New Yorkers have always complained about gentrification, but the pace of change during the past several years downtown, especially on the West Side, is startling\u2026 well, to be honest, it\u2019s almost deplorable. The saddest thing is the extreme transformation of the Meatpacking District. It\u2019s easier to spot a celebrity than a rat these days, and it\u2019s been ages since we\u2019ve caught sight of the transgendered prostitutes that shared these cobblestone streets with us.<\/p>\n
My best friend T used to say, \u201cYou gotta have germs to make art.\u201d This city is still filled with plenty of infectious germs, but the species that T means, the kinds that nourish art, are almost extinct. I miss the days when artists, sex workers, and drug dealers were all under the same roof. It was thrilling, and art was more powerful then.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s difficult to think of anything positive about these changes when it makes me feel like a fish trapped in a dried out pond. But if pressed I can say that despite this horrendous gentrification the city is now a nice place for kids to grow up. My biggest dilemma these days\u2026I want germs for myself, but not for my kids. Having a family sure does complicate things.<\/p>\n
(Here is another irony. T, who was homeless and couldn\u2019t tell the difference between a shooting gallery and an art gallery when we used to hang out together, is now a professor at one of the Ivys, and his two kids go to one of the best private schools in the city.)<\/i>
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New Yorkers have always complained about gentrification, but the pace of change during the past several years downtown, especially on the West Side, is startling\u2026 well, to be honest, it\u2019s almost deplorable. The saddest thing is the extreme transformation of the Meatpacking District. It\u2019s easier to spot a celebrity than a rat these days, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[25,167],"tags":[33],"class_list":["post-253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","category-no-bi","tag-people"],"yoast_head":"\n