Frankenwords haunt the New York real estate and only the torch-wielding hordes of angry internet townsfolk can truly keep new ones at bay. We already have to suffer through neighborhood monstrosities like DoBro, SoHa and ProCro, and we worry about the influx of Bobos and Brobos. Here’s a new one the NY Post coined today we hope has a shorter lifespan than Trump’s Twitter hiatus: “Gentrilennials,” an unholy union of the nefarious forces of gentrification and the forever-maligned millennials, the boogey people of the everything. Gentrilennials are coming for you, Fourth Avenue!
The word was coined in the headline only, and in fairness to my former colleagues at the Post (hi guys!) it doesn’t appear in the actual story (nor does the word “millennial” or actually anything about people of a certain age flocking to the area). The story, by real estate reporter Zachary Kussin, is about the changes coming to Fourth Avenue, the unloved thoroughfare that has somehow long resisted both the wave of gentrification that consumed Fifth Avenue in Park Slope and the reclaimed industrial charm of Third Avenue in Gowanus. But now it’s seeing new residential development along with side street attractions like Dinosaur BBQ and Threes Brewing.
Millennials are hated enough, even if for perfectly nonsensical reasons (and occasionally real ones). Let’s not get buckled into the car with the word “gentrification” too, jeez. For what it’s worth, Fourth Ave. is desperately in need of some rebirth, from millennials or oldtrifiers or whatever. Though I will miss the abandoned KFC site where I saw people hold a wheelchair fight club one time. Let’s just hope this word goes the way of that KFC.