So I guess it's time to look for somewhere else."
Required: A Little Extra Green
Although those living in Manhattan would probably still think of the neighborhood as a bargain, by a more objective standard (and during a recession), the rents are certainly not conducive to anyone without a firm standing in the upper ranges of the middle class.
A 1000-foot apartment at Bedford and Third, for example, boasts "recent renovation" at $2,900 a month.
Whatever might be left over after rent might be spent at Antidote Chocolate. One particularly interesting aspect of the fact that this chain has moved into the neighborhood is that most of its stores reside in far-pricier and more established neighborhoods.
This suggests not only that people living in the neighborhood (or shopping there) are not only fairly well off but that, through such stores, they are becoming linked to the larger New York metropolitan area. This is an important aspect of gentrification, for homogenization is a part of the upscaling of any neighborhood, and one of the arguably more tragic aspects of it.
The chocolate store offers flavors including lavender and red salt, mango and juniper, almond and fennel, banana and cayenne, and ginger and gooseberry.
Surely these are the kinds of chocolates that the community residents want to be able to talk about eating more than they actually want to eat them? A couple of women in their mid-twenties holding hands and looking at the wares seemed to agree. One commented:
I'm looking for a present for my mom for mother's day. She loves chocolate. but, seriously, what could I get her here? This is not the kind of place that people who actually love chocolate shop. This where you shop to get one of the cool bags that you can then show off."
Transition is the Only Constant
Every neighborhood is in flux. No neighborhood, even the seemingly unchanging one that some of us remember growing up in, is ever static. The trees grow taller, and then die. The residents grow older, and then die. Buildings that were once well-tended begin to lean and then they too are killed off by a new generation coming in with different values and different goals.
In neighborhoods that are primarily residential, there may well be a certain consensus on the direction that these changes should take. Places where people live tend to be most precious and important to them. People are more concerned about their neighbors, and more eager to impose their own standards on those neighbors. This can be good, but is often not. (There are few organizations more pathologically controlling that Home Owners' Associations.) but there is also the fact that in residential neighborhoods there is often some sense of responsibility to one another. There may be little or no sharing of cups of flour over the picket fences, but there are people to turn to when things get dire. We may not know our neighbors the way that our grandparents did, but there are usually people that we feel a connection to.
This is much less true in a mixed neighborhood like the one...
In comments about the store, consumers again note price as an inhibitive factor when it comes to shopping at Millennium Health, again signifying that consumers are aware of and able to pay a premium for certain desired products and services, which pretty much paves the way for ongoing gentrification in the neighborhood if those tastes start expanding. There are also two prominent and always-busy independent eateries on this block of
NYC African Restaurants African Restaurants African Restaurants in NYC The restaurant's soft industrial lighting makes the chrome gleam. A soft and expansive backdrop of blue gives the space a cool and slightly futuristic industrial like a hip loft in the future. Exposed brick walls are tinged in a blue sheen and the distressed wood chairs and tables have been stained steel gray and have marble table tops. In three weeks, Cisse Elhadji, the
African Restaurant Revival New York is home to people from all over the world, and it is well-known that they often bring with them cuisine from their homelands. Foodies descend on food courts in subterranean malls in Queens, Russian bakeries in Brooklyn, and ethnic food trucks pretty much anywhere throughout the five boroughs. For being a cosmopolitan city with such cosmopolitan tastes, surprisingly little attention is paid to the diversity of
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