I’m in a New York state of mind tonight, missing the city. I was put there by an article by Gary Shteyngart in the New York Times magazine; not so much an article really as an autobiography told through a succession of New York storiesGoogling Shteyngart takes me straight to a piece in Slate where he drools over Toqué’s foie gras! I once flew to Montreal for dinner there (on the occasion of Felix’s birthday) and it remains one of the standout dinners of my life. Strange, I thought I blogged it, but of course this was in the year 2 BB (before blog). It certainly would have been a bloggable event.. Which brought back my own New York stories. I need to write those down sometime, eventhough I suspect late nineties NYC is going to be the next early nineties Prague.
I’m not sure what to make of Shteyngart’s assertion that NYC is regaining its old desperate grittiness. Read LES blogs and you hear of nothing but an accelerating schedule of hotel and bistro openings. A recent vicious rumor had 7B colonized by khaki-wearing upper east siders. I need to check New York’s pulse, and will do so when Guy and Sue get married there in a few weeks time. I’ll report back here.
As Soho continues to breathe down our LES throats, it’s becoming harder and harder to run the other direction, because the other direction will land us in the East River! And I’m not moving to Brooklyn!
Brooklyn’s gentrification is definitely yuppification – where as Clinton Street in the LES is turning into a bizarre avenue of Japanese imports and European dining spaces. Guessing by the surge in Japanese shops, some people are trying to retain the hipster spark of the LES massive. There’s still ABC No Rio on Rivington and La Mama performance space on Stanton. But at the end of the day, I suppose it’s just yuppification in a cute Japanese package.
One of my main concerns will always be rent costs – but now that the entire island of Manhattan is basically more expensive than god, perhaps it doesn’t matter anymore.
Second to rent is neighborhood vibe. The LES has a big Puerto Rican community that can’t possibly like that the Schiller’s just opened down the block (hello! there are suits hanging out on a Monday morning having power breakfasts on Rivington Street!). Many small restaurants and bodegos are now becoming flash wine tasting bars and saki lounges that are not cheap. It’s true that there was a bit too many nail salons on Clinton, but are the going to become extinct from the neighborhood? How about my 99 cent store?
All very worrying and it makes me wonder how Community Board 1 and the city are handeling zoning.
One observation is since 9/11: trendy hang outs in my hood have opened faster than you can sneeze during allergy season. And most seem to be drawing crowds that have already brought the Upper West Siders with their Banana Republic clothes, pearl necklaces, cell phones and loud mouths to the LES. The whole thing is driving me mad – anyone got theories as to why this happened so fast, and why it happened in a recession?
Sounds like Tokyo in the 1990s/2000s: visitors who see all the trendy girls spending tons of money in Shibuya can’t imagine the country’s been in a decade-plus recession. Japan as a whole is a stinker but much of Tokyo is heaving. Tokyo’s a magnet sucking the life out of the rest of the country and obfuscating the reality. There’s less money all around but it’s concentrated in certain hands, and those lucky ones all hang out in the same areas.
“I’m in a New York state of mind tonight… I need to check New York’s pulse…” The state you were in was Wisconsin, not Yew York. You can tell by the level of cheese.
C’mon Charles, admit you break out the Billy Joel every now and then.
Yup, and the Bananarama. Doesn’t mean I quote ‘cruel, cruel, cruel, summer’ every time I write about Washington in November. And your excuse for ‘check New York’s pulse’ would be what, precisely? “c’mon Charles, admit you sometimes use hackneyed medical cliches?”. Face it, the piece was as stiff as an armadillo with rigor mortis.
i’m in a trecco bay caravan site (the largest in europe, right next to porthcawl funfair) state of mind tonight. i was put there by a particularly bad attack of wind that smelled just like brains’ faggots and mushy peas in gravy. not so much an attack of wind as much as a succession of small eruptions with follow-through. which brought back memories of great poos i have had. i should have kept them, stored in zip-loc bags, though a late nineties soft and squishy one won’t keep as well as a late nineties hard cack.
i wonder how many of them would have kept their old desperate grittiness? read the labels on others’ collections and you just see an aimless succession of sphincter openings. i need to check trecco bay’s pulse, and will do so when auntie viv and uncle colin go down there from canaerfon in a few weeks time. i’ll report back then.
Green and Pleasant Blog
Is blogging essentially un-English? Commenting we can do, probably stemming from a natural instinct towards self-effacement and tendancy to be embarassed by intellectual fossickery. Who doesn’t wince a little at the idea of turning Grimsby into a Holy …
Howdy, howdy.
I went to new york once. It was cool. I would not want to be there now though. Why not? Cause it’s not Los Angeles. I have heard from credible sources that it is definitely not Los Angeles, which means it makes me feel all threatened and defensive like a seal in a seal clubbing factory.
mr strauss
Pop Goes Motherfucking Lethal