tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post2819268095612625391..comments2008-05-12T23:16:07.037-04:00Jeremiah Mossnoreply@blogger.comBlogger34125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-13277451439032594042008-05-12T23:16:00.000-04:002008-05-12T23:16:00.000-04:002008-05-12T23:16:00.000-04:00what infuriated me? i don't think your yunnie comment came through--please, infuriate me...Jeremiah Mosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11791516443125872364noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-70020845248964929482008-05-12T21:03:00.000-04:002008-05-12T21:03:00.000-04:002008-05-12T21:03:00.000-04:00Censoring the yunnie, are ya now? Tsk tsk. That's not very blog-friendly of you.<BR/><BR/>Don't worry. I know you it infuriated you. :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-26626420999353886912008-05-11T22:54:00.000-04:002008-05-11T22:54:00.000-04:002008-05-11T22:54:00.000-04:00Zzz, we use “n” because yunnie and yuppie are two different acronyms. Yunnie standing for “young urban narcissist” instead of “young urban professional”. So, our word describes a personality type rather than employment demographic. It is particularly useful in that respect because not all yunnies are in occupations that are considered professions (or any occupation at all, for that matter). <BR/>Also, Zach, chaining yourself to the tower would certainly generate publicity. They wouldn't be able to just kill the tower off quietly, that's for sure.Joshuanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-57672702262120310972008-05-11T18:30:00.000-04:002008-05-11T18:30:00.000-04:002008-05-11T18:30:00.000-04:00ohh...<BR/><BR/>I love that tower. Is there anything I can do to save it? perhaps chain myself to the top when the dismantlers comeZachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18159060444196691268noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-25832371626912186152008-05-11T18:28:00.000-04:002008-05-11T18:28:00.000-04:002008-05-11T18:28:00.000-04:00why do you spell yuppie with n's?Zzznoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-35432911448635793362008-05-08T21:39:00.000-04:002008-05-08T21:39:00.000-04:002008-05-08T21:39:00.000-04:00Oh Jeremiah, I nearly forgot: I love you too, man.Joshuanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-59988433263807677342008-05-08T09:03:00.000-04:002008-05-08T09:03:00.000-04:002008-05-08T09:03:00.000-04:00Sorry, no time for a blog of my own, though I thank you for the suggestion. I'm perfectly content to be an ally to JVN, which fills a very important void (to use a MASSIVE understatment).<BR/>Thank you again ;)Joshuanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-22584766928934288442008-05-08T08:46:00.000-04:002008-05-08T08:46:00.000-04:002008-05-08T08:46:00.000-04:00p.s. joshua, will you please start a blog in which you select a yunnie comment from another blog and then craft one of your well-considered responses? that would be amazing. <BR/><BR/>i'm serious.Jeremiah Mosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11791516443125872364noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-88288756253816429642008-05-08T08:42:00.000-04:002008-05-08T08:42:00.000-04:002008-05-08T08:42:00.000-04:00love you joshua.Jeremiah Mosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11791516443125872364noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-63130234620937696802008-05-08T08:09:00.000-04:002008-05-08T08:09:00.000-04:002008-05-08T08:09:00.000-04:00Wow, “It's time for you all to shut up. :)”. How’s that for a sophisticated argument?<BR/><BR/>Anyway, in regards to Anon #15’s comments, when he says “businesses began to thrive” he’s not kidding, he really thinks that. Remember, the excuses yunnies (and their apologists) use to justify gentrification often depend on a rather selective, naive view of pre-2000 urban life. One of these, repeated quite often, is the idea that before their “discovery” these neighborhoods contained no economic activity whatsoever. That before the first yunnie set his flip-flopped foot in any of these places they contained either “nothing” or some Dante-esc hell hole. This doesn’t stretch believability for them because, unlike the people they displace, most yunnies have never lived in a neighborhood before gentrification began (and growing up in Capeside, MA watching “Death Wish” and “Escape from New York” on TV obviously frightened them a great deal). <BR/>Likewise, with the issue of crime (they stopped it), and that weird thing about “demand for housing” for which there apparently was none during our “magical” period (remember those huge swaths of the city where only one or two people lived?), and so on. A bit silly, but self-serving fantasies can be attractive when the facts make you look bad. <BR/>He also gets into the “gradual and natural” excuse of gentrification while touching on “change is inevitable” (though he made it more interesting with his command to “evolve like the rest of us”, whatever he means by that). How “change” that makes it virtually impossible for the average person to participate in the city’s economic life in any meaningful way represents progressive evolution (or capitalism working well) is beyond me. I guess we should all be buying $40 pounds of imported butter and $800 jeans, or else we’ll fall behind in our evolution. Makes sense, right? <BR/>Still, like he says, if “some people” get pushed out in the process of evolution, well hey–that’s capitalism. This is probably the most honest statement he made, though it’s revelations are not very pleasant. How this utopia of perennially spiraling costs is going to work for the rest of “the rest of us”, he doesn’t say, but I get the impression that it doesn’t particularly concern him. But then, I think that’s what is meant in calling his “type” disturbingly narcissistic.<BR/>Finally, I don’t know what to say about that “niggers” question, other than that I never thought about yunnies as being in the forefront in any struggle against racism. The comments they leave after articles on the web about blacks being pushed out of the city by gentrification never gave me that impression. <BR/><BR/>Wonderful article as always, Jerry!Joshuanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-43931511216040543712008-05-07T20:50:00.000-04:002008-05-07T20:50:00.000-04:002008-05-07T20:50:00.000-04:00It's time for you all to shut up. :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-31473225089244827012008-05-07T20:37:00.000-04:002008-05-07T20:37:00.000-04:002008-05-07T20:37:00.000-04:00Excuse me... "businesses began to thrive" are you kidding? It seems as though the turnover of businesses is constant. Where is the butcher and the fishmonger in the East Village? Oh yes, replaced by GNC and coffee shops and more coffee shops and restaurants and bars and restaurants, and bars. You have to go to Essex Street to get a fresh piece of fish. But if you want a knick knack or an imported beer, you are in the heart of it all.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-89477885118446539402008-05-07T16:55:00.000-04:002008-05-07T16:55:00.000-04:002008-05-07T16:55:00.000-04:00I always like the obligatory reminders about how capitalism works (last they checked). <BR/><BR/>Last I checked, the federal government forked over a subsidy for a Bear Stearns buy-out, and the Atlantic Yards project was also being subsidized with tax-payer dollars. We take these <B>violations of the free market</B> for granted lest Brooklyn should go without a sports team or should the collapse of BS send the entire economy into a tailspin. <BR/><BR/>So given that we actually don’t have a purely capitalistic economy, I’d like to suggest that the “bottom line” in financial terms may not always be the optimal moral yardstick for our society. In the case of NYC, greed and egocentrism are ruining a way of life. <BR/><BR/>Apart from that, the comparison of the yunnie label to the word nigger, and the suggestion that the superficial and hyper-materialistic direction of our culture is somehow a righteous evolutionary step are far beyond narcissistic.ShatteredMonoclenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-71907315802611591132008-05-07T14:43:00.000-04:002008-05-07T14:43:00.000-04:002008-05-07T14:43:00.000-04:00Well, we'll just have to agree to disagree on this. <BR/><BR/>[And this whole idea of "yunnies" -- do you call black people "niggers" too?] <BR/><BR/>For the record, I (or my "type") did not run anyone out of the neighborhood. (Note *the* neighborhood, not *your* neighborhood. Crime went down. Businesses began to thrive. Developers moved in. The area became attractive to people who didn't previously find it attractive. Demand for housing soared. Rents went up. People got priced out. And on and on. Last I checked we've had a capitalist economy since pretty much the inception of our nation, and that would include this "magical" period of time when you say the City once had "character." Well, you say "tomato," I say "tomatoe." <BR/><BR/>The City is changing, and will always be changing, like it or not.<BR/><BR/>It's high time this little parcel of land housing the tower of toys see some change. <BR/><BR/>Get out of the past already and evolve with the rest of us, or simply get left behind with everything else that eventually becomes obsolete.<BR/><BR/>(Was that too narcissistic for you?)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-47791767145551929012008-05-07T14:15:00.000-04:002008-05-07T14:15:00.000-04:002008-05-07T14:15:00.000-04:00Times Sq and Tompkins Sq park may have been seedy, but they had character. And, which people are you talking about when you say "there's far more people happy to see it's now cleaned up and safe"? The yunnies?, narcissists?, who have run the previous residents out of the East Village. <BR/><BR/>Having the tower of toys where it is now gives that neighborhood character and its identity. Having it preserved in a museum is a good idea (if any of the politicians, curators, will take up on that); however, in a macrocosm point of view, it's just like saying that the Statue of Liberty, or the Empire State building should be moved to another state or country to have it preserve, should the yunnies deem them to be an eyesore, and the NYC Parks Department has determined them to be unsafe.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-24012033463189801362008-05-07T12:53:00.000-04:002008-05-07T12:53:00.000-04:002008-05-07T12:53:00.000-04:00I don't really see the City as a museum because that would imply that the City should never change. Sure, there's a good handful of people out there who rail against, for example, the Disney-fied version of Times Square, but let's face it - the old Times Square was seedy and dangerous and in need of a serious overhaul. And I'm sure there's no shortage of people out there who lament that Tompkins Square park is no longer a dangerous squatters haven, but there's far more people happy to see it's now cleaned up and safe. And yes, these things do have an impact on our wallet and our investments in property. Bottom line -- if you want see the Tower of Toys preserved, move it to a museum where it belongs.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-74192270246458209812008-05-07T12:51:00.000-04:002008-05-07T12:51:00.000-04:002008-05-07T12:51:00.000-04:00Amanda Burden is in favor of hatcheting neighborhoods and communities, Lizzie Borden is in favor of hatcheting people... what else is new, man?L'Emmerdeurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03004040303058104490noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-64585159621133510092008-05-07T10:32:00.000-04:002008-05-07T10:32:00.000-04:002008-05-07T10:32:00.000-04:00<I>"ummm yeah, 10 yrs ago it was cool"</I><BR/>and <I>"dislike garbage on display = no soul"</I><BR/><BR/>You need not to love the tower of toys nor have to appreciate it, just acknowledge that it is a piece of art. Art should be timeless and inconsistent; you may not like it now but the next generation might, or might not, but it is art, nonetheless. I do not love all the collections at MOMA, Guggenheim,...but I recognized the worth of the illustration of the abstract thought and its expressions. <BR/><BR/>NYC has other places to offer, like the museums, but apparently you'd rather spend your time, and money, in that wine bar, Starbuck's, that new trendy restaurant/clothing boutique, etc., to get your piece of art, and a*% in these people cases.<BR/><BR/>Not only is the city full of museums, it is a museum. But then again, this city is being transformed into a mall, from a museum, and you prefer it that way.Commenternoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-54534587296541430262008-05-07T09:34:00.000-04:002008-05-07T09:34:00.000-04:002008-05-07T09:34:00.000-04:00<I> "a polished turd is still a turd"</I>.<BR/><BR/>Well, you may take the whore out of the neighborhood but you can not take the neighborhood out of the whore. So, regardless where you move or live, whether your new neighborhood have been or you want it sanitized, regardless of that dockers/Varvatos clothing/manolo blahnik shoes or whatever it is you wear to emulate the characters in SATC and hide your insecurities -- you are still a whore. Or, in your case, "a polished a*#^%*^e is still an a*#^%*^e".Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-55624660221057867792008-05-07T08:55:00.000-04:002008-05-07T08:55:00.000-04:002008-05-07T08:55:00.000-04:00Instead of complaining, perhaps we should try to come up with some useful suggestions for a replacement.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-52408645346144964562008-05-07T08:36:00.000-04:002008-05-07T08:36:00.000-04:002008-05-07T08:36:00.000-04:00heard there is a plan to rebuild it in Las Vegas . . .d2pnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-20123334828301334002008-05-07T01:59:00.000-04:002008-05-07T01:59:00.000-04:002008-05-07T01:59:00.000-04:00Never mind the fact that it's been on the intro on NYPD Blue or Law & Order one of those popular cop shows for the last ten years....if it can't be landmarked for the neighborhood maybe the Mayors Film Office canbasedon the amount of times it is shown on TV. I am sure the garden didnt make a dime off of that...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-83406992562886298632008-05-06T23:48:00.000-04:002008-05-06T23:48:00.000-04:002008-05-06T23:48:00.000-04:00you've got to be fucking kidding me. this breaks my heart. almost as depressing is that new york is now filled with soulless fucks who do not see the beauty in this. makes me almost want to cry.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-49893301992705481332008-05-06T22:31:00.000-04:002008-05-06T22:31:00.000-04:002008-05-06T22:31:00.000-04:00Well, that's a shame. While it is a rotting piece of crap to some, I'll always remember that that was the view from my apartment window. And I'll remember the times that Eddie gave me his usual, "Hello, darlin" from the top of that tower, after blowing a horn that was strapped up there, while I was sitting in my kitchen/livingroom/entrance/diningroom eating or grading papers at the table by the window that was about 5 feet from that "eyesore." It's too bad it's coming down, though I always remember worrying about Eddie falling off of it or about it falling down--especially the year of that hurricane (what was that, like, 99 or something?). I remember the garden people always had beef with Eddie and his tower, especially my downstairs neighbor, who was a real, real, pain, and a total idiot, despite being a part of the "greening" of the East Village. Sigh.<BR/>And, btw, Jeremiah, the whole polished turd idea reminds me of something else I loved in the EV back in the day...the person I never knew who used to put rainbow sprinkles on dog turds on the sidewalk. Talk about polishing a turd!Kirynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-74420975931335869622008-05-06T19:27:00.000-04:002008-05-06T19:27:00.000-04:002008-05-06T19:27:00.000-04:00J, you should be very afraid if Mandy Burden has the EV/LES within the sight line of her reading glasses. She and her friends must have a suitable place to dine. The Ladies Who Lunch must be fed.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com