The Gentrification of Nightlife and the Right to the City

Regulating Spaces of Social Dancing in New York

Laam Hae

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780415754583
• eBook ISBN: 9781136331787
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Geography
• Index: Geography

In The Gentrification of Nightlife and the Right to the City, Hae explores how nightlife in New York City, long associated with various subcultures of social dancing, has been recently transformed as the city has undergone the gentrification of its space and the post-industrialization of its economy and society. This book offers a detailed analysis of the conflicts emerging between newly transplanted middle-class populations and different sectors of nightlife actors, and how these conflicts have led the NYC government to enforce "Quality of Life" policing over nightlife businesses. In particular, it provides a deep investigation of the zoning regulations that the municipal government has employed to control where certain types of nightlife can or cannot be located.

Hae demonstrates the ways in which these struggles over nightlife have led to the "gentrification of nightlife, " while infringing on urban inhabitants' rights of access to spaces of diverse urban subcultures – their "right to the city." The author also connects these struggles to the widely documented phenomenon of the increasing militarization of social life and space in contemporary cities, and the right to the city movements that have emerged in response.

The story presented here involves dynamic and often contradictory interactions between different anti/pro-nightlife actors, illustrating what "actually existing" gentrification and post-industrialization looks like, and providing an urgent example for experts in related fields to consider as part of a re-theorization of gentrification and post-industrialization.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Series
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• Common Acronyms
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 Transformation of Urban Space and the Right to the City Historical, Legislative, and Current Perspectives
• 2 The Cabaret Law Legislation and Enforcement
• 3 The Cabaret Law Legislation and Enforcement
• 4 Gentrification with and against Nightlife 1979–1988
• 5 Zoning out Social Dancing The Late 1980s
• 6 Disciplining Nightlife 1990–2002
• 7 Voices for Change From 2002 Onwards
• 8 The Festa Ruling, the Right of Social Dancing and the Right to the City
• Conclusion
• Appendix 1 Terms of Special Permits for Use Group 6A and 12A before 1990 Rezoning
• Appendix 2 Community Boards in Manhattan
• Appendix 3 The Requirements for Special Permits for Use Group 6C after the 1990 Rezoning (CPC 1989,40–41)
• Appendix 4 Preliminary Proposal for Changing theCabaret Laws40–41)
• Notes
• References
• Cases Cited
• Index