Armando Moritz-Chapelliquen argues that small business displacement is cultural displacement.
“What’s been interesting is how, going back to our discussion of community and culture, is that this all goes back to small businesses. Building that sense of collective identity. If you have one barbershop here and another across the street, and one shuts down, they don’t think “O man, that person was being harassed by their landlord,” perhaps they thought, “Well, that is less competition for me.” But perhaps this is becoming antiquated, where now the norm is that people understand if another gets displaced, well, that could soon be me too.”
“Small business displacement is really cultural displacement. Everybody talks about coming to the City, coming to New York, too see all the ‘things’ that are there. But what is that though? What is that ‘thing’ that you want to actually observe? Is it the Duane Reade on every corner?” – Armando Moritz-Chapelliquen
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Small Business, art Work