Title: Gentrification and Politicization of Nightlife in New York City
Abstract: Municipal governments grappling with nightlife problems in gentrifying neighborhoods have initiated a range of legislation meant to restrict the operations and locations of nightlife businesses. In New York City, nightlife actors organized among themselves to fight these restrictions. In this paper, I examine the specific politics developed by and between two pro-nightlife groups in the city: a trade organization for nightlife business owners and a group that contested the cabaret law that they conceive of as having violated a civil liberty, that of social dancing. I examine the activism of these two groups, and demonstrate how conflicts which emerged between these two groups are related to the gentrification of nightlife. Based on this examination, I argue that pro-nightlife politics needs to develop a more robust and comprehensive political response to the market force of gentrification, in addition to contesting laws and institutions that unduly regulate nightlife. This paper seeks to contribute to a hitherto under-researched topic, that of the politicization of nightlife.
Publication Year: 2011
Publication Date: 2011-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 8
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