The Gentrification of Access: How Membership Clubs Killed the Soul of New York City

PS: Yes, I know the pic is not the right location ;)

There was a time when the most important velvet rope in New York City did not require a background check to cross. It only required nerve.

I am talking about the era of the original Cipriani Downtown.

It was chaotic. It was loud. It was unapologetically expensive. But it was, in the most critical sense, public.

If you could secure a reservation, or if you simply had the audacity to walk in and charm the maitre d', you were in. You could be seated next to a supermodel, a hedge fund titan, or a broke artist who just sold a painting. The barrier to entry was social, not bureaucratic. It was a meritocracy of presence.

Today, that New York is dying. It is being replaced by a sanitized, stratified landscape of "Members Only" clubs. From Casa Cipriani to Zero Bond to the endless proliferation of Soho Houses, we have institutionalized the cool. We have turned the vibrant, dangerous, unpredictable social fabric of the city into a predictable, monthly subscription service.

And it is ruining the vibe.

The Death of the Public Living Room

Sociologists talk about "Third Places." These are the spaces that are not work and not home. They are the cafes, the bars, and the restaurants where community happens.

New York City was once the ultimate Third Place. Its magic lay in the collision. The friction between different classes, industries, and types of people created the energy that made the city famous.

The rise of the membership club model destroys this friction. It segregates us into silos of sameness.

When you walk into a membership club, you are not entering a mixing pot. You are entering a safe space for people who look exactly like you, earn exactly like you, and post exactly like you. We are trading the thrill of the unexpected for the comfort of the curated. We are paying thousands of dollars a year to ensure we never have to sit next to someone who isn't "vetted."

This is not luxury. It is fear. It is a retreat from the very thing that makes a city a city.

The Socialista Standard (And Why I Have No Photos)

To understand what we have lost, we have to talk about Socialista.

I am talking about the sanctuary upstairs at Cipriani. Those were, without hyperbole, some of the most electric nights of my life. The room vibrated. It felt like a secret that everyone was keeping together. It was intimate, decadent, and incredibly human.

And here is the ultimate proof of how good it was. I do not have a single photo from that era.

We didn't document the night because we were too busy living it. We were too busy talking, dancing, and soaking in the energy to pause and curate a story for people who weren't there.

That is the difference between a "vibe" and "content." A vibe is something you feel in your body. Content is something you capture for an audience.

Socialista was a vibe. The modern membership club is content.

Performative Leisure and the Instagram Trap

Why has this model exploded now? The answer lies in the psychology of social media.

We are no longer living our lives. We are performing them.

In the pre-digital era, you went to Cipriani or Socialista to see and be seen in the moment. Today, the value of an experience is largely derived from its digital proof.

Membership clubs thrive because they sell a scarce digital asset. The tag "at Casa Cipriani" signals status to your followers. It proves you have been accepted. It proves you can afford the fee. It proves you are part of the club.

This turns leisure into labor. We are not relaxing. We are managing our personal brands. The exclusivity is not about privacy. If it were about privacy, no one would tag the location. The exclusivity is the marketing.

We are trapped in a performative loop where we pay for access to rooms that are boring, just so we can post that we were there.

The End of the Meritocracy of Cool

The tragedy of the membership era is that it kills the "meritocracy of cool."

In the old New York, you couldn't buy your way into being a regular at the coolest spot. You had to have taste. You had to have style. You had to be interesting. The currency was personality.

Now, the currency is literally currency.

Coolness has been financialized. If you have the initiation fee and two letters of recommendation from other boring people, you are in. This fills these "exclusive" spaces with a homogeneous crowd of people who bought their status rather than earned it.

It creates a city that feels like a series of airport lounges. It is comfortable. It is clean. It is expensive. And it is completely devoid of soul.

The Bubble Will Burst

I believe this is a bubble.

Humans crave connection, not curation. We crave the messy, loud, unpredictable reality of life. We crave the "fab" moment that happens spontaneously, not the "perfect" moment that was engineered by a membership committee.

Eventually, the pendulum will swing back. We will get tired of the subscription model of friendship. We will get bored of the sterilized lounges.

We will long for the return of the public restaurant. We will want to go back to places where the door is open, where the crowd is mixed, and where the only membership requirement is knowing how to order a Bellini with style.

Until then, I will be the one sitting at the bar of a restaurant that lets anyone in. Because that is where the real New York is hiding.

Founder's FAQ

Q: Are all membership clubs bad? A: No. Clubs centered around a specific activity, like tennis or literature, make sense. The critique is aimed at "lifestyle" clubs where the only shared interest is status and the ability to pay the fee.

Q: Wasn't old New York exclusive too? A: Yes, but the barrier was different. It was often about "who you knew" or how you presented yourself. It was social, not contractual. You couldn't just fill out a form and pay a fee to be cool. You had to actually be cool.

Q: Why is having no photos a good thing? A: It is the ultimate indicator of "flow state." If you are reaching for your phone to capture the moment, you have stepped out of the moment. Having no photos means you were 100% present. That is the new luxury.