Neighborhood Invasion
Remember the scene in Sex and the City when Samantha goes ape-shit over Pottery Barn invading her chic downtown neighborhood? Yeah…well, I’m starting to understand how she really felt...When I first moved into my upper-UWS neighborhood, it was one of those New York City areas that was considered “up and coming.” To paint a picture for you, three years ago, I wouldn’t have dared to walk alone above 96th street after midnight. All of the mom-n-pop bodegas, dry cleaning shops and framing stores would have been shuttered and dark, and the hordes of hoodlums would come out to play in their drug-induced hallucinations. In other words, not a place for a little Midwestern gal to be out and about.
These days, I have no problem walking from 96th street to my apartment a few blocks North. I’m glad that I can feel perfectly safe in my ‘hood, however despite the positive changes, I now include myself in a group of New Yorkers that turn up their noses to neighborhood gentrification…after all, we have to draw the line somewhere.
It all began a couple of years ago when I noticed that a high-rise, luxe building was going in on a nearby corner. Nice building, I thought…but then there was another, and another. Up they went, kicking out one of my favorite newsstands, a fantastic bagel shop and my preferred market to buy fresh veggies and fruit. All thanks to Columbia University hoarding more land for it’s plot to take over the Trump Organization. The high-rise construction sites solidly dotted upper Broadway, then came the Bank of America branches (SIGH) and a Garden of Eden (GASP!)…it’s only a matter of time before Jamba Juice invades.
On the bright side of all of this, many new restaurants came to the neighborhood. Thankfully they weren’t Olive Garden’s or another McDonald’s. In fact, one new restaurant recently replaced the nasty and decrepit Chicken Fest on the corner by my apt (my roommate and I had bets going on how long it would last). Now we’ve still got fried chicken joint, but it’s a reviewed and recommended eatery according the New York Magazine.
So, the last couple of years have been a mix of love and hate over the recent changes, but my mixed feelings over gentrification stopped dead in its tracks a couple of months ago when I returned from my trip to London. I walked across the street to see “Coming Soon…AMERICAN APPAREL.”
That was effing it. American Apparel?! I mean, not only is it the first chain clothing store to join in on the invasion, but really…American Apparel?! A store like that belongs downtown with the coked-out NYU kids, not with the sweat pant-wearing, tenured professors and their dogs on the UWS. What’s next? BeBe?! Don’t get me wrong…I happen to love shopping, but there is already a full stretch of shops on Broadway just a few blocks south of 96th, not to mention some fantastic boutiques over on Amsterdam and Broadway.
My point is, I like my neighborhood’s character and the fact it is the one area of the city where it feels like an escape from the hustle and bustle. It’s still original. There are wider sidewalks and I can wear my crappy sweats to the Dag’ around the corner and not be chased out with sticks.
New York is and will always be an ever-changing city, but perhaps developers can try a little harder at making sure New York keeps some of it’s character. The last thing I want is for the UWS to go from being the "launch pad to the suburbs" to actually being…the suburbs.
posted by Lisa @ 11:50 AM
3 Comments:
i don't even know what that is
should i feel stupid
I live in a small town at the moment and get frustrated when they build stupid places. I wish they'd build some fun restaurants and a JCrew or something.
You are brilliant! Very nicely written... and well put.
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