I Love New York
I think I write far too much about things that annoy me rather than things that actually have happened in my day. Mostly because I'm frustrated with the direction that New York City is going and I feel that a lot of the uniqueness that makes New York City itself is slowly being drained out. All the interesting people are leaving and being replaced with grown up frat boys and sorority girls who want to be Seinfeld or Friends or a myriad of other shows. I love New York so much and I don't think I could ever leave. My family is here and I would like to continue living here.
*Sigh* But everything is cyclical, yes? One day the construction will end and the financial markets will roll over and play dead and we may get some breathing room for the interesting things to start again.
My father has been working in Brooklyn at a stationary store for over 30 years. I think he is the longest running storekeeper in his neighborhood. I remember "helping" him work at the store during the weekends when I was 7. He has seen the transformation of the neighborhood from a predominantly Jewish neighborhood to a Caribbean neighborhood. He has been held up a gunpoint numerous times and witnessed his friend get shot in the chest by crazed druggie.
But out of all this, New York still holds that indefinable charm which keeps him here and working. He has his steady customers and his daily NY Post. Occassionally I go back to the store to help out during the weekends by watching the customers as many people steal - mostly kids take things and sometimes the parents help out by hiding the loot. But there are stories and these stories are slowly fading as are the neighborhood businesses. My father will probably retire next year and will bow out of his 30 year lease (Yes, they actually had 30 year leases back then).
The one good thing about gentrification is that the neighborhood is getting safer. The unspoken rule is that the less black a neighborhood gets, the safer it is. Crazy, huh? I wish it weren't that way but we have lived far too long in the city to not see the correlation. But I like the flavor of different cultures coming together and seeing poverty and wealth mashed up against each other rather than separated by a visible line.
Where will we be in the next 20 years? Will Manhattan be a fortress of wealthy white people being served by poor minority folk commuting in from the outer boroughs? It certainly is going down that direction right now. But perhaps the poor minority folk will no longer afford to live near New York and as the service in the City gets worse, the rich will be tempted to leave and go populate another city. I guess we will see.
*Sigh* But everything is cyclical, yes? One day the construction will end and the financial markets will roll over and play dead and we may get some breathing room for the interesting things to start again.
My father has been working in Brooklyn at a stationary store for over 30 years. I think he is the longest running storekeeper in his neighborhood. I remember "helping" him work at the store during the weekends when I was 7. He has seen the transformation of the neighborhood from a predominantly Jewish neighborhood to a Caribbean neighborhood. He has been held up a gunpoint numerous times and witnessed his friend get shot in the chest by crazed druggie.
But out of all this, New York still holds that indefinable charm which keeps him here and working. He has his steady customers and his daily NY Post. Occassionally I go back to the store to help out during the weekends by watching the customers as many people steal - mostly kids take things and sometimes the parents help out by hiding the loot. But there are stories and these stories are slowly fading as are the neighborhood businesses. My father will probably retire next year and will bow out of his 30 year lease (Yes, they actually had 30 year leases back then).
The one good thing about gentrification is that the neighborhood is getting safer. The unspoken rule is that the less black a neighborhood gets, the safer it is. Crazy, huh? I wish it weren't that way but we have lived far too long in the city to not see the correlation. But I like the flavor of different cultures coming together and seeing poverty and wealth mashed up against each other rather than separated by a visible line.
Where will we be in the next 20 years? Will Manhattan be a fortress of wealthy white people being served by poor minority folk commuting in from the outer boroughs? It certainly is going down that direction right now. But perhaps the poor minority folk will no longer afford to live near New York and as the service in the City gets worse, the rich will be tempted to leave and go populate another city. I guess we will see.
posted by Native New Yorker at 5:57 PM
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