The Inexorable Slide into the Abyss of Elitism

Actually, these people are already there:

Say it ain’t SoHo.

A branch of the Sheraton hotel chain is coming to the trendy area South of Houston Street, and some of its residents aren’t happy.

The company has just broken ground at 66 Charlton St. to build the 20-story, 150-room, moderately priced Four Points by Sheraton SoHo Village, slated to open in 2006.

“What’s next, a Motel 6?” asked Jeremiah Immer, who’s lived in the once-gritty artist colony for 18 years. “It shouldn’t be too much longer until SoHo gets a mall.”

Restaurateur Keith McNally, whose celeb-studded Balthazar eatery helped usher in the “SoHo Chic” era in 1997, calls any chain opening below Houston Street “a depressing example of the suburbanization of downtown Manhattan.”