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KRUGMANS_TURF
July 23, 2013
Evidence that even Krugman nods, even on his home turf
(or one of them, anyway) of economic geography:
"A very New York piece in today's Times From his blog,
about trendy, wealthy New Yorkers who have July 6, 2013:
been acquiring pied-a-terres in newly http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/06/lifestyles-of-the-rich-and-something-or-other/
fashionable Lower Manhattan. You have to
read a bit carefully to realize that these
are, for the most part, people with
apartments on the Upper East Side; their
downtown bolt-holes are to avoid the need
to trek uptown after a night out. ... "
"And the truth is that of the various things
the wealthy might spend on, this is one of
the less offensive; it might even reduce And that, I submit, is
externalities, if people walk back to their a remark dumb enough
downtown hideaways instead of having a limo for David Brooks.
wait outside the restaurant for hours."
It didn't take long for someone in the
comments to call him out. From a "Miranda":
"Already sky-high prices are being
driven up further by people who need
crash pads because they can't be
bothered to call their limo drivers, or
their helicopter pilots, or whatever?
Nothing at all wrong with driving the
middle class out for that sort of
thing, is there?"
My remarks (with later edits): HIPSTER_GENTRY
"The character of places is constantly being
warped by this sort of phenomena... the way it
goes, artsy types adopt a 'depressed'
neighborhood, they make it fashionable, the
fashionable people come in, then the artsy What if the
types take off as the place rapidly gets gentrification
super-boring. If you really pay attention to shock troops
what people like about rent control, it's that went on strike?
it's a dampening force that helps preserve the
character of neighborhoods, though it's hardly ARTSY_TOWN
a perfect institution, even from that point of
view-- in San Francisco's Mission District,
for example, the only people left with any MONOCULTURE
character are a gray-haired set, there are no
kids coming in, so in effect the neighborhood
is dying."
Even though it looks like it's booming.
Quoting the Julie Satow article:
"The developer Izak Senbahar has benefited firsthand
from the trend. ... 'I think there is a big romance
about living downtown,' Mr. Senbahar said. 'It is much
more diverse, it isn't all fund managers, but artists,
literary people, then some Wall Street sprinkled in.'
For those fortunate 1-percenters, 'you can live in a
building downtown now that has Upper East Side
amenities, and still put on your flats, walk into small
shops and live that easygoing lifestyle.' "
The Jane Jacob take is that neighborhoods THE_GREAT_CITY
thrive when multiple different kinds of
people use them for different purposes at
different times of the day. When the
rich observe that a neighborhood is
"lively", and buy their way in as They act as parasites:
part-time residents, that means they spectators, not participants.
displace a full-time resident-- and the
overall amount of action in the BURNING_IRRITATION
neighborhood necessarily declines.
However, during the beginning of
this process at least, the addition (Presuming
of some rich part-time residents "diverse" is not
might actually improve the diversity just being used
of the neighborhood. as code for
"non-white".)
This Julie Satow article fits the Standard
Narrative really well (and might be an
intentional troll of people like myself):
"Such a rarefied perspective may particularly
rankle longtime downtowners, and portend the
end of Manhattan's few remaining bastions of EAST_OF_THE_EAST
bohemia. But just as flocks of young New
Yorkers who might once have lived in the East
Village are now in Brooklyn neighborhoods like
Williamsburg, and those who had once lived in
Williamsburg have moved on to Bushwick, it is
perhaps inevitable that gaggles of Muffys and Inevitable?
Thurstons wearing Lilly Pulitzer are invading
neighborhoods below 14th Street. The cool Verily, who among
crowd has long been on a southward migration." us could doubt the
wisdom of the
invisible hand?
Praise to thee
"free" market.
I wonder if knowledge of the Standard Narrative
of New Urbanism might've warped this reporting,
infected the reporter with pre-judgement.
And I wonder how much
of my own understanding When something I know
might be limited in the turns into something
same way. everybody knows, I
begin to wonder what
If I take that thought I'm missing.
seriously, where would
it go?
THE_HAT_SWITCH
NEW_URBAN_HERESY
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