"This is just a symptom of the empty prosperity of our times" . . .

[OneBlueSky]

Patti Smith, on the closing of CBGBs in NYC . . .

I found the phrase "the empty prosperity of our times" insightful . . . it takes an artist to sum up reality so concisely and so truthfully . . .

[Warpy]

1. Well, she's speaking for herself and her friends

because I don't know many people who feel prosperous now.

A lot of them feel pretty empty, though, overworked and overscheduled, little down time, and falling farther behind every year. Hope for the future has just about been crushed out of all of us.

[BurtWorm]

2. I doubt Patti Smith is feeling "prosperous" in the usual sense either.

I think she neatly summed up your point with her oxymoron.

[NYCGirl]

3. “It’s a symptom of the empty new prosperity of our city” is the quote

from the NY Times. She's speaking of the gentrification of the Bowery.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/16/arts/music/16cbgb.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin

But the housing boom is running out of steam.

http://www.curbed.com/archives/2006/10/16/claim_nyc_rental_market_is_cooling.php

[The2ndWheel]

4. Then why aren't we changing that?

We keep doing the same crap again and again, and making our kids do it earlier and earlier.

It's because we're trying to keep up, and that isn't possible, since you're always chasing whatever it is that you're trying to keep up with. Maybe it's time we gave up trying to keep up.