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Wow I feel as though you are talking about me since I am glad that we now have some of the upscale delis and I can buy soy milk, without leaving my neighborhood like I used to, and I also take someone out to lunch or dinner if they visit me if I don't have time to prepare it myself without going far from home.
I born in Harlem, raised partly in the Bronx and back to Harlem. I had the chance to get my first cheap apt in Harlem and continue to advance in my career and buy an buy an apt in a building that we all cooped and fixed up together at a time when hipsters weren't venturing uptown. This was not long ago 1990's. I feel sad that others won't have that opportunity in the neighborhoods like Harlem around the city.
Indie9: The title of your thread expresses so much what I used to feel because Harlem was my refuge from racism and classism downtown at work. Even though I am really light and white looking I am not white. Now it is different a lot of the old ones retired or moved on and the people my age and younger don't care about that old stuff.
When I would get off the subway at 125th and 145th there were a lot of challenges to deal with but racism and classism wasn't one of them. So I don't like going home and dealing with that also. But then again as someone pointed out I don't like going home dealing with that large criminal element that was there before either. So given a choice the hipsters are a lot easier to deal with on some levels. At first there was more tension in Harlem when things started to change, now they have settled down and people are working together.
I still don't like that some of the newer people only intend to stay for a short period and don't have the ties to the community that the rest of us have, and that the ones with the ties, cannot afford to rent in stabilized, or market rate apts, or to buy. I don't see this challenge ending or going away. I hope that there can be some solutions.
It sounds to me like you are doing the change in a better way than its been going on in Transplant Colonial outposts throughout the city.
I'm more selective of what "new" restaurants I patron. I like to patron the ones that are involved in the neighborhood. That have a crowd and following of natives and transplants.
I like soy milk too. Its just a tell tale sign of things to come when your local deli starts to carry it.
It sounds to me like you are doing the change in a better way than its been going on in Transplant Colonial outposts throughout the city.
I'm more selective of what "new" restaurants I patron. I like to patron the ones that are involved in the neighborhood. That have a crowd and following of natives and transplants.
I like soy milk too. Its just a tell tale sign of things to come when your local deli starts to carry it.
Well on the restaurant thing, I make a point of checking out their involvement in the community too. I know some of the owners in Harlem, old and new. I don't know if we are doing the change in a better way. I feel that all of us old residents have to continue to fight not to be left out. I feel that we have accomplished a lot though, but it still continues. We all have to keep the lines of communication open. I hope that other communities can actually do it a lot better than we have. That more housing is created for the working/middle class.
I hope that other communities can actually do it a lot better than we have. That more housing is created for the working/middle class.
That's pretty much what it essentailly boils down to. We've got to replace a shrinking pie with a larger one so that there are more slices available - not have people who've been in communities their whole lives fighting for leftovers.
Since it's NYC where there isn't a whole lot of land available - unless we examine some of jackson's proposals in other threads - then we must go vertical and if anything the developers in NYC have that down to an art. Now we have to find the proper mix between affordable and luxury housing so all constituents are accounted for.
Last edited by Moderate Guy; 11-20-2008 at 01:16 PM..
Reason: typo
That's pretty much what it essentailly boils down to. We've got to replace a shrinking pie waith a larger one so that there are more slices available - not have people who've been in communities their whole lives fighting for leftovers.
Since it's NYC where there isn't a whole lot of land available - unless we examine some of jackson's proposals in other threads - then we must go vertical and if anything the developers in NYC have that down to an art. Now we have to find the proper mix between affordable and luxury housing so all constituents are accounted for.
That's pretty much what it essentailly boils down to. We've got to replace a shrinking pie with a larger one so that there are more slices available - not have people who've been in communities their whole lives fighting for leftovers.
Since it's NYC where there isn't a whole lot of land available - unless we examine some of jackson's proposals in other threads - then we must go vertical and if anything the developers in NYC have that down to an art. Now we have to find the proper mix between affordable and luxury housing so all constituents are accounted for.
Bloomberg has taken us so far from that possibility. He's focused completely on the luxery housing and making the zoning possible and never came through with his false promises of fulfilling the quota of affordable housing.
Miles you can take em out!
Bloomberg has taken us so far from that possibility. He's focused completely on the luxery housing and making the zoning possible and never came through with his false promises of fulfilling the quota of affordable housing.
Miles you can take em out!
Thanks guys. But I could never live with myself if I became a politician. I know that there are good ones out there but too often self serving agendas replace what's best for society at large.
I do however like using the pen to influence change.
Indi I find it quite fascinating that your people watching selectively hones in on the FEW Hipsters in this city and their "rude behavior" yet you fail to mention the groups that actually make life miserable for 90% of the people in NYC, the low life thugs that are committing much of the crime, involved in gangs, holding entire communities hostage through violence and fear, and have essentially sucked down generations of kids/families into the abyss. But hey..let's concentrate on those "rude" hipsters....who the heck do they think they are trying to be all cool...they are the real problem here.
Hey Mister Hipster Dude
With your uber cool hipster-tude
Don't you know that I hate riding the A train too
Hey Mister Hipster Dude
Welcome to the neighborhood
Do you think that you could
Let down your defensive guard
Your hipster-than-thou stare
Your what-the-h***-am-I-doing-in-this-place glare
Long enough to open your eyes to see
That no matter how we all got here
We are all in this piece together
Hey Mister Hipster Dude
With your uber cool hipster-tude
Don't you know that being rude
Is never cool
That no one here on Sugar Hill cares about your
Cleverly ripped skinny black jeans your
Faded t-shirts with ironic slogans your
Fourteen carat gold nose ring your
Green-tinted Australian faux mohawk 'do
But you might want to think about
How much caffeine you imbibe at the cafe
With your crew
Because riding on a crowded A train with you
From 145th Street down to West 4th Street in the Village
Has become a trip to hell and back
Your edginess is palpable and
Your hipster eyes rip us all apart in vicious attack and
Hey Mister Hipster Dude
I would really like to say welcome to the 'hood
If you could just relax that awful uber cool
Disdainful, high school, pseudo-counter-cultural
Hipster-tude long enough to open your eyes and see
It's enough that gentrification and corporate greed
Have done enough to ruin our neighborhoods
It’s enough that your disdainful glare and
Your Village Voice snark
Spill out all over our sidewalks and
Block the entranceways of our corner bodegas
It’s enough
Enough
The old people wink and exchange subtle glances
As if to say
Well, you know young people nowadays
But I would love to sit next to you on the next A train one day and say
Hey Mister Hipster Dude
With your uber cool hipster-tude
Was someone rude with you when you moved into
The neighborhood
Or what?
I would love to extend a hand of welcome
I would love to extend a listening ear
To hear your story instead of your pronouncements of
What’s cool and what’s not
What’s in and what’s out
Who’s cool and who’s not
But that barrier you have erected
That wall you project here
That barbed wire fence
Prevents me from saying in words
Hey Mister Hipster Dude
Okay
Okay then
Welcome to the neighborhood
I hope in time it goes well with you
So instead
I will say it with my energy and my eyes and
Hope that one day when you begin to release the lies
You tell yourself about this neighborhood
This Harlem
You have transplanted yourself in
You will calm down, come back to your senses
Be peace and
Remember
That we are all in this piece
Together
--Indi9
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Hey Mister Hipster Dude
