We do things our way. Isn't it charming?

I've been thinking a lot about income equality on this trip, as on all trips. When you travel the disparity strikes you anew. 

Here in Australia, it seems much more egalitarian; but traveling has also taught me that I'm only seeing the surface. Still, it I think I can see some similarities and some differences.

Today Linda and I visited the Newtown area of Sydney. It struck me as slightly seedy, slightly glamorous, probably mostly hipster. So the question was, when does this Funky atmosphere become gentrified? Along the way we met a young man who exclaimed "It isn't the same Newtown! You should have seen it ten years ago!" Which is the cry of every long time resident of a gentrified area. 

The clerk at the bookstore told us that the majority of her business was tourists, which put a new light on the hordes of people on the sidewalks. Most of us were tourists. The bookstore was eloquently seedy, if that makes sense.

It reminded me of downtown Bend. We're maybe a little further along in the gentrification process; much of the funky has already been replaced by the upscale, but there is still a little of that. 

So tonight in the motel, I'm reading a book by Kim Stanley Robinson, "New York 2140," about a future drowned New York that nevertheless is still motivated by ruthless capitalism:

"...as with everything, the logistic curve rules; rate of profits drop as workers expect higher wages and benefits, and the local markets saturate... So at that point capital moves on...The people in the newly abandoned region are left to cope with their new rust belt status, abandoned as they are to fates ranging from touristic simulacrum to Chernobylic calm."

The words "touristic simulacrum" really leapt out at me. 

I was in a small indie bookstore in Wagga Wagga a couple of days ago and the woman was basically trying to create a store like mine in a downtown that was struggling and I was trying to tell her that she needed to make her store different and authentic. 

But, to be fair to her, that only works if you're in an area that has become a tourist attraction, such as the store we visited today...or to be completely honest...with my own store. 

In a sense, it's a performance, something to attract the tourists. It's charming and authentic that we don't have a point of sale computer; it's curation that we pick our own books; the books are arranged in an eccentric manner; and so on. 

In a sense, it's a "touristic simulacrum."

That's not putting it down. It's an adaptation to circumstance, it's fulfills a real need. But it's only possible and necessary when the proper ingredients come together.  

I was reading a review of a fancy New York restaurant in the NY Times and it struck me the same way. It wasn't really about the food, it was the performance, the act of doing it. 

I think it has to be intuitive to those of us that do it. It has to be, in a real sense, authentic.

We do things our way. Isn't it charming?