Dimes Square
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dimes Square is a so-called "microneighborhood"[1] of New York City, located between the Chinatown and Lower East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan. The exact perimeter and nature of the neighborhood is debated.
The term Dimes Square has become a metonym for a number of associated reactionary aesthetic movements centered in the area, particularly several events at Sovereign House and podcasts funded by Peter Thiel.[2][3] [failed verification] Media associated with the area include the podcast Red Scare, pirate radio station Montez Press Radio, and print newspaper The Drunken Canal.[4] An online Dimes zine named Byline was also established in 2023 by Gutes Guterman and Megan O'Sullivan [1][dead link].
The neighborhood's name, a play on "Times Square", refers to Dimes, a restaurant located at the intersection of Canal Street and Division Street on the Lower East Side. According to Marisa Meltzer of The New York Times, the nickname has transitioned from a term used "jokingly" to one used "semi-seriously".[5]
Ben Smith cited the neighborhood's emergence as a lockdown-flouting cultural hub during the COVID-19 pandemic in a 2021 New York Times piece.[4] In 2022, Times journalist Julia Yost identified the neighborhood and associated podcasters such as Dasha Nekrasova of Red Scare as the center of a post-ironic revival of traditionalist Catholicism in New York and among online intellectuals.[6] As the Covid-19 lockdowns receded and the neighborhood became more mainstream, the Dimes Square transgressive art movement digitized and enjoyed newfound infamy online.[7]