Further Thoughts on the Death of the Gay Ghetto

I received an email from a city planning grad program alum email list that included a link to a Boston Globe article about the death of gay bars in Boston, and all of the social unraveling that is predicted to follow. The article says nothing new: an interest in urban redevelopment has raised property values and therefore taxes, effectively evicting gay bars and other LULUs (locally undesirable land uses). Plus, the Internet has reduced the importance of the gay bar as a "third place", a space outside of home and work where people can mix and mingle. The final factor is the greater general acceptance of queers in our culture, so people don't feel the same urge to self-segregate into gay ghettos that they used to.

I shared my thoughts on the potential death of the gay ghettos and gay spaces in a previous posting here on TNG, and this article provides a great opportunity to reopen the discussion.