Althouse: "Claiming physical territory was a powerful act. But the gay neighborhood is becoming a past-tense idea."

October 30, 2007

"Claiming physical territory was a powerful act. But the gay neighborhood is becoming a past-tense idea."

Gay rights, the real estate problem.

Somehow that story reminds me of Jimmy Carter — back in 1976 — worrying about preserving the "ethnic purity" of neighborhoods.

9 comments:

KCFleming said...: "signs that the dispersing of gay people beyond the Castro vortex"

Someone at the NYTimes reads Althouse.; 10/30/07, 6:27 AM
tjl said...: The NYT's account of the gentrification, and hetero-ization, of the Castro applies to gay neighborhoods in cities across the country. I remember how shocked I was when high chairs first appeared in Baba Yega, a formerly mostly-gay restaurant at the epicenter of Houston's Montrose district.

The NYT article, predictably, focuses on lamenting the loss of focal points for group identity. The article acknowledges, but does not emphasize, the positive aspects of this trend -- gays and Lesbians now feel sufficiently mainstream to live anywhere. The ghetto has become obsolete.; 10/30/07, 7:21 AM
George M. Spencer said...: If you actually have the physical copy of today's NYT, you will be shocked to see a major article about the redesign of Lincoln penny across the gutter from this story. It is just yet another example of the NYT's agenda to associate our great president with the ugly rumours surrounding his rail-splitting activities. It could have been an article about zinc mining or how inflation has rendered the penny a useless occupier of jugs, Maxwell House coffee cans, and other make-shift storage containers, but, no, it's an article about numismatic fashion and trends.; 10/30/07, 7:22 AM
Tim said...: I, like many Americans, have been hectored for three decades or better now that "Gay Rights" are only about full assimilation. The article would only have been a better self-caricature of the New York Times had it been headlined: "Gay Enclaves Face Prospect of Being Passé; Minorities, Women and Children Hurt Most."; 10/30/07, 7:29 AM
Darkbloom said...: My neighborhood, Park Slope in Brooklyn, is ideal. It is not a gay neighborhood, but it does have a sizable number of gay people, and it is very gay-friendly.

While I can understand the nostalgic feelings of loss some might feel, this is definitely a positive development.; 10/30/07, 8:48 AM
Jeff with one 'f' said...: "The Castro became a center for gay liberation in the late 1960s and early 1970s in a declining Irish Catholic and Scandinavian neighborhood."

Where were the tears for the Irish and Scvandinavians?; 10/30/07, 9:28 AM
Tripp Hall said...: The Times did a similar article about the gays of Chelsea a few years back.; 10/30/07, 11:43 AM
jeff said...: I see in that article Carter also signed the Humphrey-Hawkins full employment act.
"The Act set specific numerical goals for the President to attain. By 1983, unemployment rates should be not more than 3% for persons aged 20 or over and not more than 4% for persons aged 16 or over, and inflation rates should not be over 4%. By 1988, inflation rates should be 0%."

Well. Now we know how Reagan did it. Inflation and unemployment was against the law. Hopefully whoever the next president is will also have this stuff against the law.; 10/30/07, 10:46 PM
former law student said...: If the various Boystowns follow the pattern set by most Chinatowns, Little Italies, etc., they will become chiefly places to eat and perhaps shop, not residential enclaves.; 10/31/07, 10:58 AM