East Villagers Renew Calls for "Yuppie Scum" to Die

People that complain about "yuppies" and "hipsters" are the worst. Quit crying.

Still?

No objection to people shouting a bit. But if you really want to get back at the yuppie scum, instead of trying to hold back "developemt", ACCELERATE it - but point it in the wrong direction. Once "business-friendly" projects get stared in this city, it's damn near impossible to put on the brakes. So let's lobby for:

- tear down Tompkins Square Park, put in the city's first Wal-Mart

- legalize casino gambling below 14th Street

- Larry Flynt's 315 Bowery - the world's largest sexbot club!

- National Grid East River Park Wind Farm

- Village Alliance-Virgin Galactic joint space mirror project - "the East Village - where's it's daytime 24 hours a day!"

And so on and so on. Eventually it'll be the last place anyone will want to live, the condo owners will sell out for pennies on the dollar, throw in a major recession and a crime wave, and voila! The Village is back.

Overhead in New York - 2018 - "I just got a loft in the old Wal-Mart building, $700 a month, and we're splittin' it four ways!"

we needn't worry, the bowery is a wide thoroughfare.

the drunk drivers will take care of business one at a time. no bomb needed.

smokedgouda: we can agree to disagree. But:

"The boom of the 20's was not as you describe it. I suggest you research it more as it was influenced by laissez-faire economics and largely overlooked the poor."

Note I said 1930's-1970's. The 1920's was the age of relatively unbridled capitalism, which ultimately ended in an economic collapse, necessitating govt. intervention in order to stabilize the economy and society. Hence the roughly 40 year period of the "social state" we got afterwards.

I agree that the protester's methods were unenlightened. Like I said, calling individuals names doesn't address larger structural issues.

I wishIi had a neutron bomb so I could drop it on the East Villiage and kill 'em all. Yuppies, developers, hipsters, shitbag neighborhood activists, they should all burn in a nuclear cloud.

rtd2101: I understand the point you are trying to make, and I saw the 60 Minutes report on the Danes. There indeed is a middle ground between absolute communism and absolute capitalism. We are neither extreme, but I believe what elevates us from the French and the other countries you mention are the rewards that working hard gets you here.

The boom of the 20's was not as you describe it. I suggest you research it more, as it was influenced by laissez-faire economics and largely overlooked the poor.

The bottom line is that New York has a safety net for the poor, but that doesn't have to include an apartment in an expensive area. New York has a great diversity in economic income that is not going to go away. A neighborhood may change but there aren't absolutes. Even the UES has rent regulated units.

So to me, protesting a wine bar is just silly (and lazy). Take that energy and get a group of activist investors together, buy a building and keep it low rent forever. But don't tell me that I can't live where I want because you don't like the clothes I wear or what type of alcohol I consume.

City University of New York was FREE for four years. FREE. Paid for by the city. The reason all those immigrants made it up from nothing wasn’t just hard work (though that certainly played a part) it was b/c that hard work was matched by support from, yup you guessed it, the state, including the city, state and Feds.

Yep, it's amazing what good can be done when people don't go out of their way to scam the system.

Unfortunately, our own Governor is living in a rent-stabilized apartment so, unfortunately, lots of people get really cynical with the system really quickly.

RTD2101, thank you for providing some historical analysis. I may disagree with the methods of the protesters, but I think you make some fine points.

There are a couple of comments that beg further discussion: (#33) Alludes to property rights being fixed -- Many would agree to this based on intuition alone, but I think this requires more argument. I hope the commenter's "cognitive abilities" are up to the task.

(#29) Which I initially considered insignificant, but finally thought required elaboration. To preface, I think my forthcoming point about education and economic prowess in America can best be represented by a Bell Curve. Beyond the midpoint/level of mediocrity, education is a financial liability. The wealthiest tend to be the most intellectually vapid.

Smoked Gouda:

I’ll admit I may be long-winded, but I don’t think my comment is tangential to the discussion. My point was that so many of the commenters on this thread seem to think that gentrification is inevitable, and that the city has always been this way. It is not. And while I don’t necessarily support these protestors methods of name calling and targeting of individuals, I think dissent is important.

To answer your question: “Since when is a city's responsibility to pay for the daily lives of its citizens?”. Well, from roughly 1930-1970, what most people consider this country’s “golden age”. And maybe not “pay for”, but during those years this city had a thriving, powerful middle class, and they thrived b/c the city HELPED them thrive through numerous social programs from education funding to housing affordability measures. Just one example, in the 1950’s, City University of New York was FREE for four years. FREE. Paid for by the city. The reason all those immigrants made it up from nothing wasn’t just hard work (though that certainly played a part) it was b/c that hard work was matched by support from, yup you guessed it, the state, including the city, state and Feds. Why do you think so many people bought homes and lived in suburban bliss in the 1940’s and 50’s? The free market? No, Federally subsidized loans.

Oh and finally: “go to North Korea if you want that sort of lifestyle”. Also a pretty lazy statement. There are a million shades of grey between unbridled free market capitalism and North Korea. See: France, Canada, Spain, Norway, Denmark, etc. etc. ect. And yes they have problems, nothing is perfect, but some things are better than other things.

at least "yuppie scum" bathes...

Every time you mention y*ppies, h*psters, etc... I have to laugh. These terms are relics of the 80's and 90's respectively and should be retired. Try and come up with a more interesting derogatory term... we call these people "Space Pirates".

They come, they take your space. Maybe they blow up your planet. Who knows. They're Space Pirates, they do what they want and the dress like assholes.

By the way, do you like my avatar? It's a panda. I picked it out myself.

Lots of Yuppie Scum on this post!

It is disappointing how many lack the cognitive ability to grasp property rights. There are plenty of affordable apartments in the outer boroughs. The government does not owe you a specific zip code.

So, people living on the system are protesting against the people paying for the system?

Awesome. The yuppies should throw $20s at them and laugh as they turn on each other.

I haven't clicked the link, but I don't know if anyone wrote that the film "CAPTURED" debuted this past Friday on an LES rooftop. It's about the incredible Clayton Patterson and his documenting all of the LES in the 80's: needle park riots, hardcore scene, junkies, Latino gangs, performance artists, etc.

It containted really disturbing images of the police brutality during the riots, which are coming up on their 20 yr. anniversary in just 2 months.

Many of the people in this protest were chronicled in the film, and were part of the riots. Yes they are artists, activists, and real live people who still add color, culture and art to their neighborhood. They are invisible to many today, because they are older. They are not clicking down the street in designer clothes, and not drunkenly screaming @ bar @ 2am, so many do not notice them.

But they exist and sill get many things done, just not events/art/movements that would appeal to the mass consumerist mentality of people now moving into the LES

And as for events, check out the all the free shows going on in Tompkins Sq. Park this summer, for example.

rtd2101 ^ That was my comment and I would be happy to engage in a discussion with you but I'm afraid that you went off on a tangent. Since when is a city's responsibility to pay for the daily lives of its citizens? Go to North Korea if you want that sort of lifestyle, you'll be back and drinking pinot noir on the bowery in a week.

They (protesters) should have studied more in school so they could afford to live in Manhattan.

[5] "This is like being angry at the wind."

Perhaps the most uniformed comment in this thread.

Everything, EVERYTHING, that occurs around you in this city is the result of specific policies and decisions made by PEOPLE: particularly politicians (local, state, federal) and city administrators. These decisions are informed by pressure applied by various political interests groups from elite business and real estate interests to groups such as tenant associations and advocates for the poor.

In the past 30 years, policy changes encouraged by large financial and property interests reshaped all U.S. cities. Most Federal funding for urban programs was cut off which forced cities to rely on tax revenue through property development as the main means to generate revenue. Bond rating systems also force cities to eschew social programs and other "fat" govt. tendencies and streamline themselves into profit-making entities. For city govt, supposedly in place to serve the interests of its citizens, property development became the be all and end all of city administration after 1980.

The city is not a forest. It is not a mountain range. It does not occur "naturally". It is built by political and economic decisions made by people. Anyone who makes a comment like yours is either hopelessly naive or benefits from perpetuating the idea that the current city we live in is an inevitability, a city divined by god (or perhaps by Adam Smith's ghost).

Bingo, isn't there a drive-by you need to be in front of?

but what about the black people?

this is why out of all the administrations only Bloomberg's has sworn in more city marshal's to perform more evictions.

thankfully Pb is still cheap. they can only protect you for so long.

Tissue: the proportion of rent-stabilized units here is far higher than other cities - that's my point. Protesting a wine bar will not make your rent go down.

looks like a bunch of failed artist types who never got real jobs or bought a place, missed out on the real estate boom, and are caught in the rent-control/rent stablization trap... priced out of enjoying their neighborhood but can't afford to move.

"Stop Out of Controle Devlopers"

lol, Jen, is that you?

Instead of protesting to the yuppies who've bought homes in the East Village, perhaps they should've protested to those who agreed to sell or rent property to them in order to make a profit.

Another brilliant comment from Ringo, Confirmer of Racist Stereotypes.

Slappy, they're not speaking truth to power, they're yelling at people in a wine bar. I have sympathy for their overall message but the way they're going about delivering it is dumb and ineffective.

Everyone's a fan of capitalism (or any other -ism) as long as it benefits them. When they fall on the unfortunate end of it or somehow feel like they've received more benefit than they worked for, they protest.

"Out of Controle" makes me chuckle.

Yes, income diversity makes for a vibrant city, and protest voices can be helpful in illuminating otherwise ignored topics. However, this protest sounds more like the rantings of barnyard offal than that of concerned citizens.

If there is protest to be had, should it not be directed at those who are able to effectively change the behavior of the market's participants? I mean, developers are going to try to make money and people with money are going to try to purchase or rent properties that they believe are nice.

Feel badly for these people? Why should I?

TK, it's not at someone else's cost. They don't want to live in their multi-million dollar building for $600, they want to live on the land they've lived for decades without the price rising from the demand of Yuppies who move in and drive up all prices making what once provided a comfortable living impossible. They want to subvert the market, obviously, but this in no way means they want to pay less than it cost someone to build it. You've got to have sympathy for people faced with losing their houses because rich people move in and decide they want to "develop" it.

However it might appear to you, these folks are long time residents of the East Village and have participated in meaningful activist work. John Penley is one of the most prolific independent photo-jounalists of the left who has, over the years, traveled on his own dime to Cuba, Central America, and other far reaching corners of the world to document political goings on that mainstream media either ignores or spins out of recongition. Radical voices in the political fabric are an important and informative aspect of true democracy. If you dont' agree with them, so what. It doesn't make them non-entities, and they certainly don't deserve uninformed derisive comments. Speaking truth to power in overwhelming odds is the beginning of real change. What have you done lately to make a better world?

SmokedGouda: Of course NYC has more rent-controlled and rent-stabilized apartments than any other US City: it's both the largest city and it has the most absurdly expensive real estate market. Rent-stabilization, in general, is a band aid where a tourniquet might be more appropriate. I know my rent stabilized apartment is no cake-walk. I make almost the national average HOUSEHOLD income personally, my roommate makes a little less than I do, and we both scrape a bit to get rent together.

That being said, this protest is nothing but hot air. As Lenny Bruce once said, "There's nothing sadder than an aging hipster."

hopefully they stop on by the bowery mission and give a helping hand on their way home, but i doubt it.

at the end of the day, these protestors want their benefits met at someone else's cost just like every other bum (read: yuppie) in this city.

NEWSFLASH: Old East Villagers make the worst looking signs ever.

I suggest Willis and the Young Republicans invite Penley and his crew for a bipartisan mixer next time, as the neighborly thing to do.

Just have a cash bar and charging $9 buds and $14 mixed drinks will get their point across.

These protestors look like extras. I think they were bussed in from Silver Cup.

Seriously, get some new interests you faded old faux punk rocker hippies. Oh wait, they don't have to work because they have NYCHA sponsored 1BRs for $600/ month. Boohoo.

Yoo tink yaw bedda den me? Iz dat wot you tink?

"Out of control development" is just not the reality. There are accidents but for how many projects have gone up in the last few boom years the proportion is small.

I think it is thinly-veiled class envy. This city has almost a million rent-stabilized and rent controlled apartments. That's not even counting the 200,000 units of NYCHA public housing. There is no other US city that even comes close to this.

There is truth to the income diversity being a very good thing for the vibrancy of the city. But the fact is that these crybabies don't like anyone else to show the appearance of getting ahead of them. Whether it's drinking wine on at a winebar or living in a glass tower that is (gasp) taller than their walkup.

While you're on the Bowery protesting, check out the show of incredible photos by legendary rock photographer Bob Gruen, at the Morrison Hotel Gallery, situated in the space once occupied by CB's Gallery:

http://morrisonhotelgallery.com/post/default.aspx?postID=51

I also stopped in next door to the John Varvatos store. Certainly not to buy clothing, but to check out the case of vinyl records on sale near the front door. It's a pretty clever display of vinyl from different eras, with a few specialty sections (?) for the likes of Hawkwind and Uriah Heep.

thankfully Pb is still cheap,

you ain't gettin rid of us this easy.

we got NYCHA all over town. what ya gonna do?

shoot me? yes. again and again.

we got a new sheriff in town and his name is Paterson.

Thank you, #4, for injecting some sense into this discussion, although I feel it is too late, I already see a 40 comment shitstorm on the horizon, a swirling mass of anonymous racism, fingerpointing, and hipster/yuppie/[insert group here] scapegoating. Better get those comments in before you leave at 5, guys!

I know these people really are angry at something or someone but this is just sad. This is like being angry at the wind. If it is cathartic in a way then more power to you but this will have no effect on anyone.

Irresponsible real estate "development" is a reality. You can call people yuppies or hipsters but its really besides the point. Koch, Giuliani and Bloomberg have been selling out this city to their "developer" friends for 25 years, with no thought to intelligent city planning, and with no benefit to anyone but the rich. These kind of issues get to a point where silence is cowardice. Good for them to raise their voices. Its not an issue of "free market" vs. subsidy for the poor. Its just dumb city planning. And its getting worse. We need intelligent and visionary politicians in this city who can participate in city planning that is inclusive enought to truly develop a healthy economy here where everyone benefits.

hipsters are nothing more than yuppies in larve stage.

yuppies grow into republicans once they have some real money accumulated.

republicans in NY are very much in the closet, and they have much greater numbers than you'd expect, or that they'd admit.

as for this bunch of jagoffs, they should just kill themselves or shut the fuck up. how do you protest against private citizens choosing where to live, who to patronize, or businesses from investing?

For once in my life I wish I was a young Republican just so I could blow Cohiba smoke at these people.

Yuppies? Yuppies are a pretty huge chunk of Manhattan's population don't ya think?

They can't be as bad as hipsters though. Perhaps they're misdirecting their anger. And republicans? The longer they live in NY the more liberal they'll turn out to be. Nothing to worry about.