Newcomers to the city turn their condo buildings into high-rise suburbs, complete with kids, dogs, potlucks, and barbecues: "Never mind the bowling alley, ballet studio, swimming pool and other amenities." [NYT]
Josh Alan Friedman, author of Tales of Times Square, talks about his new autobiographical novel Black Cracker. [NSTAW]
Buy some atmospheric photos of the city from Goggla. [Etsy]
Tomorrow: See the Sex Worker Literati at Bowery Poetry Club.
The East Village "will not rest" until Sin Sin is gone. [EVG]
Guss' Pickles awning for sale--it could be yours. [BB]
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
a.k.a. The Book of Lamentations:
a bitterly nostalgic look at a city in the process of going extinct
- Jeremiah Moss
- THE BOOK:
"We should all buy Jeremiah Moss’s book, Vanishing New York." --Sarah Jessica Parker
“Essential reading for fans of Jane Jacobs, Joseph Mitchell, Patti Smith, Luc Sante, and cheap pierogi.” --Vanity Fair
"a vigorous, righteously indignant book that would do Jane Jacobs proud." --Kirkus Reviews
THE BLOG:
"the go-to hub for those who lament New York's loss of character." --Crain's
"No one takes stock of New York's changes with the same mixture of snark, sorrow, poeticism, and lyric wit as Jeremiah Moss." --Village Voice, Best of NY
“Jeremiah Moss…is the defender of all the undistinguished hunks of masonry that lend the streets their rhythm.” --Justin Davidson, New York Magazine
"One of the most thorough and pugnacious chroniclers of New York’s blandification." --The Atlantic, Citylab
"Hyperbolic and combative, tireless and passionate." --Salon
"Never mind the bowling alley, ballet studio, swimming pool and other amenities." That NY Times piece made me think instantly of the original 1956 "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" film, i.e. this should be a good sign for the rest of NYC and we should just give in to more of these condo communities as models of a kinder, safer, happier NYC... Nooooooo!!! Sorry, I don’t want to knock down this piece completely. It's great to connect with your neighbors and it’s a big enough city where everyone should be able to realize their own urban utopias. I should be happy for that get-to-know-your-neighbors vibe, but it does smell more like gated community suburbs to me. It’s Jane Jacobs meets Walt Disney, complete with free copies of Sunset magazine.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link, Jeremiah.
ReplyDeleteAs for the NYT article on 'social' buildings - I'd invite people over more often if I had the space...or a real kitchen, table, chairs, etc. Then again, maybe I'm under-utilizing the social potential of the shower in the middle of the living room...
Claribel, i have similar feelings. don't want to knock the know your neighbors thing, but this really stinks of a vertical Suburbia. dads at the barbecue, etc. what kind of Stepford group-thinking are they doing up on that roof?
ReplyDeletenow, if they were hanging out in Goggla's shower, it'd be a different scene...
It's not the hanging out aspect that irks me-I commend people who make an effort to know their neighbors-it's the nauseating "luxury", "sipping white wine", "sushi parties" that are coming to signify NY. Everything is luxury and upscale nowadays. When you go to less desirable parts of the city people know their neighbors, they sit on the steps, talk to people about life, etc...that's the kind of bonding that is meaningful. It's worked in my old, fifth floor walk-up. rich people sitting around with other rich people sipping chardonnay and talking vapidly is just another signal of the continuing homogenization of this city.
ReplyDelete@Eddie
ReplyDeleteYou nailed it on the head. Rich gringos (and I'm the latter, but not the former) are remaking this city into that gated community from the last Romero flick, Land of the Dead, a corporatist haven of bullshit.
Vapid does not begin to describe the squawking, nails-on-chalkboard convo one overhears walking down any Manhattan street. It's the same shit if the people are 19 year old, fresh-faced newbies, or child-worshipping yunnies in their late 30's. Increasingly, it's not even simply a white thing. You have rich douchebags of all colors, hooray.
How are you enriched by your city "experience" if everyone is from the same exact hyper-commercialized upper-class culture? I grew up here, but have basically lived elsewhere since 2003, moved back in March, and, as much as I love this city with every fiber of my being, Manhattan, with a few exceptions, is DEADED. That's why I moved back to Queens, where there still seem to be real communities.
But then, did anyone expect different from the Times? It's as ghettoized as its readership.
last 7 yrs i have visited nyc. realized all my friends had moved BACK to brooklyn. from places like tribeca, upper east side. even people who were born in brooklyn but grew up on central park west. so i had to go to brooklyn from manhattan. what a switch! what goes around comes around. the old hoods looked great. midwood, ditmas park, park slope, boerum hill.
ReplyDeletethat douche in the fake apparel ad could be dov charney's long lost fat gay brother. who cares??
ReplyDelete