(Photo: Daniel Maurer)
In Season 2 of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Lillian the landlord becomes obsessed with gentrification– even if she only recently added it to her vocabulary. “I miss the old days,” she tells Titus, “When the longest word I knew was friggin’Giuliani.”
Lillian is determined to keep East Dogmouth “weird and dangerous,” but there are endless signs of gentrification in the neighborhood, from the parade of joggers pushing strollers to the opening of East Dogmouth Art Space. Not only does the performance space have the audacity to offer an “open tables DJ night,” but its owners painted over a long-standing mural of Biggie Smalls. “Now how are we supposed to remember he’s dead?” whines Lillian as she marvels at the disconcertingly unblemished roll-down gate. “Twenty-four hours and not one graffito. What a disgrace.”