or three HIPSTER
different meanings of
"hipster", maybe SERIAL_HIPSTER
different eras where
people might've called ANTI-ANTI-ELITISM-ELITISTS
themselves hipster.
Over in the second panel,
the techie/hackers are also
fairly likely to call
themselves "hipsters"...
There's the idea that each succeeding
wave somehow puts existing businesses
out-of-business, but that's not really La Palma Mexicatessan
the case: real hipsters don't put is still there on 24th
bodegas out of business, they *like* Street.
bodegas, they shop in bodegas.
In the second panel the techies have
somehow displaced a live music venue Another conflation: there are
but really the techie/hackers don't techie/hackers who sometimes work
have problems with live music venues, computer gigs, and there are
and are actually likely to support them. business professionals who've
followed the money into computers.
More importantly, the
people who really do have And there were lawyers and finance
it in for live music people interested in the Mission
venues don't just somehow even before dot bomb 1.0
displace them by their
presence, they actively HACKING_GREATNESS
use the machinery of A small minority in the
government to try to shut neighborhood willing to
them down. turn in noise complaints
is enough to do it.
The bohemian arrival is
a much gentler process, I wonder if I could move in
less abrupt and less next to an elevated highway
invasive. and get it shut down with
noise complaints.
The boho group, in the
early stages at least,
doesn't have the resources
to price-out the locals
in real estate bidding
wars. Every change is
not the same as
every other.
But Sorenson's overall point is
a respectable opinion, at least:
Maybe someone like myself who complains
of the inauthenticity of the Mission's
present wave of inhabitants is missing
the point, and I should stop whining
and watch to see what this new generation There's an inevitable tension
comes up with. between embracing change and
preserving character.
And via jwz, "Why the World Should Revolve
Around Bay Area Techies", SF Weekly, Sep. 24 2013:
http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2013/09/sf_techie_explains_why_the_wor.php
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