Vanishing New York : How a Great City Lost Its Soul
Author(s): Jeremiah Moss
"Essential reading for fans of Jane Jacobs, Joseph Mitchell, Patti Smith, Luc Sante, and Cheap Pierogi" —Vanity Fair
An unflinching chronicle of gentrification in the twenty-first century and a love letter to lost New York by the creator of the popular and incendiary blog Vanishing New York.
For generations, New York City has been a mecca for artists, writers, and other hopefuls longing to be part of its rich cultural exchange and unique social fabric. But today, modern gentrification is transforming the city from an exceptional, iconoclastic metropolis into a suburbanized luxury zone with a price tag only the one percent can afford.
A Jane Jacobs for the digital age, blogger and cultural commentator Jeremiah Moss has emerged as one of the most outspoken and celebrated critics of this dramatic shift. In Vanishing New York, he reports on the city’s development in the twenty-first century, a period of "hyper-gentrification" that has resulted in the shocking transformation of beloved neighborhoods and the loss of treasured unofficial landmarks. In prose that the Village Voice has called a "mixture of snark, sorrow, poeticism, and lyric wit," Moss leads us on a colorful guided tour of the most changed parts of town—from the Lower East Side and Chelsea to Harlem and Williamsburg—lovingly eulogizing iconic institutions as they’re replaced with soulless upscale boutiques, luxury condo towers, and suburban chains.
Propelled by Moss’ hard-hitting, cantankerous style, Vanishing New York is a staggering examination of contemporary "urban renewal" and its repercussions—not only for New Yorkers, but for all of America and the world.
Review(s):
“Essential reading for fans of Jane Jacobs, Joseph Mitchell, Patti Smith, Luc Sante, and cheap pierogi.”
“A full-throated lament for the city’s bygone charms.”
“We should all buy Jeremiah Moss’s book, Vanishing New York.”
“I haven’t read a more impassioned book in over a decade. Vanishing New York is angry, incredulous, but also full of insight into a city of legend, where every legend happened to be true.”
“Jeremiah Moss came to the party that is New York City just in time to see it turn into a wake.His book is lucid, eloquent, phenomenally detailed, and terribly sad. Future generations, assuming there are any, will read it in wonder and disbelief.”
“Meticulously researched, thoroughly reported, at once a call to arms and a soul cry, Vanishing New York is a love letter to originality and the human spirit. Grab a knish and settle in.”
“A vigorous, righteously indignant book that would do Jane Jacobs proud.”
“One of the most thorough and pugnacious chroniclers of New York’s blandification.”
“A vigorous, righteously indignant book that would do Jane Jacobs proud.”
“A very good, angrily passionate, and ultimately saddening book [. . . ] brilliantly written and well-informed.”
ISBN: 9780062439697