Degentrification Watch: New York Times Makes an Example of Eagle Rock

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

This morning's New York Times helps everyone start the day off right with a depressing look at Eagle Rock as the poster town for degentrification. As the recession kills off little hipster businesses like That Yarn Store and vintage shop Lucy Finch, what's a recently arrived screenwriter or music editor to do? Obviously, not everyone has sympathy for the sort of people who pin their hopes and dreams on the presence of a scene-y yarn shop. Take the perspective of blogger Queequeg at Los Angeles Metblogs.

From the (classist) (incredibly classist) perspective of the New York Times, the rapid closures of Eagle Rock's newish boutique shops are significant because of the tragic effects it will have on the new class...Having to see their consumerist, pastel-colored facade of a neighborhood give way to more rooted institutions, the article's subjects are flipping out that the shoe is slowly making its way to the other foot.

The Times article anticipates this kind of reaction: "It is easy to sniff at such urban affectations. But the downturn endangers more than precious shops; residents worry that as stores close, the fabric of a bohemian utopia — with its Jane Jacobs mix of commerce and public spiritedness — will also unravel." After all, nobody really wins when local businesses fail—it's more a matter of who loses least.
· When the Next Wave Wipes Out [NYT]
· Yuppies Try, Fail, to Save Their Vision of Eagle Rock. Tears. [LA Metblogs]
· Discontinued (Soon): Regeneration in Eagle Rock [Racked]