Comment 53222

By Undustrial (registered) - website | Posted December 16, 2010 at 23:42:55

I have no problem admitting that the infamous sticker campaign was tasteless and insensitive. Constructive political debate, it seems, does not come with lolcats. Much of the same could be said for the infamous O'Rourke article - I certainly would not have attempted so bold an article without more in the way of evidence.

Nevertheless, the question remains - is James North and the area surrounding it becoming less accessible to low income people? And more importantly, where is it headed? I have a lot of respect for a lot of the owners and entrepreneurs 'on the strip' - I've long been a fan of the Art Crawl and told more people than I can count to come down and check it out. However, I've also travelled enough to know that gentrification does happen. There are people out there who hear terms like "burgeoning art district in a low-income area" and can think of nothing but get-rich-quick schemes. Downtown is no stranger to the risks posed by real estate speculation - who do you think owns all the abandoned buildings - and more importantly, the slums? This is not to accuse people like Graham, Lee or Dave of being those speculators (as they're all fixtures of the street life). But if they're playing a role in a "transformation" of the area, then people are going to refer to them when they question the direction this transformation is going in.

"Today, the notion of progress in a single line without goal or limit seems perhaps the most parochial notion of a very parochial century." — Lewis Mumford

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