Bowery branding

New York Magazine ran a story recently on the redevelopment of the Bowery — all the new luxe hotels or whatever. They had a writer spend one night in an SRO, and the next night at one of said luxe hotels. At the SRO, he encounters a guy named Paulie, who is sweeping up:

This isn’t just redevelopment as usual, Paulie says as he sweeps. That’s because the Bowery isn’t just any neighborhood. “It is like 42nd Street. Like Harlem. Names that mean something. Those places you don’t just rebuild. You’ve got to rebrand them. The Bowery is being rebranded.”

I’m amused that even the guy who sweeps up at a Bowery fleabag is comfortable with “rebranding” as a concept.

I was also amused by the story’s subhead, which refers to the Bowery as “America’s greatest skid row.” I think I missed the issue of Conde Nast Traveller where they ranked all the “skid rows.”