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This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from Explore Bristol Research, http://research-information.bristol.ac.uk Author: Vivian-Byrne, Ronan Title: Gentrification and the Growth and Decline of LGBT Space in New York City General rights Access to the thesis is subject to the Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International Public License. A copy of this may be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode This license sets out your rights and the restrictions that apply to your access to the thesis so it is important you read this before proceeding. Take down policy Some pages of this thesis may have been removed for copyright restrictions prior to having it been deposited in Explore Bristol Research. However, if you have discovered material within the thesis that you consider to be unlawful e.g. breaches of copyright (either yours or that of a third party) or any other law, including but not limited to those relating to patent, trademark, confidentiality, data protection, obscenity, defamation, libel, then please contact [email protected] and include the following information in your message: •Your contact details •Bibliographic details for the item, including a URL •An outline nature of the complaint Your claim will be investigated and, where appropriate, the item in question will be removed from public view as soon as possible. Gentrification and the Growth and Decline of LGBT Space in New York City Rónan Vivian-Byrne Abstract The association between LGBT communities and gentrification has long been noted in academic literature. This study shows that the LGBT community had a significant role in the gentrification of neighbourhoods in New York City, particularly Greenwich Village, the East Village and Park Slope. It shows that, while bearing similarities, this community’s role was substantively different from that of other demographics elsewhere in the same period. It shows that, rather than simply gay males being the critical actors, lesbian and transgender people were important, pointing to the heterogeneity of the community in this period. The development of communities in these neighbourhoods resulted in the expansion of political influence, and the cultural and social life of the wider community during the gay liberation movement and AIDS crisis. Neighbourhoods in which these communities developed experienced changes as a direct result. Efforts of LGBT people to make areas safer for themselves, as well as cleaner and more attractive, resulted in rising property values as a consequence. As gentrification accelerated in these neighbourhoods, it has increasingly been to the detriment of the same LGBT people that contributed to its early growth. This study analyses the significance of this development for the community and the identities founded and strengthened in these neighbourhoods. Thus, it states the importance of ensuring that the debate over the consequences of gentrification considers the significance of specific places for historically disempowered groups. It argues that with these communities, it is essential to consider more than just direct spatial displacement on the part of residents. Indeed, it is necessary to examine the broader consequences. Gentrification does not just threaten individuals in specific places, but entire communities for whom these neighbourhoods are repositories of symbolic meaning and collective memories. I declare that the work in this dissertation was carried out in accordance with the requirements of the University's Regulations and Code of Practice for Research Degree Programmes and that it has not been submitted for any other academic award. Except where indicated by specific reference in the text, the work is the candidate's own work. Work done in collaboration with, or with the assistance of, others, is indicated as such. Any views expressed in the dissertation are those of the author. SIGNED: .................................................................................................................. DATE:............................................... Table of Contents Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Defining Gentrification .................................................................................................................... 4 Gentrification and the LGBT Community .................................................................................. 8 Historical Study of Gentrification .............................................................................................. 11 Chapter 1 – The Gentrification of Greenwich Village .......................................... 17 Stonewall ............................................................................................................................................ 20 Community Activism and Consumption .................................................................................. 23 The Gay Liberation Monument Controversy........................................................................... 32 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................... 38 Chapter 2 – Gentrification and the LGBT Communities of Park Slope and the East Village ......................................................................................................................... 41 Park Slope, Brooklyn ...................................................................................................................... 43 The East Village, Manhattan ........................................................................................................ 49 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................... 56 Chapter 3 – Later Gentrification’s Effects on the LGBT Community ............. 59 The LGBT Community, Policing, and Gentrification ........................................................... 61 The LGBT Community and Wider Gentrification in New York ........................................ 65 Splits within “The Community” .................................................................................................. 72 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................... 75 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 77 Bibliography ...................................................................................................................... 83 Introduction In 1980, Jimmy Wright, a gay artist from Kentucky bought a house in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, having been unable to afford to buy something his preferred SoHo. Describing the surrounding area at the time as looking “like a war”, Wright still felt New York City, and Manhattan more specifically, was where he belonged. He saw it as a place where he could live in his “own skin”. Over the years of living there, Wright and his partner renovated the house out of their own pocket, with the area being redlined at the time, and lobbied the city government to improve the provision of services to the area.1 Thirty years later, Wright found himself fighting legal battles against developers building a luxury hotel next door to him, but was keen to stay despite the market value of his property having rocketed in recent years.2 Wright’s story encapsulates many aspects of the story of gentrification in New York City during the 1980s and 90s. As an artist and a gay man, Wright forms part of two of the most cited demographics in ‘first-wave’ gentrification, that sanitises previously dilapidated areas of the city, inadvertently laying the ground-work for the ‘second-wave’ luxury developers that move in later and threaten the first wave.3 Wright, however, also exemplifies how the LGBT community has a unique position in this process.4 As a homeowner, he is positioned to make a significant financial gain from selling his property, but because of the benefits living in the neighbourhood has had for him as a gay man, he is not willing to do so. This shows that for many 1 On redlining: T. J. Sugrue, The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998), pp. 43-47; B. Satter, 'Reflections: On Family Properties: Race, Real Estate, and the Exploitation of Black Urban America', Reviews in American History, 41 (2013), pp. 178-79; N. Smith, 'Toward a Theory of Gentrification: A Back to the City Movement by Capital, Not People', Journal of the American Planning Association, 45 (1979), pp. 544-45. 2 J. Wright, 'Interview with Jimmy Wright', int. by T. Elkin, NYPL Community Oral History Project, Lower East Side Oral History Project, (December 18, 2016). 3 D. Spain, 'Gender and Urban Space', Annual Review of Sociology, 40 (2014), p. 591; A. Shkuda, The Lofts of SoHo: Gentrification, Art, and Industry in New York, 1950-1980, (Chicago ; London: The University of Chicago Press, 2016), p. 1; P. L. Clay, 'The Mature Revitalized Neighborhood: Emerging Issues in Gentrification', in The Gentrification Reader, ed. by E. Wyly, L. Lees, and T. Slater (Abingdon: Routledge, 2010), p. 37. 4 The term “LGBT Community” is anachronistic in much of this history,