To boonie: gentrification

[lovettcms]

The word gentrification has to be explained sometimes. The term is used in many large, older cities, such as New York. It usually refers to the conversion of run-down areas--whether non-residential or formerly low-rent residential--into areas that are more fashionable and expensive--"trendy." People fix up older buildings, preserving some features and radically altering others. As people with higher income move in, people with lower income have to move out--and this sometimes beomes more painful for people with lower income as the neighborhood becomes more desirable. Some of the people forced to move out even believe they made the neighborhood more desirable, so they feel this kind of neighborhood change is very unfair. In the context of the East Village in the late 1980's, the woman in the window was an obvious sign of change. The boutiques opening in the neighborhood were more affordable than some of the mainstream clothing stores on 5th Avenue, and their styles were more edgy, but they were definitely a sign that people were gravitating to the East Village who had some money and some inclination to dress stylishly. The rest of the exterior looks run-down, and that shows the long physical decline of the area had yet to be fully reversed. This was a time when, in the same neighborhood, outside the home of young professional couple I was going to visit, I almost accidentally photographed a drug deal. So I would assume that, eventually, as more young professionals moved in and (like my friends) did renovations, gentrification was bad for drug dealers.

[boonie]

Thank you very much for taking the time to provide the explaination. I am aware of the process that is occurring in many big cities but I sisn't know it had a name. Of course you picture also takes on a whole new, or in my case a clearer meaning.

Thanks again.

Dan