The Devil came down to Soho: Not a homeless shelter, but a hotel and cafˇ
"I understand that many of the people present had lived in the neighborhood for yearsŃeven decadesŃand saw the hotel as one more agonizing sign of the area's appeal to obnoxious strangers 'standing outside, yakking on their cell phones at one in the morning,' as one woman put it. Of course, I happen to be one of the people they probably hate to see moving in. I work for an Internet company. I pay too much for a small studio. I eat at trendy restaurants. And since the hotelÕs restaurant will be run by the same people who started Indochine and Bond StreetŃum, yeah, itÕs likely IÕll be a patron, cell phone and all."
—New York Observer. Deirdre Shaw attends a public meeting about a new hotel going up on her street, expecting the angry, the blowhards, those who resist changeŃand getting a full dose. "They were a wild band of NIMBY vigilantes, the type of obnoxious white liberals who wear berets and ponytails and feel it's their duty to protest anything trendy, which they were above, or anything that makes money, which they were apparently also above."'
