I'm put in mind of South Street Seaport in New York. When it was
a bunch of derelict warehouses and shops, interspersed with a
few 'dives,' 'joints,' and locally-famous restaurants together
with the Fulton Fish Market, it was a very welcoming venue to
traditional musicians. Well, it wasn't so much welcoming as
there just wasn't much competition.

Now that it's a tourist trap and shopping center, what we
would call 'legitimate' music of a historical nature has been
pushed into the corners just as much has the 'South Street Seaport
Museum' which was envisioned by the optimists as the center-piece
of the revitalized area.

The truth is, the re-developers have a different agenda, and it
hasn't much to do with history. Oh, if there's something charming,
like swashbuckling pirates (or as in the American West, cowboys
and outlaws) they'll use it.

But the reality of 'sailortown' isn't something with which they
really want to be associated or remember. I believe they underestimate
the public, thinking they'll be put off by the reality of the
Jack Tars, Maggie Mays, the crimps, and madames. Jack wouldn't
have bought Maggie a gown at Versace, nor a meal at the food
court.

But then again, perhaps they shouldn't commercialize Jack and
Maggie and Jimmy the crimp. Nor all of the poverty, pain, and
pure survival that came in between.

It's not an easy question, what happens or should happen when
they 'pave Paradise street and put up a parking lot.'