Illustration by Abigail Smith

Two tall, trendy women marvel at luxury lofts at a happening intersection in Williamsburg, Brooklyn:

“This placed used to be a dump!” One of them trumpets her words into the surrounding winter air. “Nobody used to live here!” As I walk home on this 2003 afternoon, I hear these words reverberate across the sides of buildings, each return of her voice erasing me further from memory.

Who exactly was this Nobody?
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