It's hard for me to badmouth Marc Jacobs, but this needs to be said. The West Village has become the ritzy part of town cluttered with upscale brunch spots, luxury shops, and the beatnik-turned-bourgeois. And it needs to be stopped.

That’s the reason for Mike Joyce's guerrilla-style campaign. After he saw two of his favorite restaurants close, he launched "More Jane Jacobs, less Marc Jacobs." It's supposedly a play on words, but it also appears to be a nod to the same-name activist and urban planner who lived in the neighborhood in the 1960s and is known for her writing on neighborhoods and inner-city workings. (A block of Hudson Street in the West Village was recently renamed Jane Jacobs Way in her honor.)

The campaign is nothing personal against the designer; it's a protest against the franchises that have moved in shutting down locally run businesses. And this sentiment is spreading through the neighborhood like an internet meme. The yellow postcards are popping up in store windows and café countertops. West Villagers want to rescue their home from the Starbucks, the Barnes & Nobles, the Ralph Laurens—and, of course, the string of Marc Jacobs stores that reign over Bleecker Street.

It's inexpensive, pro-bono work for a client that didn't hire him, but the grassroots campaign seems authentic for the 'hood (or what the 'hood used to be). We're all abuzz about web, but viral media can be as innocuous as a postcard, particularly if its message is strong to begin with.

Residents will have their Village back—even if Marc Jacobs has to take the fall.

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