With gentrification on the rise, a look at 'Vanishing New York'
Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with James Conrad of The Golden Notebook in Woodstock, N.Y.
Jeremiah Moss has been running a blog for a few years called "Vanishing New York," which documents the changing face of New York City due to what he has dubbed "hypergentification."
Now, that blog has inspired a book of the same name, "Vanishing New York: How a Great City Lost Its Soul."
Bookseller James Conrad recommends the book for anyone who has ever spent time in — or wishes they had spent time in — New York City.
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The hypergentrification, Conrad said, is the influx of luxury condos and high-end stores, coupled with "economic policies pushing out small businesses and making rents unaffordable."
The book, he said, "covers the demise of New York City's diverse neighborhoods."
"New York has an appeal that even if you've only been here for one weekend of your life, you always remember it was an experience. And I think if people were here ten years ago or twenty years ago and came back now, they would really notice the change in New York City, where this hypergentrification has happened."
"Vanishing New York" is a book "you can open anywhere, and you can read a chapter on what Little Italy used to be like or what Harlem used to be like and what's happened to it now.
"You can visit around the parts of the city you have the most interest in and read anywhere in the book."