There is a point, walking east on any block in the East Village, where the gentrification ends. That is, in all my wandering these last two weeks, I never discovered a street where the yuppies had made it all the way to Avenue D. On some blocks, they had come close- five or ten buildings were all that remained of the old Alphabet City. Still- I found a certain grim satisfaction in charting the high water mark- "that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back." Most likely, five years from now, the projects will be filled with Columbia graduates, and all the bodegas will be selling fresh sushi. But not now. [Related: all the pictures from the East Village series in higher resolution.] [Bluejake]

beautiful.