As the economies of production and trade have dwindled in Western cities, urban locales have had to capitalize on other opportunities for growth. Middle and upper class consumers are now sought after resources for cities and neighborhoods once supported by manufacturing. This article considers the role of local retail actors in shifting neighborhood identity towards luxury consumption. Important in this transformation is the process of theming by which business owners rely on cues from the neighborhood's identity and institutions, incorporate these cues into decisions for their own businesses, and thereby reify or change neighborhood identity. By tracing changes on shopping streets in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and Manhattan's Lower East Side, I show how retail theming interacts with neighborhood identity. Interviews with storeowners and archival retail data illuminate how choices made by entrepreneurs or coporations contribute to dramatic aesthetic changes on the street. As the neighborhood identities change, existing long–term residents and less wealthy visitors become excluded from the local shopping streets and lose ownership over neighborhoods.

中文翻译：

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购物街和社区身份：作为纽约象征性所有权的零售主题

随着西方城市的生产和贸易经济萎缩，城市地区不得不利用其他增长机会。中上层消费者现在正在寻求曾经由制造业支持的城市和社区的资源。本文考虑了当地零售业者在将社区身份转变为奢侈品消费方面的作用。在这种转变中，重要的是主题化过程，企业主通过这个过程依赖来自社区身份和机构的线索，将这些线索纳入他们自己企业的决策中，从而具体化或改变社区身份。通过追踪威廉斯堡、布鲁克林和曼哈顿下东区购物街的变化，我展示了零售主题如何与社区身份相互作用。对店主的采访和档案零售数据阐明了企业家或公司所做的选择如何促成街道上的戏剧性美学变化。随着社区身份的变化，现有的长期居民和不太富裕的游客被排除在当地的购物街之外，失去了对社区的所有权。