A writer in The Atlantic, wrote this about gentrification : 

> 
> Gentrification has rendered Lower Manhattan, Harlem, and much of Brooklyn unrecognizable to the previous generations that called those neighborhoods home. The East Village of Jonathan Larson’s Rent is nonexistent, **lettered avenues notwithstanding**. 
> 
> 
> 

*Source: [The Role of the Artist in the Age of Trump](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/12/lin-manuel-miranda-what-art-can-do/600787/) by Lin-Manuel Miranda*

I'm not sure of the meaning of "lettered avenues notwithstanding".