eBook

Upscaling Downtown

Richard E. Ocejo

2014,2017

Overview

Once known for slum-like conditions in its immigrant and working-class neighborhoods, New York City's downtown now features luxury housing, chic boutiques and hotels, and, most notably, a vibrant nightlife culture. While a burgeoning bar scene can be viewed as a positive sign of urban transformation, tensions lurk beneath, reflecting the social conflicts within postindustrial cities.Upscaling Downtownexamines the perspectives and actions of disparate social groups who have been affected by or played a role in the nightlife of the Lower East Side, East Village, and Bowery. Using the social world of bars as windows into understanding urban development, Richard Ocejo argues that the gentrifying neighborhoods of postindustrial cities are increasingly influenced by upscale commercial projects, causing significant conflicts for the people involved. Ocejo explores what community institutions, such as neighborhood bars, gain or lose amid gentrification. He considers why residents continue unsuccessfully to protest the arrival of new bars, how new bar owners produce a nightlife culture that attracts visitors rather than locals, and how government actors, including elected officials and the police, regulate and encourage nightlife culture. By focusing on commercial newcomers and the residents who protest local changes, Ocejo illustrates the contested and dynamic process of neighborhood growth. Delving into the social ecosystem of one emblematic section of Manhattan,Upscaling Downtownsheds fresh light on the tensions and consequences of urban progress.

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Subject: Activism / Bartender / Beat Generation / Book People / Borough president / Bottle service / Bouncer (doorman) / Budweiser / Business improvement district / CBGB / Central business districts / Chinese emigration / Community organization / Counterculture / Creedence Clearwater Revival / Crime / Customer / Dale DeGroff / Daniel Boulud / Deinstitutionalisation / Dime museum / Dive bar / Drinking culture / Drinking establishment / Economics / Entrepreneurship / Eviction / Fast food restaurant / Gentrification / Ground Floor / Hell-Cat Maggie / Herbert Asbury / Hilly Kristal / Hippie / Homelessness / Hospitality industry / Hustler Club / Jean-Michel Basquiat / Law enforcement / Liquor license / Liquor store / Lower East Side / Lower Manhattan / Mark Rothko / Michael Bloomberg / Muddler / Natural wine / New People / Nightclub / Nonconforming use / Open Bar / Ownership / Planet Hollywood / Police raid / Prohibition in the United States / Prostitution / Public intoxication / Real estate appraisal / Rent (musical) / Sazerac / Sin tax / Skid row / Slum / SOCIAL SCIENCE / SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / General / SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / Urban / Sociology / Stop-and-frisk in New York City / Tavern / Tavern on the Green / Tom Waits / Town hall meeting / Urban / Urban renewal / Urban sprawl / Urbanization / Washington (D.C.) / Wine bar
• ISBN: 9780691155166, 069115516X, 9781400852635, 1400852633, 0691176310, 9780691176314