Comments on: The magic of this broken world, part I http://www.greatwhatsit.com/archives/2211 The daily organ of the Northeast Corridor Social Club Sat, 11 Feb 2012 04:32:57 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Bryan Waterman http://www.greatwhatsit.com/archives/2211#comment-54701 Bryan Waterman Mon, 24 Mar 2008 17:13:55 +0000 http://www.greatwhatsit.com/archives/2211#comment-54701 <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/fashion/23envy.html?_r=1&oref=slogin" rel="nofollow">Here's a relevant story from yesterday's paper.</a> And who exactly are these middle-class people who greet the news of financial downturns on Wall Street with, "Great! Now maybe we can get into Nobu without a four week wait!" Are these real people? Here’s a relevant story from yesterday’s paper. And who exactly are these middle-class people who greet the news of financial downturns on Wall Street with, “Great! Now maybe we can get into Nobu without a four week wait!” Are these real people?

]]> By: Bryan Waterman http://www.greatwhatsit.com/archives/2211#comment-54673 Bryan Waterman Fri, 21 Mar 2008 00:51:15 +0000 http://www.greatwhatsit.com/archives/2211#comment-54673 So from the morning I posted this until now -- especially after Scott's opening comment -- I've felt guilty for writing something that could be so easily misconstrued as pro-gentrification. While I was digging around looking up some of the addresses listed in Sante's Low-Life (as part of the post that follows this one) I fell down the rabbit hole of NYC's anti-gentrification blogs. Some of these blogs are really great, and most of them are written by people who love NYC history at least as much as I do. I find them to be so sad, though! Every post is about something that's closing or getting a face lift. Much of what's written is angry. I certainly can understand it, and if I'd moved to lower Manhattan in 1981 rather than 2001 I'd probably be just as angry, watching bars and restaurants and clubs close while banks and glass hi-rises take their place. Those kinds of changes piss me off too ... but perhaps it's the long view of the historian in me that hopes such changes are cyclical rather than moving inevitably toward perma-Disneyland. While I don't think it's realistic for things not to change over time, I do believe that historic preservation and some kind of security for affordable housing (maybe even for middle classes as well as for working families?) is worth fighting for. That said, I do have to keep pointing out that complaints about New York neighborhoods changing are as old as the city itself -- which should teach us *something*, right? I wanted to take away the lesson that there are still surprising things to be found, which I'd rather blog about than *just* posting about what's gone. Someday will someone be nostalgic and blogging furiously about the closing of <a href="http://www.bluecondonyc.com/" rel="nofollow">the big Blue behemoth</a> on the LES? I'm sure they will, and probably because it's so goddamn out of place. I hate that it caters to such a snotty income bracket now. Maybe someday it will become rundown and inhabited by squatters. Anyway, all of this is just to say that I think one really positive function these anti-gent blogs serve (in addition to prodding people to preservationist action) is archiving what's passing. In that vein, I've become really fond of <a href="http://vassifer.blogs.com/alexinnyc/" rel="nofollow">this blog</a>, especially its "Vanishing Downtown" category. Check it out. It's sad, and it's making me think hard about the tone I took as I kicked these posts off -- which is probably what set off Scotty -- but it's a really great record written by someone about my own age who lives a few blocks from where I work and who grew up in Manhattan. If you want to find more of the anti-gent blogs check out his blogroll. Here's <a href="http://vassifer.blogs.com/alexinnyc/2007/12/no-one-is-innoc.html" rel="nofollow">one post of his in particular</a> that I think more than meets me half way. At least I'd like to think so. (Hey -- I can count the number of times I've been in that Whole Foods on one hand! Shouldn't that earn me some anti-gent street cred??) So from the morning I posted this until now — especially after Scott’s opening comment — I’ve felt guilty for writing something that could be so easily misconstrued as pro-gentrification. While I was digging around looking up some of the addresses listed in Sante’s Low-Life (as part of the post that follows this one) I fell down the rabbit hole of NYC’s anti-gentrification blogs. Some of these blogs are really great, and most of them are written by people who love NYC history at least as much as I do. I find them to be so sad, though! Every post is about something that’s closing or getting a face lift. Much of what’s written is angry. I certainly can understand it, and if I’d moved to lower Manhattan in 1981 rather than 2001 I’d probably be just as angry, watching bars and restaurants and clubs close while banks and glass hi-rises take their place. Those kinds of changes piss me off too … but perhaps it’s the long view of the historian in me that hopes such changes are cyclical rather than moving inevitably toward perma-Disneyland. While I don’t think it’s realistic for things not to change over time, I do believe that historic preservation and some kind of security for affordable housing (maybe even for middle classes as well as for working families?) is worth fighting for.

That said, I do have to keep pointing out that complaints about New York neighborhoods changing are as old as the city itself — which should teach us *something*, right? I wanted to take away the lesson that there are still surprising things to be found, which I’d rather blog about than *just* posting about what’s gone. Someday will someone be nostalgic and blogging furiously about the closing of the big Blue behemoth on the LES? I’m sure they will, and probably because it’s so goddamn out of place. I hate that it caters to such a snotty income bracket now. Maybe someday it will become rundown and inhabited by squatters.

Anyway, all of this is just to say that I think one really positive function these anti-gent blogs serve (in addition to prodding people to preservationist action) is archiving what’s passing. In that vein, I’ve become really fond of this blog, especially its “Vanishing Downtown” category. Check it out. It’s sad, and it’s making me think hard about the tone I took as I kicked these posts off — which is probably what set off Scotty — but it’s a really great record written by someone about my own age who lives a few blocks from where I work and who grew up in Manhattan. If you want to find more of the anti-gent blogs check out his blogroll.

Here’s one post of his in particular that I think more than meets me half way. At least I’d like to think so. (Hey — I can count the number of times I’ve been in that Whole Foods on one hand! Shouldn’t that earn me some anti-gent street cred??)

]]> By: lane http://www.greatwhatsit.com/archives/2211#comment-54266 lane Tue, 04 Mar 2008 12:25:20 +0000 http://www.greatwhatsit.com/archives/2211#comment-54266 Courtesy of Writermama http://bp0.blogger.com/_0h5Y7Nreyfo/R8tmsL07fEI/AAAAAAAAAv0/U-zcGmcTtvE/s1600-h/FPgrater.JPG Courtesy of Writermama

http://bp0.blogger.com/_0h5Y7Nreyfo/R8tmsL07fEI/AAAAAAAAAv0/U-zcGmcTtvE/s1600-h/FPgrater.JPG

]]> By: Bryan Waterman http://www.greatwhatsit.com/archives/2211#comment-54261 Bryan Waterman Tue, 04 Mar 2008 02:02:42 +0000 http://www.greatwhatsit.com/archives/2211#comment-54261 Hey Tim -- Thanks for that tip. The comment was frozen in moderation for most of the day. I missed the review but will dig it up now. And Lane -- thanks for acknowledging the hard work, always nice to hear. I suppose it was hard work to install your own plumbing back in the squatter days, too. I'm of course drawn to the romance of the late 70s downtown, but feel somewhat relieved that i don't have junkies busting into my place to support their habits. We do have a guy on our street who until recently <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/nyregion/21bowery.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=homeless+box+bowery&st=nyt&oref=slogin" rel="nofollow">lived in a little homemade wooden box</a>. Hey Tim — Thanks for that tip. The comment was frozen in moderation for most of the day. I missed the review but will dig it up now.

And Lane — thanks for acknowledging the hard work, always nice to hear. I suppose it was hard work to install your own plumbing back in the squatter days, too. I’m of course drawn to the romance of the late 70s downtown, but feel somewhat relieved that i don’t have junkies busting into my place to support their habits.

We do have a guy on our street who until recently lived in a little homemade wooden box.

]]> By: lane http://www.greatwhatsit.com/archives/2211#comment-54258 lane Mon, 03 Mar 2008 23:26:04 +0000 http://www.greatwhatsit.com/archives/2211#comment-54258 dream on, life was never easy, and it never will be. and what you did to "get around" the housing deal looked like a helluva lot of work. ; - ) dream on, life was never easy, and it never will be.

and what you did to “get around” the housing deal looked like a helluva lot of work.

; – )

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