Lesbians Sniff Out Values in Kensington
We’ve all heard that if a real estate investor wants to find the next hot nabe, he only needs to find where the artists and gay people are moving. According to The Observer, though, it pays to watch a particular subset of the gay community: Lesbians. “Practical, and always in search of domesticity, lesbians are…
We’ve all heard that if a real estate investor wants to find the next hot nabe, he only needs to find where the artists and gay people are moving. According to The Observer, though, it pays to watch a particular subset of the gay community: Lesbians. “Practical, and always in search of domesticity, lesbians are handy urban pioneers, dragging organic groceries and prenatal yoga to the ‘frontier’ neighborhoods they make hospitable for the rest of us,” writes The Observer. “In three to five years.” Sharon Zukin, a Brooklyn College professor and author of Naked City: The Death and Life of Authentic Urban Places, identifies an even further subset to keep an eye on: “Lesbians may be canaries in the urban coal mine. And lesbian moms may be an even more acute canary, maybe because they are especially concerned about the character of the school district.” And which neighborhood have the lesbians annointed now? Kensington, where one lesbian rejoiced over the “crazy amount of space” while admitting that the trade-off is that “there is nothing to do within walking distance except grocery shopping.” The article has already been met by criticism from one blog. In a post titled Bad Gentrification Writing, Ditmas Park Blog says, “This Observer story really reads like a parody of the genre, and manages to get all the details wrong in passing…We remember the days when they had editors, and a clue, at the Observer.”
Lesbians as ‘Canaries in the Urban Coal Mine’ [Observer]
Photo by bonnevilleyacht76
Agreed this article is pure junk, looking for cheap hype.
I think the article might have been more accurate to say that SOME lesbians are finding this nabe attractive and have the so-called behaviors the article discusses. It’s OK to note cultural phenomenons. But to generalize to the larger group is stereotyping. There are a lot more lesbians in NYC than this neighborhood could ever hold and are such a diverse group, thus cannot be classified as one with singular interests/behaviors other than their sexual identity.
“Refilling coffee, sitting back to watch this unfold.”
Or, Refilling coffee and posting like 9,000 times (not that I mind, just an observation).
And yes, we have lots of lovely lesbians in kensington. Don’t know why they had to write an article about Ditmas Park instead…
This story is absurd, not the least because they got the name of the bar and the neighborhood wrong in the first sentence. This is some silly j-school kid trying to get her first clip, and she tanked it trying to be controversial. Doesn’t bode well for a journalism career.
As for the larger argument about gays/lesbians as pioneers, in the last several years in PLG there has been a very noticeable influx of young renters, many of them gays and lesbians. I watched this same phenomenon unfold in the mid 2000s in Prospect Heights, especially when the Jewish Hospital was converted to apartments. It is inarguable that young renters (with less responsibilities, more free time, more interest in going out) have been the driving force behind places like Franklin Park and the utter transformation of Vanderbilt Ave. But really it’s not so much about being gay as about being young and trying to find a place you can afford.
“Do they all apply to me to another individual? SOME, AND IN VARIOUS DEGREES
“–
yeah, but to various degrees they apply to just about everybody and gay or non-gay.
“There are many stereotypes about my group (gay men):
materialistic, promiscuous, self-centered, childless, home-improvement obsessed, extremely body-conscious, etc.”
Let me address this personally to see if the stereotypes hold true…
Materialistic YES
Promiscuous YES
Self-Centered Too hard to define
Home-Improvement Obsessed YES But is this a recognized category by the American Psychiatric Society?
Extremely body-cosnscious YES, of others, who isn’t?
Thank you for going there, dibs. HA!
lol JPD, i couldnt agree with you more.
*rob*
Oops sorry CMU, that was for Putnamdenizen!!!
CMU,
There are many stereotypes about my group (gay men):
materialistic, promiscuous, self-centered, childless, home-improvement obsessed, extremely body-conscious, etc.
-Are they true for the group? YES
-Do they all apply to me to another individual? SOME, AND IN VARIOUS DEGREES
-Are they ills for the group and need to be addressed? AT TIMES, YES
-Is this categorization un-PC? NO
DO CERTAIN GROUPS THAT ARE STEREOTYPED ON THIS SITE OVER-REACT BECAUSE THEY KNOW THE STEREOTYPES ARE REALLY TRUE FOR THEIR GROUP?
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!