I find the hippies living in East Village in the 1970s similar to the well-off people who went slumming because both of the groups could go back to their middle and upper class statuses and their nice houses after “playing their games”, even though the East Villagers voluntarily gave up their privileges for poverty for a moment in time. I think that the hippies were considered as outsiders because even though the Lower East Side was a diverse melting pot of different ethnicities, they were all facing the same economic obstacles and were of the same class, so they could relate to one another as a community. Also, the majority of the LES population had the same dreams of moving up the social and economic ladders, so they thought hippies were making fun in choosing to act poor. As a result of the hippies being labeled outsiders, African Americans and Puerto Ricans committed acts of violence against them.
I think that the suburban youth wanted to move to East Village because of the cycle in which the symbol of rebellion against suburban lifestyles based in the LES influenced the commercialization of East Village. In other words, I think that East Village is the result of tenement owners grasping the opportunity to redevelop the working class neighborhood into a more attractive residential area for the middle class, which is why they, as the outsiders, gave the area the name of East Village. The media’s advertisement of the area compelled the suburban youth to give in to peer pressure and rebel against boring lives.
I find East Village similar to what is happening in Williamsburg, Brooklyn since the 1990s; it is trendy and cool for the youth to live in Williamsburg. Its’ warehouses are turned into residential areas; the housing market has improved greatly as Williamsburg was once known for its poverty and crime. The night life, art scene, and music scene is vibrant in both East Village and Brooklyn. Perhaps the youth living in Williamsburg will be a fad.
