From yesterday's lively thread about the Halloween night protest at Tompkins Square Park... I give you Vagabond Beaumont...
To all of those who moved into the Loisaida and were expecting the Upper East Side.... Loisaida was a place for those who wanted to live in a different way and not be harassed by outsiders or even looked at as outsiders at all... The Loisaida was a place for the freaks to gather and rub up against one another... It was a place that not only respected difference but celebrated and encouraged it... It was a community of freaks banding together to create a freak community of immense diversity...
This tribe of freaks coming together is not much different from the waves of waves of immigration of various ethnic groups that came and continue to come to NYC... Those immigrant groups looked for ethnic neighborhoods where they could feel safe and not feel like outsiders... The Jews did it, the Italians did it, the Germans did it, the Polish did it, the Chinese did it, the Puerto Ricans did it, even the African Americans (who were not immigrants) did it...
The freaks of the Loisaida were following in a tradition of gathering in a way to protect themselves and to have a place of their own... The diversity of the Loisaida and the commodification of what came out of the Loisaida (Spoken Word, Punk, Hip-Hop, Graffiti, Avant-Garde Theater, etc...) made the Loisaida a cool place for non-freaks to want to live...
So the non-freaks move in - in their 20's and because the Loisaida is a place of tolerance the non-freaks are welcome... Then the non-freaks get into their 30's and start getting married and having kids and instead of renting a studio in a 5th floor walk-up tenement they buy a $1.2 mil. 2 bedroom condo and all of a sudden what was cool @ 20 is now an annoyance @ 30 and by the time the non-freaks (who were welcomed by the Loisiaida) are 40 they are calling the cops on the freaks because of the noise and complaining to politicians about the deteriorating conditions of "community"...
The majority who live in this city now are people who want don't want freaks around... Don't want them to have a place... Don't want them to exist... Are wiping out the places where they gather and live... It happened in Soho, it happened in the West Village, it happened/is happening in Williamsburg, in Harlem, in the South Bronx... It seems that as fast as the freaks find a place the non-freaks find a way to strangle the life out of it...
But one day when NYC has finally paved it's path over us freaks and the entire city becomes a safe respected shopping mall... Then you non-freaks will have what you always wanted... A suburb without a lawn and a shopping mall @ your doorstep...
NYC the most vital and exciting and diverse collection of freaks in the world will not be able to create and as a result of that the non-freaks will not have the fruits of these freaks to commodify. Because the freaks will not exist... And you non-freaks will have to find another way to pay that $1.2mil. condo mortgage...
When you default on that mortgage and your the system starts to crumble for you and that condo building becomes an abandoned building... The freaks that were in hiding will show up... Squat your $1.2 mil. condo and generate fruits once again...
The Loisaida is not yours... You are passing through... Remember that the next time you call the puh-leez or the politrixters to complain... Your kind will not remain... And not because we freaks are going to do anything about it or ever had the power to do anything about it... You will destroy yourselves, you need no help from us... But don't worry... we freaks will be here to forgive you of your past transgressions and show you how to live another way...
[Photo by John Penley]
31 comments:
-- Sent from my iPhone
Look man I love your website and I love the community based articles you provide, but this post makes me angry. Yes some of us haven't lived in the neighborhood for 20+ years, and yes some of us have the means to buy a million dollar condo. I myself fall into the inbetween category. However it's sentiments like the one in this post that don't truly keep the "open minded" spirit of the Alphabet, the East Village, or NYC as a whole. This city has always been in flux and always changes on a month by month, year by year basis.
Neighborhoods that "belong" to one group or another lead to racism and hatred. We saw this recently in Brooklyn of the 80's and 90's.
You can not fight the change in this town. It wants to continue to evolve and always should be allowed to. You think the EV looks the same way it did in the early 1900's? You can trace the anger about being forced out of one community or another all the way back to the American Indians. Take it for what it is, and enjoy the spirit of the neighborhood for what it is.
There will always been privileged yuppie scumbags, who act like jerks and take no effort to participate in what the EV "should" stand for. But there are jerks in any group of folks, we all know that. Even in the so called Freaks.
Hey Vagabond:
Would you like to speak at Saturday's event in the park? We have a five minute speaker slot open for you, in between bands.
Chris Flash
What a freak! Keep 'em coming EV.
Michael Brown
LES
Change is inevitable.
Comments like this are one of the reasons I keep reading this blog.
Anonymous, imagine if the entire country was like the East Village in its freak days. But there was one town somewhere that was square. And then the freaks came in and took that over too. That would be pretty oppressive, wouldn't it?
It will get worse because much of the US economy outside NYC has been slowly collapsing. So everyone pretty much has to come here if they want a chance to get a job. Which means you are going to have alot of other groups jostling for space.
__Conservatroids & Eliti___sts: Want to wipe Out.. Everyone... We are all on their hit list....
New World Order: Police state existence, extreme high cost of living, Profiling across the board, Racism, Sexism, Diversity Discrimination... Culture Warfare, they want to abolish all artwork and music(if not to their liking), discrimination on the impoverished, Religious Profiling and Prejudice.... We are under attack ... and We Know It!! Yes, change is Inevitable... but at what price?? New Jersey is a police state... the ambience and spirit, (that NY still has) is virtually lost... People are harassed, beaten down, profiled,caged.... hell, Bob Dylan was walking down the street, in a trench coat,(had a concert nearby) checking out Bruce Springsteens, old house, and got picked up by the fuzz.... a young cop, that didnt know who he was... So, walking around is now a Crime... and suspicious!!! NYC is one of the most visited places for its History and Culture..... Grieving is the perfect Word.... Need I say more....
didnt like that post. it was evil. & i wouldnt want to live amongst "freaks". anyway the west village & soho usually had a different kind of person than the ones you mention from ave C. i never liked much of it east of 1st ave.
rose i agree w/you about the new world order. even the word is scary.
practicing non-attachment...
xo,
outre freak
I guess time will tell huh? lets revisit this post in ten years.
regardless of what the ev looks like then it will be more of a result of the economy as a whole that of the freaks vs geeks.
I like this neighborhood, its too bad there are extreme people of all kinds here, that dont want to fit into the broader community.
"The Loisaida is not yours..." either.
No one who moves to the East Village expects the Upper East sides. The Upper East side doesn't have quite as snobby social circles.
How many "freaks" were born in the East Village? Probably a very similar ratio to the amount of 'native' and 'non-native' condo owners in the East Village. What the "freaks" hate most about the "yuppie scum" is it reminds them of exactly where they came from.
When was the cut off move-in date to be a "true" East Villager? '73? '79? '84? Or can you only be part of the "real" East Village if you were born here? Before you answer that, please expand on how you and your issues are similar to actual immigrants and their struggles--because that's not insulting.
So, you're "real" if you squat or live in a 5th floor studio but not if you happen to live in any other building? Or is it just if you live in a building that's too new? Can you send me a picture of the right kind of building I should live in, so I won't keep making your neighborhood uncool?
Is one "real" if they have tattoos, but not if they have a job? What if they have a job AND tattoos? If I make art and I'm good enough at it that I earn a living and can afford to live in this neighborhood do I get to be a freak or do I have to be one of the "just passing through" people? They sound lame. Do you need to check my wallet or my music collection before answering?
I bet I just don't "get it."
And I don't.
Where can I buy "freak fruit" I commodify? Is it on a commodities market? Also, if all the freaks don't exist after NYC gets turned into a lawnless suburb within a shopping mall: how do they going "come back" when the system starts to crumble? You said they were paved over? Like literally? And how did you guess the exact price of my condo?
I'm getting tired and it's time to go take a bath in all my piles of money, but Peter Minuit ask me to tell you weren't here first and you won't be here forever-so don't take yourself so seriously.
amen to this.
i hear, again and again, this cry of "-ism" from people with immense privilege, as if those with less power could oppress them simply by criticizing them. racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism, etc.--all of these isms all are about marginalized people being oppressed in some way by people with more power and privilege.
it DOES NOT work the other way around. ever. "freaks" cannot oppress "non-freaks." it does not work that way. so to the non-freaks, you may be criticized, but you cannot be disempowered, disenfranchised, or marginalized by freaks.
you have a right to your feelings about the criticism--be hurt, be angry. but please don't liken it to racism. it is not the same.
Freaks UNITED ! I was a part of a ban of Freaks in H.S. we were proud freaks and founded our own lunch room table (though I ofter wondered around from group to group regardless) ... it was difficult for some to accept my friend Miranda who was considered a Prep though ... but she eventually became part of the group too (^_^).
"... what was cool @ 20 is now an annoyance @ 30 and by the time the non-freaks (who were welcomed by the Loisiaida) are 40 they are calling the cops on the freaks because of the noise and complaining to politicians about the deteriorating conditions of "community"..."
"The majority who live in this city now are people who want don't want freaks around... Don't want them to have a place... Don't want them to exist... Are wiping out the places where they gather and live... It happened in Soho, it happened in the West Village, it happened/is happening in Williamsburg, in Harlem, in the South Bronx... It seems that as fast as the freaks find a place the non-freaks find a way to strangle the life out of it..."
Oh booo (-_-) they learned nothing ...
"When you default on that mortgage and your the system starts to crumble for you and that condo building becomes an abandoned building... The freaks that were in hiding will show up... Squat your $1.2 mil. condo and generate fruits once again...
The Loisaida is not yours... You are passing through... Remember that the next time you call the puh-leez or the politrixters to complain... Your kind will not remain... And not because we freaks are going to do anything about it or ever had the power to do anything about it... You will destroy yourselves, you need no help from us... But don't worry... we freaks will be here to forgive you of your past transgressions and show you how to live another way..."
EPIC XD
BTW,
ThX 4 writing this article :-)
For the record, I'm a gay black woman, born in nyc, raised by working class parents and I rent a non-condo basement apartment that I share. I was just trying to point out the insane hypocrisy of this original post. It didn't hurt my feelings, it hurt my head.
tanks
didn't know how to spell chiming
@Anonymous (on the top post - you brave soul, you)
The reason people banded together into ethnic communities in this country and in this city is because there is no welcome mat for the melting pot... The freaks of Loisaida understood that... They also know that this country (and now this city) doesn't look kindly on people who want to "live differently"... That's why they banded together into the Loisaida...
The racial banding together of communities in this city is not something that people coming here choose/chose freely, it's something that they are forced into... No one wanted the Jews, no one wanted the Italians, no one wanted the Chinese, no one wanted the Irish, no one wanted the Puerto Ricans, no one wanted the African Americans coming from the rural South... So they banded together... Just like the freaks did in Loisaida...
The racial strife of the 80's and 90's in Brooklyn that you speak of is all white racism against people of color... The incidents in Howard Beach and Crown Heights are perfect examples... But you can't compare those shit-uations with the Loisaida because the Loisaida was a place that strove for true tolerance... So what happened in Brooklyn in the 80's and 90's could never happen in Loisaida because Loisaida was not a homogenized or polarized community... It was a community of tolerance... So your point about communities belonging to one group or another doesn't hold it's liquor...
And i agree with you that change is inevitable and the Loisaida was always in a state of flux and transformation but those changes were changes that for the most part came from people who joined the community and understood that the roots of this community were ones that celebrated difference, were ones in which the rules that apply to other parts of the city (and the country) just didn't apply to the Loisiada... Like Puerto Rican congeros playing @ 1AM next to the Homeless encampment's in Tompkins Square Park... Like taking over an abandon school and making it a community center or squatting abandon buildings for people to live... That didn't happen too much in other places... But in the Loisiada it happened for years and people for the most part got along just fine...
For someone like myself who fell asleep in the summertime to the Puerto Rican congeros playing @ 1AM and gave out extra left over food from the film shoots i worked on to the Homeless encampments in Tompkins Square Park it was an ideal place to live... To someone like myself who organized benefits @ Charas for squatters rights it was an ideal place to be...
The normal or regular rules didn't apply in the Loisaida... And it was always changing... But it was change that came from below and from within... Not the change of mayors and city council members and real estate developers and landlords... The problem isn't change but what kind of change and from where and from whom...
- vagabond
@Coolest Wins -
There is no cutoff point in terms of being from the Loisiaida... Being in the Loisiada or being from the Loisiada is a state of mind... The thing about the Loisaida is this... If you don't feel comfortable anywhere else... then this can be your home... It's not about having money or not having money it's about wanting to be a part of something diverse, unique and beautiful... If you want to come into the Loisaida and close Charas and evict squatters and move the Homeless into shelters and silence the congeros then you should probably consider living somewhere else... In the same way people don't like living next to cemeteries or across the street from Hospitals...
People don't move next to the cemetery and then complain about living next to the dead or move across the street from the Hospital and complain about ambulance sirens... You know what you're getting into before you get there and you either accept it or find somewhere else to go...
As for the freaks returning once the inevitable economic meltdown turns up the heat... Freaks are like rats, roaches and Bebe's Kids (Comedian Robin Harris reference) we don't die... we multiply... The freaks will find a way to live off the radar until the time comes to "wave my freak flag - HIGH!"...
As for the fruits of the freaks... Where can you find them? Everywhere... Coca-Cola and Sprite using graffiti to sell soda, CBGB T-shirts on MTV, Spoken Word on Def Poetry Jam, the ongoing national tour of the Broadway hit RENT. These are the fruits of freaks... Check the NYSE for investment opportunities...
On the front of being able to do your art and make a living... that's a great thing, iti must feel good to be able to do that... Others would like to do the same thing but not @ $1.2 mil. for a condo or $3500K a month in rent... There was a time when artists didn't need to make a living from their art because living in the Loisaida was so damn cheap that you could work a lousy job, pay the rent, eat, and make art without much stress... But those days are gone...
As for the hypocrisy of the piece... i think that i may have addressed those points for you already in the comment i made to Anonymous...
Please let me know if you need anymore clarification...
- vagabond
To all of those who moved into the Loisaida and were expecting the Upper East Side.... Loisaida was a place for those who wanted to live in a different way and not be harassed by outsiders or even looked at as outsiders at all...
there are many of us that moved here because it was the only place we could afford. drugs, homeless, gangs, whatever - we could afford the rent. and many of us stayed and are still here because of the rent. perhaps those of us with less could tolerate more. the neighborhood was far from perfect and the less affluent have to live with violence, crime and garbage.
as the economy changed so did the neighborhood, not always for the best. stores that were here for generations are gone, landlords have become very greedy, and life is less neighborly here now.
i don't care what religion you are, what you call yourself, what you look like, how freaky or common or arty you are/want to be - i just want to live here as peacefully as possible.
just leave those of us that don't share your values alone! many of us are not loud, are respectful of our neighbors, and don't hate the rich or poor, we just want to live our lives.
and if this land is our land how come the squatters stole it from us?
@vagabond
Even the language you use in your posts makes CoolestWins' point. You think the neighborhood was always referred to as Loisaida? Of course not. The coterie of young/affluent haters seem to think that the East Village didn't exist before the 80s and was magically conjured into existence by punk rock and Puerto Ricans.
This is a neighborhood for freaks? Perhaps in a very specific time period that must have been your halcyon days. You think this neighborhood has always been some sort of bastion of tolerance for immigrant groups? You should hear my grandmother talk about growing up here during the depression, it wasn't exactly a post-modern multicultural utopia.
I hate the homogenization of the city as much as the next guy, but the idea that getting f*cked up all day, "protesting" the community board and listening to punk rock is somehow fighting the man is misguided hedonism. Wanna preserve the neighborhood? Work on amassing political clout. But that would be hard work, and not fun at all, so it wont happen.
You wanna complain about artists being priced out of the neighborhood? The East Village wasn't always cheap as hell, and it decidedly wasn't like the bohemian Greenwich Village in the 50s/60s. Sorry, but it wasn't a cheap artist/freak paradise when German families lived here, or Jewish families, or Italian families, or Ukrainian families. Puerto Rican settlement here coincided with the period of time when "freaks" lived here, but was neither a cause or effect. Charlie Parker used to live next to Tompkins, you think he'd be down with the crusties? Get real. Struggling artists will always live where the rent is cheap, once upon a time that was soho, once upon a time that was the East Village, not anymore.
I still love the neighborhood because it is just that - a neighborhood - but you're as bad as the frat boys who move here and want bars like the 13th step to proliferate, shoving people into boxes based upon characteristics that are not predominant in their cultural identity like age and income. I like seeing familiar faces on the street, being able to grab a Hamantaschen from Moishe's and then walk down the street to get a fantastic espresso from Abraco and take my copy of the Death and Life of Great American Cities to the park, but if I want to read in peace you probably think I'm a "square" who should move to the suburbs.
You really think a crusty who gets drunk all day every day is more "east village" than a successful artist who can afford the rent nowadays? It betrays the subconscious bias born from having an ossified memory of a community in a very specific time period. Many rich people are yuppie scum, others are George Soros or Os Gemeos. Don't cloak your everyone-who-doesn't-look-like-me-and-like-the-things-i-like as tolerance for freaks, it's actually reactionary nativism and is no different than waspy upper east siders complaining about a downtown artist or rapper moving into their neighborhood. Guess what, being young and/or affluent doesn't automatically disqualify you from positively contributing to the cultural milieu of the neighborhood. Limit your criticism to developers changing the physical landscape of the neighborhood, or people who love to go to the village pourhouse (oh no, I've been there once or twice!) and wish Mark Jacobs puts an outpost in alphabet city, and I'm with you. But it's not really about the neighborhood, it's about "raising your freak flag" and only wanting to be around people who look like you and like the things you like, so don't pretend like you want the neighborhood to continue to be an oasis of tolerance for the different, because that's precisely the opposite of what you want.
4th Gen. Why are you afraid to put your real name on your post ? About Charlie Parker if he was around today he would have been copping dope from the "crusties". Once again someone claims to know a lot but doesn't even know that Parker was a heroin addict. Makes me wonder about all the rest of your comment ?
Wikipedia Charlie Parker was addicted to heroin from his early teens http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Parker
i agree with what 4th Gen is saying when s/he says that the problem is with the sort "who love to go to the village pourhouse...and wish Mark Jacobs puts an outpost in alphabet city."
when we're trying to talk about the group of people who destroy the soul of the EV and the city, we can't generalize about age, income, or race, etc. it is a personality type. which is where the yunnie thing comes in.
the EV/LES has a very long history of being a refuge for outsiders, whether that meant immigrants, socialists, Jewish lefties, or hippies, queers, or "freaks," etc. it has attracted a certain personality type, and while that type did not represent every resident, for sure, it gave the neighborhood its flavor. for at least a century.
now, in only 10 years, it has come to attract the opposite type, and the dominant "flavor" of the EV/LES comes from the conventional, the dull, the dim-witted. they do pray for a Marc Jacobs on Avenue A or Bowery and they will eventually get it.
and that's why, while i also enjoying reading a book in peace, i think we need the freaky loud concerts in the park. without those last remnants of the old neighborhood, what's left?
John Penley - everyone's afraid to put their name on their posts, not because they're afraid of their own privacy, but because they're afraid you're going to show up at their doorstep with a small, angry mob of brats living off their trust funds.
I appreciate Vagabond's post. My family has been in the East Village for five generations. Until the last five to ten years it was a community like nowhere else in the city (at least for me). I never wanted to move away. It wasn't a Disney paradise. There were periods of intense crime and drug use but it was also a place where you could do your own thing in a
diverse culture. Real estate prices and NYU housing have made it impossible to maintain that poor/working class/bohemian counter culture. Almost every storefront merchant I knew or grew up with is gone because of the rent. Same for all the art studios. And now my husband, son and I are gone too (some siblings stayed). It really was a special place with a unique and liberated atmosphere. That's what people are sad about.
EVI
That is pretty funny Jeremy. Also not true. You won't put your names up because your comments never address issues they are "brats with trust funds" comments which you are too cowardly to put your name on. Cowards who say stupid things like that [the only people in the neighborhood with trust funds are NYU students]hide behind no name comments because you have no pride or heart as we who live on Ave D like to say. If you actually said something like that to my face we would have a problem but I promise that if you want to try again with a comment on a blog that shows you have some intelligence I will not show up on your doorstep. I do not know anyone who has a trust fund but I bet you do. If I called someone a brat I would do it to their face.
If you want the East Village to revert to the way it used to be, why stop 10-20 years ago? Why not go back 80 years ago, when my great-grandmother and her family lived in the neighborhood in a tenement, before any of the "freaks" were even born? Who said you (the so-called freaks) get to decide who belongs here or when the neighborhood is/was at its best? You claim to be so open-minded, but when it comes to people who are different from you (call them yuppies if you will, but that just proves you are stuck in the '80s), you're no more accepting than those that you criticize. History has shown us that the neighborhood will evolve whether you like it or not, so you can adapt or continue to fight a losing battle.
Amanda do you think your grandmother knew mine Emma Goldman ? Dorothy Day Perhaps ? With economic conditions being what they are today I think the more upscale people in the LES are the ones that are going to have to adapt.Adapt to foodstamps and soup kitchens and sleeping on the street. Most of the people I know who still live in the neighborhood work hard but are just barely making it. I hope your grandmother left you a rent controlled apt. Anarchists like myself have a long history in the LES and we are proud of that history !
I don't get why the middle/upper class needs to live in constant fear of being homeless. Functioning adults usually just move to a neighborhood or city they can afford. This great reckoning you think is going to happen is extremely unlikely, especially en masse the way you describe. Society is structured very differently than it was in the '30s.
CoolestWins & 4thGen, you seem awesome.
John Penley says: Anarchists like myself have a long history in the LES and we are proud of that history!
just what is that history? fighting for the rights of people to sleep in the park while preventing the development of affordable housing? disrupting what little input residents have at community board meetings? threatening people that don't agree with you?
is that what anarchy is?
i thought anarchists were folks that had an unpopular political opinion that they fought for the right to express (unfortunately often with violence). that is not the case today. what you so-called anarchists do today is disrupt and destroy, organized in order to protect each other while doing so.
you guys give anarchy a bad name.
Yes, Anarchy is the fight for people to sleep in the park if people want to sleep in the park... Most homeless people feel safer on the streets than they do in the shelters, that's a fact... And i know from what i speak because i worked in a shelter...
As for claiming that John Penley and other anarchists fight against affordable housing well you can't just throw that out there and not explain what led you to that conclusion... And just to clarify what affordable housing means... The rule of thumb is that your rent/mortgage should not be more than 25% of your monthly wages...
As for the violent anarchists... there are a smaller number of violent anarchist then there are violent republicans or democrats... If the anarchists in Loisiada are so violent and disruptive and out destroying everything then why isn't it on the cover of the NY Post... The NY Post loves those scary headlines of feigned outrage...
It seems to me that the people who are the ranting and raving and telling folks to "just get over it" and "move on" and "nothing stays the same" are the ones who are ok with the way things are because things work just fine for them in the Loisaida and everywhere else...
Anarchists like John and myself and other like minded individuals are not ok with the way things are... not in the Loisaida, not in the NYC, not in the US and not in the world... So we do what we can to voice that concern with our actions...
Here's the crux of the argument... even if i could afford a $1.2mil. condo in the Loisaida my anger would not be abated by that fact because the cost of a $1.2 mil. condo means that others will not be able to afford to live in the area... It's not about me, myself and i it's about i and i. What's i and i? i and i is the rastararian concept of we... i am you and you are me... There is no separation between us, there is no you and i, only i and i...
The problem with the people who are coming into the Loisaida (and in NYC in general) is that they are myopic… they are only concerned with what affects them… If people can't afford to buy $1.2 mil. condos then that's their problem… get a job that pays better...
i'm all for $1.2 mil. condos as long as the poorest person can afford one... It's all of us or none of us... And no that's not communism... that being a empathetic enough to want to make sure that everyone has a decent place to live and healthy food to eat and clean water to drink and and free medical care and free education... It just means that in this modern age everyone could have all of those things if we got rid of the "i'm ok, fuck the rest of you" attitude/mentality...
The last lines of my original post were made with those thoughts in mind...
"You will destroy yourselves, you need no help from us... But don't worry... we freaks will be here to forgive you of your past transgressions and show you how to live another way..."
When your shit-stem fails you, you will need to find another way to live... We anarchists, we freaks, the ones YOU told to fuck off when things were all good for you? Well we have that way...
walk good,
vagabond
Post a Comment