Once Upon An Idle Time, When Starving Artists Starved in Peace

Gone are those happy vagabond times in New York City when the starving artist lifestyle was where it was at for those lost in search of themselves. In that idealistic utopia of body and soul, anyone who helped themselves but took too much risked ostracized despair. To starve was a badge of defiance and it was tantamount to heresy to eat more than his/her daily allotment of good will, communal harmony and intellectual nourishment rich in Dostoyevsky et al. When the legendary and decrepit  Greenwich Village commune dissolved into gentrification in the 80s, the decrepit but infamous Brooklyn neighborhoods of  Greenpoint and Williamsburg became new havens for starving artists.

Unfortunately for these latter day beatniks, the real estate market (as NYC’s need for more housing and more affluent residents increased), is also viewing such neighborhoods as Greenpoint and Williamsburg as attractive places to starve for people who could afford to richly starve.......