38. The New Urban Bohemia: Artists and Neighborhood Redevelopment in Lawrenceville Pittsburgh.

The urban bohemian community constitutes a countercultural phenomenon that accompanied the rise of industrial society. Since the first such community emerged in nineteenth century Paris, new generations of urban artistic strivers have created variations on the original bohemian prototype. This paper draws on a case study of Lawrenceville Pittsburgh to examine the contemporary manifestation of urban bohemia. Like bohemian communities described in previous studies, Lawrenceville's bohemia is an urban cultural enclave formed by struggling artists and artisans dedicated to free aesthetic production, personal liberation, and cheap yet aesthetically stimulating urban living. Lawrenceville, however, is devoid of the intense antagonism between bohemians and bourgeois that has been a virtual trademark of previous bohemias (e.g., the East Village bohemians of the 80's used the phrase "Die Yuppie Scum"). Instead, Lawrenceville artists work in partnership with hip yuppies and other urban bourgois to promote neighborhood redevelopment, and attend common artistic and social events (e.g., parties at local art galleries and a hip local bar). This finding is consistent with Richard Florida's (2002) controversial claim that in the postindustrial city, relations between bohemians and other hip urban residents tends to be non-adversarial as well as beneficial to urban economic development. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]