Last year, class resentment in NYC consisted of the poors complaining about the excesses of the rich, while the rich paid no attention. But now the rich are forced to pretend to change. Slight progress!

Millionaire real estate brokers have suffered like everyone; the recession has stolen their very identity:

Sharon Baum, one of Corcoran's top-earning agents (she sold the $40 million Duke mansion on Fifth Avenue in 2006), has decided to get rid of her Rolls-Royce, a car she has made her trademark since 1996...
Ms. Baum made the Rolls a key part of her brand, even showing the car and its driver, Abdul Jaffeer, in the promotional page she included in every Corcoran folder she handed out to a prospective buyer.

Philosophical question: does she deserve credit for putting her Rolls in the garage purely for symbolic reasons, or does she deserve scorn for talking about doing so with an NYT reporter? (Your answer reveals how many rich friends you have!). At least she's smart enough not to leave the Upper East Side, where people still regard a Rolls as something to smile at:

They didn't look like they resented that passenger; they looked like the sighting had made their day, as if they'd spotted a rare and delightful bird in flight.

Pretty sure that didn't happen in one of those "it's the next Williamsburg!" neighborhoods. [NYT; Pic via TRD]