To Miss a Conceptualized Version of the Real

What is the real Berlin, or New York, or San Francisco, or any city. What differentiates the "real" ("echt" in German) from the not real, the gentrifying usurping hoardes? This is an existential question, right? I was talking to a 26 yr old German, working in a cafe (someplace not "real" in his estimation) and he was prattering on about how unreal Berlin is becoming. He was, as well, bemoaning the loss of a historical sense of the place. In the good ole days (apparently, about 5 years ago), people opened cafes or discos with a political purpose. Apparently now, they just open these places to make money. In the old days, there were no clean cafes in Kreuzberg (historically a far left, grungy, hard-core punk area in Berlin) where happy tourists sat sipping their cappuccinos. Now, he works in one such cafe. In the old days..............you know the rest. One of his greatest complaints revolved around the displacement ("Verdrängung") of his friends by folks with the gall to buy these apartments. These are the usurpers. I tried to explain to him that every generation of people in a city represent usurpers. I also challenged this notion of "real". His definition of "real" seemed limited to everything that lacked, predominantly, an economic purpose. You can open a club and make money, so long as the making of money is not the purpose and so long as the customers come there for the political reason for which you opened the club. Ditto for bars and cafes. I challenged this notion of real. I find it somewhat fatuous (don't worry, I didn't call him that to his face) to believe that we can artificially freeze the essence of a place in any particular time and call "that" the "real" x, y, or z place. Berlin has existed for 800 years or so. Therefore, what logic exists in saying that the real Berlin is that from 3-5 years ago, versus from 20 years ago, 65 years ago, etc? There is none. The real must, it seems, always encompass the present. What is today was not real for 5 years ago, but that's rather obvious. But 5 years ago cannot displace today for its realness. They are both "real" for their respective times. And that's what I tried to express to my young German friend.