As a native New Yorker, prone to waxing nostalgic --- to put it mildly --– about the way things used to be, I sometimes forget that not everyone perceives the acceleration of change the same way I do. Sure, social media acts as a veritable echo chamber where the like-minded can console each other by reinforcing fiercely held opinions, but it’s prudent-albeit-depressing to remember that outside of one’s immediate circle of friends and confidants, not everyone sees the world the same way. Take a look at the political theater of the day if you need any indication of how that plays out. What seems perfectly reasonable to one group might seem uproariously unthinkable to another.
Over the weekend, I was walking north up my home stretch of University Place and stuck in a typical NYC scenario. I could not manage to escape the annoying conversation between a pair of my fellow pedestrians. They were right behind me at first, and then I paused to tie my shoe, unwittingly ending up right behind them, as they slowly ambled up the thoroughfare. Essentially, the male half of this presumably platonic couple was spinning a laboriously shaggy yarn about his travails in the perilous realm of online dating services, and loudly lamenting an especially bad date he’d suffered via the auspices of a website on which he’d neglected to update his profile. Given this gentleman’s pronounced penchant for emphatically expressed self-pity, I wasn’t especially surprised to learn of his botched romantic endeavors. I’d only endured two city blocks in the proximity of his company, and I was practically ready to garrote him.
Regardless, on the southeast corner of East 12th Street and University Place, he suddenly broke off from his ponderous narrative and looked up, literally gaping in awe at the rising condo tower on the northwestern corner. You might remember I first spoke of this development back on this post. “Hello!” he remarked, “that’s certainly new!”
You don’t have to be a neighborhood resident, downtown Manhattanite or even native New Yorker to resent the staggering proliferation of exclusive real estate development that has besieged this city as a whole in the past few years. Our cityscape has become swiftly complicated by spindly spires, sun-blocking monoliths and imperious towers with little-to-no regard for the heritage and/or architectural integrity of the neighborhoods in which they’ve been erected. And who can afford to live in these domains, where the condition of militantly uncompromising luxury is the watchword? Are the new occupants of these gleaming palaces going to be satisfied with procuring their coffee at the same unfussy delis as the rest of us, or should we just say our goodbyes to the local businesses now as plans to replace them with more congruous and aspirational ventures are tirelessly drawn up -- blithely ignoring the well-named “high-end blight” that has already engulfed so many such neighborhoods?
With the above paragraph already composing itself in my mind, I expected star-crossed Digital Romeo in front of me to sigh with resignation or allude to it being the former home of Bowlmor Lanes, Japonica, Stromboli Pizza or several other displaced ventures.
“What an amazing location for apartments!” he gushed.
People suck.
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