My City, Then and Now
As a native New Yorker, how do I feel about the gentrifying of the city? I certainly don’t miss the really bad old days. Big kids in Central Park tried to steal a sled from my older brother and me in about 1960 or 1961; that is my first memory of consciously confronting the New York outside our Upper East Side cocoon. The Park got more dangerous as the years went by, as did the streets. We all remember the crack epidemic years when any parked car got its windows broken, and every phone booth (at least in our neighborhood on the Upper West Side) encompassed a thriving business in crack vial transfers. I don’t think any of us would go back to that.
On the other hand, I do feel ambivalent about the blandification which seems to be overtaking much of the city now. Not just the ubiquitous presence of Chase banks, Duane Reades, and Starbucks, but more the accompanying gradual disappearance of thriving small businesses which simply could no longer pay the escalating rents. I knew our neighborhood was changing forever when a bar/nightclub opened on Columbus a number of years back and there was a velvet rope. By that time, no meat was being packed in the Meatpacking District, and the owners of the empty lot next to my sister-in-law’s loft on Crosby Street had begun construction on the Crosby Street Hotel, banishing forever the hookers who brought johns there for some quick fun. And the Bowery? Condos and hip restaurants – not a wino in sight.
Of course this is all good for my business and in a way it is good for the city as well. You can walk just about anywhere, just about any time. Central Park is the jewel in the city’s crown and an enormous tourist attraction, not the grim and failing mess it was during my teen and young adult years. But something is lost as well. I always disliked Times Square, but I find that now I dislike it more than ever. It still feels anonymous and creepy to me, but now it’s dressed in shiny new clothes, just like Columbus Avenue is in my neighborhood. No bakery making wonderful Danishes with prune or poppy filling. No linoleum store or carpet warehouse. No slightly grungy Chinese restaurant (though we do have a snappy new crepe place!) It all feels a bit…sanitized.
The arts continue to thrive in the city, at least for now, but as the artists are pushed further and further from Manhattan, who knows where the scene will land next? We continue to have a wonderful mash-up of cultures, especially in Queens, where I hope rising prices don’t impede the immigrant populations with big dreams. And as New Yorkers we remain extremely proud of our city. I admire and applaud all the work that has been done to make the city safe, clean, and welcoming. At the same time I hope that our neighborhoods retain their individual characters, their reasonably priced local restaurants, and their innumerable small businesses on which families are raised, dreams are built, and new generations from all over the world become Americans.