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Indy Theater Creates Gentrification

Economic analysis of NYC's current takeover by the 1%. It used to be the land of Patti Smith, but now she tells all the artists to find a new city.

Joseph Steiglitz ( and his book :"Rewriting the Rules of the American Economy") is on Leonard Lopate's WNYC show right now.  The US has the highest level of income inequality, it's the rules & policies which are systematically creating these conditions.  He's saying that the idea of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, the "American Dream" is dead.  And not because of the ideas we market to ourselves or the politics we cling to.  It happens little by little, because of laws and bills that are designed to protect Market Power (see the simple concept of "Perfect Competition").


The same concepts can apply to theater. "Ladies & Gentlemen, Lower Your Prices?"! The article discusses why theaters raise prices. They do, and scare away exactly the audiences they are looking for.  The adventurous ones who are willing to see something weird & experiment-y. Broadway is the most "polished" (i.e. BORING) theater experience you can have, but is "valued" in direct proportion to the ticket price or "perceived desire-ability". Tickets for "The Producers" or "Book of Mormon" were hot at a certain time, but all that buzz (and the top-dollar) has disappeared.

I personally witnessed the change of neighborhood of the Lower East Side.   I worked the first years of the NYC Fringe on Ludlow street. The neighborhood was full of unwanted stores, generations of Jewish immigrants and dusty candy-stores had died out, and everything was cheap.  The biggest cost was renovation. "The Piano Store" was called that because we couldn't take the sign down (too much time and expense). That was the turn of the century.  Now there is a giant hotel and the neighborhood has been renovated into shiny, cold metal structures with no history.  Even the people have been scrubbed of memories.

Pay attention to the larger trends.  Micro-decisions turn into major leanings. There is a reason that the Hollywood trope of "success" leaves the star feeling empty. The society has defaulted into gaining more money, to its own peril.

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