I just spent the day in the East Village. Man - what the hell has happened? It's like Chelsea with pull-ups on?!
New York ‘Loses Its Edge’
London Times columnist Stefanie Marsh suggested Manhattan has finally embraced middle American values this week, and concluded that ‘New York has lost its edge’.
The British culture critic suggested many of the city’s creative types have long opted for Berlin and London leaving bankers living in ‘shiny faceless luxury condos’ and buying US$700 Ramones T shirts from ‘super-high end boutiques’ built out of the detritus of CBGBs.
On a brighter note she noted that Manhattan’s financiers are nowadays regarded as ‘some of the most reviled people on earth’ with some clubs actively cancelling annual corporate memberships.
“We want to distance ourselves from bankers, even if they helped to set us up in the first place,” one (anonymous) club promoter told the Times, “They’re pariahs. Money is just not cool any more.”
The article appeared just as the New York Times revealed that thousands of the America’s artists have earned less in the last 12 months with almost one in five (18%) seeing their income drop by 50% between 2008 and 2009.
5,300 musicians, architects, writers and filmmakers responded to a survey commissioned by arts organization Leveraging Investments in Creativity, which also revealed that almost all artists (94%) earned less than US$80,000, despite many having college degrees.
“A lot of the artists who were reporting were telling us, ‘I live in a recession all the time, so this downturn has really not been so different for me,’ ” study chief Judilee Reed told the New York Times.
Brit in Amsterdam techno legend Dave Clarke flew into New York this week for the first time in a while and revealed he was disappointed with the City in a typical blunt Twitter post.
“In the words of Blake Baxter "New York . . .What Happened?",” Dave quizzed.
“Someone tell me where did the scene in NY go? Don't blame the Mayor please,” he added.
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The East Village still has heart. Thanks for linking me.
Not to put too fine a point on it, evi, but they can still kiss New York's ass on Broadway. If you delete this, I'll totally understand.
Terry - I don't want to delete your input!! I had mixed emotions posting this article. It's just very hard for me to walk through my neighborhood and be surrounded by merchants who are smug, white, wealthy youth fronted by someone with big bucks to be there. There is no place like Broadway - but this was a city that was much more welcoming to emerging artists. I don't see that as strongly any more.
I remember the time when people did not want to live here in NYC and environs--nobody cared about us or the City much until nowadays. Now Alphabet City is The East Village-Park Slope is now south slope-and other slope parts-I liked it best when it was just "The Slope".
A lot of the magic we see and keep in our hearts cannot be erased. That's what makes New Yorkers such a feisty and courageous group of people.
Back in the day when Brooklyn was mentioned--people went eew--like it was a curse--lol.
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