East Village To Get Douchey

Not satisfied with having destroyed the entire Meatpacking District and much of Chelsea, Hell's Kitchen, and Midtown with their "high-end, velvet rope, bottle service, VIP banquette" nightlife douchebaggery, developers have now set their botoxed eyes on the East Village, Manhattan's last hopping bastion of relatively seedy, funky, underground coolness. Gothamist wails:

If you think the East Village is bad on weekend nights now, it could be about to get a whole lot worse. At least according to Ariel Palitz, who’s selling Sutra Lounge after nine years. "There’s an opportunity to change the culture and the makeup of the neighborhood from the underground nightlife experience to a high-end clientele." Really? The East Village nightlife has been "underground" for the past decade? Sadly it isn't just Palitz who believes the area is about to go BOOM. According to the Daily News, "In recent weeks, major nightclub operators associated with the Meatpacking District, SoHo and West Chelsea have been sniffing around the E. Houston corridor from the Bowery to Avenue A, where the weathered and fully licensed lower First Ave. properties Sutra Lounge and Lucky Cheng’s are prized commodities." People sniffing include operators from Pink Elephant, Greenhouse, Hudson Terrace, Acme, 1Oak and Electric Room.

At least we'll always have homo-hipster Nowhere and their $3 PBR. We hope.