Relocated
After years of habitation in New York "fucking" City, I have been forced to move. I am not alone in my exile, many of those who grew up and went to school with me have also been forced out of the city limits they called home. Now keep in mind when I say New York City, I mean Manhattan, don't go all 5 borough postal on me, just understand that if it was all NYC then your mailing addresses would say NYC, not Queens, NY not Brooklyn, NY...etc. Its a Manhattan mentality I apologize its just the way it is, ask anyone born and raised on the island, they'll tell you.
My home, my city, my neighborhood, its all just gotten too fucking expensive for those who aren't standing in front of some trust fund or inheritance. 650,000 dollars for a shitty one bedroom above 116th street, are you kidding me? My mother, god bless her, has a three bedroom on the upper west side with a terrace for less then seven hundred dollars a month! Rent control, the curse of the upper class, oh how nice things would be if we could just displace all of those who can't afford a nice dinner at Sparks or Nobu when they so please.
Growing up in my neighborhood I could count the different colors to the tops of crack vials,
"Look mommy a green one! I haven't seen a green one before!"
Now I can count the different colors of the Bugaboo baby strollers pushed by Yoga mom's and Jamaican nannies as they walk to the park that used to be too dangerous to enter after dark. Decrepit old buildings have been dozed and new condo's stand proud and gaudy in their place, exhibiting their noveau riche with their shiny lobbies and starched doormen. The real rich, the Manhattan rich would NEVER live in a new building, no matter who built it, its all about prewar, with the molding and latticework. The Manhattan rich look down on these transplants as much as those who have been deported to the outskirts of the 4 other boroughs and Jersey do.
I can't score weed a bodegas anymore, they've all been replaced by "gourmet markets." I can't find an apartment for less then a thousand dollars a month that's worth stepping foot in. (Now don't tell me to take a room mate, that might be your solution, but I'm crazy, and I pity the poor fool who would even think that living with a bi-polar would be any sort of life.) The more the city "improves" the less it feels like home. I hate starbucks, well, I like their desserty type drinks but for muddy coffee I have to patronize the guys in the delis who sell it for a dollar in those "thank you for your business" blue cups with the Greek statues on the sides. I hate the fact that every third store is now a starbucks, a Duane Reade/CVS or a bank, New York has lost its diversity. Don't give me that shit about multi cultural oneness, and raising children together crap. I don't buy it. I was raised in it and look what it has done. We must all hold on to our individuality and culture, I can appreciate Kwanza or Ramadan, but I won't celebrate it. Why? Because PC bullshit has destroyed my home! I want the squeegee men back, bring in the panhandlers, bus back the poor and welfare needy. Scare the fucking Westchester/New Jersey/Long Island rich back to the white communities they grew up in. You want to experience the big city, then fucking experience it, don't change it to suit your needs, then its not the city that attracted you in the first place.
It has to stop before my home is simply another suburb with big buildings and the occasional housing project. How depressing.
My home, my city, my neighborhood, its all just gotten too fucking expensive for those who aren't standing in front of some trust fund or inheritance. 650,000 dollars for a shitty one bedroom above 116th street, are you kidding me? My mother, god bless her, has a three bedroom on the upper west side with a terrace for less then seven hundred dollars a month! Rent control, the curse of the upper class, oh how nice things would be if we could just displace all of those who can't afford a nice dinner at Sparks or Nobu when they so please.
Growing up in my neighborhood I could count the different colors to the tops of crack vials,
"Look mommy a green one! I haven't seen a green one before!"
Now I can count the different colors of the Bugaboo baby strollers pushed by Yoga mom's and Jamaican nannies as they walk to the park that used to be too dangerous to enter after dark. Decrepit old buildings have been dozed and new condo's stand proud and gaudy in their place, exhibiting their noveau riche with their shiny lobbies and starched doormen. The real rich, the Manhattan rich would NEVER live in a new building, no matter who built it, its all about prewar, with the molding and latticework. The Manhattan rich look down on these transplants as much as those who have been deported to the outskirts of the 4 other boroughs and Jersey do.
I can't score weed a bodegas anymore, they've all been replaced by "gourmet markets." I can't find an apartment for less then a thousand dollars a month that's worth stepping foot in. (Now don't tell me to take a room mate, that might be your solution, but I'm crazy, and I pity the poor fool who would even think that living with a bi-polar would be any sort of life.) The more the city "improves" the less it feels like home. I hate starbucks, well, I like their desserty type drinks but for muddy coffee I have to patronize the guys in the delis who sell it for a dollar in those "thank you for your business" blue cups with the Greek statues on the sides. I hate the fact that every third store is now a starbucks, a Duane Reade/CVS or a bank, New York has lost its diversity. Don't give me that shit about multi cultural oneness, and raising children together crap. I don't buy it. I was raised in it and look what it has done. We must all hold on to our individuality and culture, I can appreciate Kwanza or Ramadan, but I won't celebrate it. Why? Because PC bullshit has destroyed my home! I want the squeegee men back, bring in the panhandlers, bus back the poor and welfare needy. Scare the fucking Westchester/New Jersey/Long Island rich back to the white communities they grew up in. You want to experience the big city, then fucking experience it, don't change it to suit your needs, then its not the city that attracted you in the first place.
It has to stop before my home is simply another suburb with big buildings and the occasional housing project. How depressing.
posted by selling my soul at 11:07 AM
4 Comments:
To a smaller degree, Seattle is becoming the same way.. every corner is a new condo going up blocking the most recent finished condo's view.. and of course, another Starbucks.. for we are its homeland. God forbid one corner go w/out. My favorite spot on the west coast is the Hawthorne district in Portland, OR. Quirky, one of a kind, pubs, shops, a movie theatre that shows 2nd run movies for $3 w/ a pub attached and you can eat and watch your movie.. love that.. and no sales tax. But my home is less than $400 a month w/ my roomies.. so for now, I'm ok. Hang in there chica!
so what is the problem? YOu like the "diverse poor" and drug dealers, perhaps it makes you feel superior? But you don't like kwanza and Ramadan, because it reminds you of the fact that the poor lowlives have a life outside of your comprehension and you do not want to humanise them by accepting it. You worship the "manhattan rich" but don't like people who made it in your own life time, because that reminds you of your own failure?
I am a non white immigrant and I am tired of PC either. I have that MBA, I have that expensive apartment and I am tired of the PC whites that report to me - stroking their patronising egos, getting the job done and pretending to be the sweet and earnest "good" immigrant. Fuck that!
You are completely misunderstanding my point. I understand that the poor have theri own way, and how pompus of you to assume that I myseld was not raised poor sipmly because I am not a minority. I am someone who was raised in a twisted ethic that told us to stop seeing color and differences, this is what I disagree with it was the differences that kept everything interesting. I do not worship the "manhattan rich" I am simply stating that they were here before everything was clean and shiny. Open your eyes and read without creating your own conclusions!
amen to that - ditto London. i can't even think about buying a crack den in the east end 'cos they're all due to turn into starbucks too.
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