Gentrification

[patrick1]

I don't like it on many levels, but I really can't express this well because it hits me on an emotional level. For me it has just destroyed the character of many neighborhoods, from the people to the businesses. Being from somewhere used to mean something, there was identity.  Now I feel like I'm surrounded by a city of tourists who just happen to live here.  Large chunks of Manhattan were always like this. However, now neighborhood by neighborhood are being swallowed up by the white urban professional, who all just seem the same to me despite their earnest attempts to be different. Tight knit neighborhoods with people with shared experiences are going away.

[patrick1]

I prefaced my comments by saying my feelings are informed by emotion and yeah some sentimentality. Taking a more dispassionate view, there are many benefits to the influx of a highly educated group of young people from around the country. However, if I must, I will give voice and give a defense of some parochialism. Neighborhoods should be more than reasonable rents, trendy restaurants and good access to mass transit. Many people are tied to the areas where they grew up, went to school, went to church, had their first kiss, raised families etc.  So many have been priced out now and the dominoes of the wholesale neighborhood change have been falling one by one.  That is it for now, Im off to the new Tibetan-Polynesian fusion joint and Im a bit tuckered out from  long day of brunching..

[patrick1]

I prefaced my comments by saying my feelings are informed by emotion and yeah some sentimentality. Taking a more dispassionate view, there are many benefits to the influx of a highly educated group of young people from around the country. However, if I must, I will give voice and give a defense of some parochialism. Neighborhoods should be more than reasonable rents, trendy restaurants and good access to mass transit. Many people are tied to the areas where they grew up, went to school, went to church, had their first kiss, raised families etc.  So many have been priced out now and the dominoes of the wholesale neighborhood change have been falling one by one.  That is it for now, Im off to the new Tibetan-Polynesian fusion joint and Im a bit tuckered out from  long day of brunching..

I think a lot of what it is is that I have a special sympathy with the nomads, the immigrants, the newcomers of all sorts, who haven't yet been able to put down roots, or who for whatever reason feel they need to escape their hometown instead, find opportunity elsewhere, etc.  I understand and– yes, really– can feel the pull of neighborhood, but I think the young and unrooted (of all creeds, colors, and classes) get a raw deal from all sides and I want to in particular stick up for them.  Don't think there isn't some sentimentality on this end, too.

I could go deeper than that– perhaps after sleeping on it I will– but it was crappy of me to call you out specifically and with that in mind maybe it would be best to save that rant for a different occasion.  I've been on edge a bit lately and I think it's seeping into my posts here.  Sorry.

 I have no problem and like the fact that there are people from all over the world and country. This is what makes New York, New York. Neighborhood changes and transitions from ethnic group to ethnic group have always happened.  Dynamism is important. However, what I am not too keen on is that policy has seemed to favor a different and complete upheaval that has favored a certain class. We kept the working poor warehoused for generations in our cities and are now sitting by as people are uprooted.  I'd just like to see more equitable development.

 I further recognize that I'm caricaturing people and in a sarcastic manner. Many, if no most of co-workers and subordinates  are all of the class I described:  young, largely white, highly educated.  These are people who bring great skills to bear for the city and state into the future, if they stay here...  What I would like to see is the same young people raised here and who went through many a failing school are afforded at least an opportunity to live here.