> My impression of this article is that it depicts Giuliani as
> taking the Left seriously, whereas Kifner and probably, his
> colleagues on the N.Y. Times do not. Neither is particularly
> apt at political analysis, and Giuliani's confused remarks
> about philosophy (at once pernicious and beneficial) are very
> funny, but they don't really need to think philosophically or
> analytically -- they have power. The gardens issue is one of
> how to gentrify the remaining non-upper-class areas of Manhattan;
> Giuliani favors a hard-cop routine, but the NYT folks probably
> think soft-cop will do the job just fine. For Giuliani, then,
> the protesters who interfered with his project of selling off
> the gardens to developers were effective political opponents
> -- they stopped him -- while for the NYT they were silly
> people, clowns who will not really interfere with the wave of
> boutiques, cafes, and thousand-dollar rents pushing their way
> inexorably into the slums. In fact, they may well assist it
> -- with its little trees and spruced-up storefronts, Stanton
> Street ain't what it used to be (a place where the nicer people
> feared to tread), and many of its present denizens better be
> preparing for the rigors of the Bronx.
An interesting point about how the legitimate efforts by working class people to beautify their neighborhoods gets subverted by those purely interested in making a buck. As an anarchist friend of mine put it, sometimes these issues boil down to beauty in our lives. The rich get to surround themselves with beauty, whereas the poor and the working class have to deal with shit.
Of course, the Eugene anarchists once again are relevant here. They have deliberately started a campaign to "uglify" parts of Eugene that are undergoing gentrification, in an attempt to make the Yuppies unwelcome.
LA Times (8/3/1999) "A Revolutionary Movement Hits Small-Town America"
"The popular resistance started last August with a broken restaurant window, and when that was repaired, another, and another. Then the literature castigating "yuppie gentrifying scum" and their BMWs parked outside. Fearing worse, the Blair Island Cafe closed its doors late last year--and the movement to keep Whitaker a low-rent refuge for the down-and-out raised its collective fist in victory."
BTW, I have two pages that may interest folks interested in this matter:
Stomp Out Giulianism http://www.infoshop.org/giulianism.html
Mission Yuppie Eradication Project http://www.infoshop.org/myep.html
-- Chuck0
Mid-Atlantic Infoshop http://www.infoshop.org/
Leonard Peltier Freedom Month Executive Clemency For Peltier! http://www.freepeltier.org/lpfreedommonth.html
Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Now! http://www.infoshop.org/gulag/mumia_idx.html
"A society is a healthy society only to the degree that it exhibits anarchistic traits."
- Jens Bjørneboe