Retail Bed Bugs Might Be NYC's Only Recourse Against Gentrification

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Now that the Year of Bed Bugs is behind us, it's time to reflect on what it all meant. A new N+1 essay by Elizabeth Gumport argues that when we talk about bed bugs, we're really talking about class. "Bed bug sightings are like kidnappings: rich, white victims get more attention," she writes, which is why infestations like the ones at Hollister got so much press. But bed bugs also represent the old, grimy New York taking revenge against the forces of social change:

Bedbugs proved that while the poor could be priced out of Manhattan, the rich could not cut themselves off from the rest of the city entirely. If the sunblock on a shirtless young man’s nose was the ointment, bedbugs were the flies.

And if bed bugs and anti-gentrification activists were somehow able to work together, all of Bleecker Street would be a lot itchier.
· For Bed Bugs, 2010 Was a Very, Very Good Year [Racked NY]
· Bugs [N+1]