Despite the well-known trans presence in the neighbourhood, the design competition for the High Line specified that some "community objective[s]" were to place "controls on adult/nightclub uses" and the "preservation of historic/neighbourhood character." What counts as "character" here is certainly not trans: "adult" trans history—and anti-trans violence—are left behind as unmarketable relics.

I had this bookmarked on Twitter (Richard Florida posted it) to read, just got around to it today. It's an interesting take, particularly the part about the donation by the Diane von Furstenberg foundation acting as a mover for changing its corporate store's neighborhood.

More interestingly... why is some random Canadian queer paper writing about NYC's urban planning?

I think you’d be better off being working for four years as a plumber who had a wide range of interesting knowledge and training and then going to graduate school than being an underpaid and underutilized white-collar worker in a struggling think tank or community non-profit frustrated by the dysfunctions of your organization and by the drone-like quality of the work you’re assigned to do. Better off not just financially but intellectually.

I don't read Tim Burke's blog regularly anymore, but this entry caught my eye, and this paragraph particularly.

I'd even go so far as to strike out the "and then going to graduate school".

so true. this happens to me multiple times a day.