Gentrification

East Houston

"When I first moved to New York, it was dingy, disgusting, dirty, ugly, flea-ridden, stinky and altogether terrifying -- but then, sadly, the whole city started to go uphill."
Ted Mosby (Bob Saget), How I Met Your Mother

Theme-Park City

Manhattan Mall

"Today New York is on its way to becoming a 'theme-park city,' where people can get the illusion of the urban experience without the diversity, spontaneity and unpredictability that have always been its hallmarks. Like the suburbs New Yorkers so long snubbed, the city is becoming more private, more predictable, and more homogenized."
Jerilou Hammett and Kingsley Hammett, Suburbanization of New York