The Culture of NYC Is Being Destroyed | Hacker News Reader

The Culture of NYC Is Being Destroyed

medium.com

8 pointsjuliascript10 comments

'A Zillow analysis found that “between 1997 and 2014, homes within a quarter-mile of a Starbucks increased in value by 96 percent, on average, compared with 65 percent for all U.S. homes.”'

Maybe Starbucks preferred to put its stores where values would appreciate more. And New York City was not established as a hipster/monastic enterprise: it has always been there to make money.

Maybe Starbucks likes locations where people can afford their products.

That may be true, however the correlation is that the value of homes increased after the Starbucks arrived in the neighborhood. Of course there are other factors involved.

The things the author likes = culture The things other people like != culture

Hipster cred checks out.

"The real essence of any city lies within the community. The physical landscape is given meaning by those who fill its doors and spaces."

Culture is defined by the community, who is pushed out when the rent is too damn high.

It betrays a lack of confidence in the cultural queerness of NYers to imagine that their interests will be served by "one big suburban shopping mall." Do not fear: something weird and wonderful will always take root.

Probably not in those places where the rent is really high, though. It was ever thus.

So you will have to measure: is having the sense of being on the cultural vanguard worth enough to move to bohemia, leaving your rent-controlled apartment in a now-gentrified neighborhood? If not, you don't qualify. If so, you do.

Why do people who live in some of the most diverse and dynamic cities want them to stay the same?

The point is that small businesses won't be able to thrive under the conditions of having high rent. If corporations are the only businesses that can afford it, then there's not much uniqueness to NYC businesses. It's not about wanting the city to stay the same. Transience is a natural quality of life, but it is being controlled in a way that gives corporations the upper hand.

> The natural unfolding of life implies transitivity; our surroundings will inevitably fade and change over time.

That's not what "transitivity" means. The word you want is "transience". D-.

u right

TLDR: chains are bad.

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