Hippies stayed because rents were cheap and the area felt unclaimed

Evidence

The hippies appeared “oblivious to their neighbors. They stayed because the rents were cheap and the Lower East Side didn’t seem to belong to anybody.” — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 1069

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Directly supports the reader’s core question for this book: the material condition (cheap rent, perceived no-ownership) that drew the avant-garde — evidence that the origin of culture density is economic vacancy plus perceived lawlessness.
• XREF: connects to: Slums offered low rents and integration that relocation would destroy. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 4001