NY Magazine Discovers Prospect Lefferts Gardens
NY Magazine–along with editors of trendy magazines–discovers the neighborhood of Prospect Lefferts Gardens. Noting the diversity of housing stock, the closeness of residents and the sub-million-dollar price tags, the weekly seems to agree with one transplanted Manhattanite who promises (threatens?) to import his many tastemaking friends to the nabe: “It’ll be the next best thing.”…
NY Magazine–along with editors of trendy magazines–discovers the neighborhood of Prospect Lefferts Gardens. Noting the diversity of housing stock, the closeness of residents and the sub-million-dollar price tags, the weekly seems to agree with one transplanted Manhattanite who promises (threatens?) to import his many tastemaking friends to the nabe: “It’ll be the next best thing.”
Comment: Wow, what a edgy pioneer!
Excellent Prospects [NY Magazine]
100% b o r i n g
Whenever there arises a rigorous discussion about privilege and/or the lack of it, it is usually the privileged folk who will be the first to attempt to derail it. Using derisive and dismissive terms such as “boring” to say you don’t agree with the viewpoints of others is a weak attempt at derailment.
But, of course many of those with privilege will find this kind of discussion boring! That’s because this is really not about your experience after all. We get that. But here’s the thing: if you find this thread so boring, why don’t you just move on to another one that better suits your fancy? Why even bother to keep reading these boring posts? What’s more, why even bother to respond? Only a truly bored person would delight in torturing themselves as such.
agreed – boring post.
i think what’s a little strange is that many of these posts have come from people in the neighborhood – obviously – and we all are already well aware that there are plenty of people from many, many backgrounds living fairly harmoniously here. what, we can’t tolerate someone who identifies to whatever extent as a ‘tastemaker’?
know what everyone? i’m a tastemaker, too. i’ve just decided. i’ll have to meet JON, come up with a definition of a tastemaker, then invite all of you to join the club. chill out!
People who put quotes around the American way are BORING.
And what makes it so boring? Free exchange of diverse viewpoints? Hearing opinions other than your own? Feeling uncomfortable with honest, blunt expression? This is the “American way,” is it not?
this is the most boring thread EVER
another question here about the rush to cry racism; wouldn’t it be more accurate to call it classism? I live in Clinton Hill and many of the “gentrifiers” there are black middle class, upper middle class who don’t seem to like any of the downsides of a “transitional” neighborhood any more or less than the white ones do. NY Magazine is a silly publication and not to be taken seriously, but i do think this question of class is what is the defining motif here, not racism. and then i suppose my next question is; what’s wrong with moving into a neighborhood you can afford and wanting to improve it? in another thread on the site a few months ago, another poster pointed out that poor people don’t necessarily love crack dealers, grafitti, and dog shit on their sidewalks either…it seems that it’s just that people with a little more education etc are better equipped with a (healthy) sense of entitlement so that they are more prone to call 311 or harrass the local councilman/woman for improvements.
JC, you specifically used the pronoun “he” four times and analyzed his thoughts and actions before saying “veiled racism’s a bitch, ain’t it?” I think you can decode the subtext of that to say that you were “implying” that “he” was racist.
I think you’re now stepping back a bit and trying to make your original comment a little bit more macro than it actually was.
Attack this guy for using the word tastemaker, that’s fair game…using him as an example of institutional or veiled racism is not.
“[T]he process of American gentrification is historically rooted in race and class relations.”
Well, yeah, that’s a truism and water is wet, too.
Real estate articles in much of NY media (NYTimes, NewYork Mag, etc) are unabashedly written with/for upper-middle class perspective.
When they use terms such as undiscovered,pioneer etc. they mean for upper-middle class.
Manhattanite is slightly veiled shorthand for
white, college-educated affluent professional.
(Something tells me very few have long family history in that boro).
And ‘priced out of Manhattan’ means south of 96th
st. Manhattan. They are not talking about relocators from Washington Hts.
And the other commenter is correct – these articles are recycled every so many months.