This piece by artist Adrian Wilson is a play on the phrase “there goes the neighborhood,” which in recent years has been used in the context of gentrification. Every time something seemingly dramatic changes in a neighborhood (like the closing of the Landmark Sunshine theatre on the Lower East Side or the building of yet another all-glass luxury condo), we tend to use this trite statement.
But Adrian Wilson‘s commentary above the Cheese Grille on Allen Street takes this statement one step further: where exactly is the neighborhood going?
I take it to mean that while developers are getting rich off their new projects and new blood are moving in, where do those who can no longer afford the neighborhood go? Where do the culture, dynamics, and identity of the neighborhood go after gentrification is complete?
The Lower East Side is obviously one of the fastest changing neighborhoods in Manhattan; you can even say it’s already “arrived” in some sense. With the opening of a slew of big box stores like Target, Trader Joe’s, and Marshall’s, the neighborhood is rapidly losing its character, and many artists/creatives and mom-and-pops are being priced out. If NYC looks just like any other place in the rest of America, then what’s the point of paying a premium to live here when I could live elsewhere for much, much cheaper?