Urban Hellhole Blogging

The more interesting than parking (impossible I know) bit of the earlier article about the Italian (aka 9th St.) Market is whether retail gentrification will alter the character of the place which, as I understand it, has from the beginning been a fairly low end market area catering to poor immigrants. There are some higher end specialty shops mixed in a bit, and the various butchers have good if not top quality meats, but overall it's more of a lower priced retail corridor. Locally, the demographics are a mix of older Italian- and African-American populations, along with yuppies, hipsters, and newer Mexican and Vietnamese immigrant populations.