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Yeah lets move on from wal-mart. Regarding NYC and culture, I think people confuse poverty/crime with NYC culture..and the two have nothing to do with eachother. Now that NYC is getting cleaned up, crime is down, people are able to thrive, communities are able to grow and heal, and entire swaths of the city are being recultivated and able to showcase their culture/history to a wide variety of locals and tourists. Whereas large areas of the city were off limits, now they are integrating back into the city and are providing large cultural links that were missing due to extreme violence and poverty.
I remember when Guliani cleaned up Tompkin's Square Park. There were tons of homelss living in there. I lived one block away and NEVER went in or through that park. It was totally gross. Feces, needles, garbage, you name it, all over the place. There was such a pushback from parts of the community who felt it was wrong to displace those people. But it happened and now that park is a vibrant neighborhood place where dogs exercise, kids play, men play chess and basketball. That is the culture of the neighborhood now.
I remember when Guliani cleaned up Tompkin's Square Park. There were tons of homelss living in there. I lived one block away and NEVER went in or through that park. It was totally gross. Feces, needles, garbage, you name it, all over the place. There was such a pushback from parts of the community who felt it was wrong to displace those people. But it happened and now that park is a vibrant neighborhood place where dogs exercise, kids play, men play chess and basketball. That is the culture of the neighborhood now.
True. I remember back in the eighties when Brytant Park was the same way if not worse, now they are holding concerts for teeny boppers down there... If it comes down to safety/lack of crime versus abundant "culture" , most will pick safety. The real question is can we have both? I currently live in DUMBO and for someone like me it's boring and the hipster seems "fake" and contrived to me . But I'm from a rought part of Brooklyn and I do appreciate that it is SAFE. So if I had to pick between cookie cutter condos versus crime\"edgyness\culture , I gotta say I 'll reluctantly take condos. If I had a wife and young kids to worry about , it wouldn't even be a tough decision.
I think the real problem isn't crime/culture. I think the real issue is culture itself; how we see culture vs. how it gets portrayed in the media. New York City never really "lost" its culture. What happened was that culture wound up playing second fiddle to crime.
I am not one of the people who equates crime and edginess with culture by any stretch of the imagination. Much of what I have seen is a loss of things that are uniquely New York and a progression towards a culture that is more generalized than a distinctive New York feel, not an edge or anything like that, since New York was not as enjoyable with clear and present danger in some of its neighborhoods. The same argument of crime and despair equaling culture is not something that I am speaking to, nor do most people I know who feel similarly that the uniqueness of New York is overshadowed and diminished in some cases, without assessing blame since I am all for better housing and more options for people throughout the city.
Well said Fred...crime became rampant but cultured suffered, it did not just take the backseat. As a result of the overwhelming crime and drugs of the recent past, many groups lost their culture (or were stripped of it) and are nothing more than shadows of their formers selves, as are their communities. It is only now that these communites are safe (or safer) that they are able to put the pieces back together and regain what was lost, and strengthen what remains...and culture is back to the forefront of the city....in every community. BMW...please explain the progression towards something that is more generalized versus a more distinctive NY feel. Besides chains that are moving in (which was inevitable, and I believe adds to the diversity of choices), how is NY becoming less NY exactly?
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