Yesterday lame-duck mayor proposed plans for the long barren tract south of Delancey Street. Bloomberg envisioned over 1000 multi-class housing units, office space, a refurnished Essex Market, a cineplex, and New York City’s very own Andy Warhol Museum.

The tenements along the broad thoroughfare to the Williamsburg Bridge had been demolished by city planners in the 60s, however the city’s near-bankruptcy prevented development for decades. The Lower East Side was a DMZ throughout the 70s and 80s. The gentrification of the East Village in the 90s forced artists below Houston into the old Puerto Rican and Dominican barrios. Shooting galleries were replaced by art galleries and derelict blocks were renovated for pricey hotels and trendy bars. Bloomberg and his cohorts are eager to turn this city-owned area into another bright spot of ethnic cleansing in Manhattan with the promise of jobs, jobs, jobs.

It is all a lie, then again rich people are good at promises.

Bill DeBlasio the current front-runner in the mayoral race has criticized the ethnic cleansing of the poor and middle-class from Manhattan.

The rich don’t need to live on the Lower East Side.

They have the Upper East Side.

All of the Essex Crossing housing for the 99% will be a battleground and the best way to preserve the Lower East Side would be the opening of the William Burroughs Museum.

The beat writer popularized heroin for hundreds of thousands of suburban youth and during the 60s and 70s, the blocks of Lausida were hot with drug trafficking controlled by Little Italy.

Junkies.

Their presence protected us from the rich.

Their absence opens the door to ‘them’ and truthfully they ain’t fun unless they are spending.