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# There goes the neighbourhood...
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/19134/
- Published: 2006-10-19T14:10:11.000Z
- Updated: 2019-02-14T22:35:25.000Z
- Author: openDemocracy Supporters
- Tags: #en, #Migrated, #Import 2026-04-09 18:23

**by Kanishk Tharoor**  

The largest real estate [deal](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/18/nyregion/18stuyvesant.html?em&ex=1161403200&en=926d9a54503b0b96&ei=5087%0A&ref=opendemocracy.net) in American history was agreed this week when Met Life sold its stretch of rent-controlled housing in lower New York City for $5.4 billion. Built for returning WWII-vets, [Stuvyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village](http://www.pcvst.com/home.asp?ref=opendemocracy.net) remained for the rest of the century as one of Manhattan's lower-middle/middle class redoubts. But as property prices in the city continue to skyrocket, their demise - however improbable before - became inevitable. As lamented [previously](http://hisexcellencymyth.blogspot.com/2006/10/city-that-never-sleeps.html?ref=opendemocracy.net), the eradication of socio-economic diversity in NYC threatens to convert a once lively, bubbling world city into a vaccuous playground for the denizens of finance.