Tensions
between Hippies and their Lower East Side Neighbors
Although the hippie
lifestyle was critical of the middle-class, the
counterculture was, nonetheless, largely middle-class.
Conversely, the Lower East Side was one of the
poorest working-class districts in the city. Hippies
viewed their lifestyles as connected to those of
their neighbors (the elderly, the poor and the
immigrant locals.) Differences between the two were
apparent and tensions common. Many locals viewed the
presence of hippies suspiciously. Puerto Rican
residents, who struggled against deteriorating
employment and housing conditions, were the least
conciliatory toward those who had given up middle-class
privilege, status and economic security for voluntary
poverty while the older white ethnics generally
disliked the newcomers as well.
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The book upon which this
web site is based,
Selling
the Lower East Side,
is available
directly through 
or order through 
Site design © 2000:
Kurt
Reymers and Dan
Webb.
(University at Buffalo, Department of
Sociology)
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