Cover story: "Upscaling Downtown"

Richard E. Ocejo is assistant professor of sociology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY. He is the editor of Ethnography and the City: Readings on Doing Urban Fieldwork.

His new book is Upscaling Downtown: From Bowery Saloons to Cocktail Bars in New York City.

Here Ocejo explains the connection of the book's cover to the pages within:

I have tried for years to distance myself from being the “bar scholar.” It is easy to get labeled in academia (my friend Colin is the “pigeon guy”), and bars, as unserious places, do not say “respectable.” “I study neighborhoods and communities through the lens of bars,” or “I focus on the social environment surrounding bars,” I would always say. So when Princeton asked me for my thoughts on the cover, I of course asked them to avoid images of the inside of bars or nightlife scenes. But when I saw the cover they came up with many months later, my first reaction was not, “Oh no, a bar scene!” It was, “Wow, they got it.”

Taken from inside Schiller’s Liquor Bar on the Lower East Side, the photograph shows a series of hip-looking couples and singles sitting on stools. But the cover goes beyond this common depiction. The press’s art department gave it an indigo shade with a collection of transparent yellow circles. The effects cast a dreamy as well as dark mood on what is normally a happening place in a happening part of town. The cover gives the blurry feeling of intoxication, as well as distance. You could be in the bar, soaking in the vibrant atmosphere, or outside on the sidewalk, peering through a rainy window.

These ideas of either being a part of or apart from the action in a popular downtown nightlife scene—and how people on these two sides conflict—are central to my book. New bars catering to visitors in gentrified neighborhoods have caused significant unrest among their existing residents, who see them as symbols of loss. For new bar owners and young revelers, these bars are contributors to community, and symbols of vitality. The alluring scene on the cover instantly draws readers in, but a closer look shows this key tension. I now admit that the book is about bars, but only as a way to get people in.

Learn more about Upscaling Downtown at the Princeton University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Upscaling Downtown.

--Marshal Zeringue