Entrepreneurial Capital and the Rhetoric of Growth: Boutiques and Gentrification in New York City.

Since the 1970s, upscale restaurants, cafés, and stores have emerged as highly visible signs of gentrification in many urban areas. Taking Harlem and Williamsburg as field sites in New York City, we explore through data on changing composition of retail and services (1979-2006), interviews with store owners, and discursive analysis of print media the role of this type of commercial capital as an agent of urban change. We find that the media, city and state government, and quasi-public organizations (in the case of Harlem) have valued small upscale retail businesses, along with other forms of entrepreneurial capital, as symbols and agents of revitalization. This reinforces the official rhetoric of market-led growth. But the "boutiquing" of urban areas worsens problems of residential displacement, the lack of affordable housing in booming property markets, and maintaining neighborhood stability and diversity. Although boutiques don't cause gentrification, and may tap even into a neighborhood's social capital, they deprive low-income residents of means of support. Surprisingly, the "better world" envisioned in the annual meeting's call demands that we pay attention to urban shopping opportunities. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]