Drink This Cola!: Gentrification

I always come home from Manhattan expecting a down-to-earth reunion. The city, especially the downtown areas, is pretentious and quaint in a manufactured way. But my neighborhood is hundreds of years old; Flatbush gentry without the garish elitism of the city. Ditmas park is a hub of unadulterated culture. Hedged in on three sides by a vibrant middle eastern, west indian and jewish community. Cortelyou road is something like the aorta. I went to kindergarten on Cortelyou. I walked there in the mornings with my grandfather. I took some corporal punishment from my teacher for doing and saying inappropriate things. I sat at the smart table. Not much has changed. But the environs has...

In the past five or so years Cortelyou has seen a boom in loud mouth yuppies.

How different it was just four and a half years ago, when Vox Pop opened. “This was all 99-cent stores and video stores, socioeconomically challenged, surrounded by lovely Victorian houses that people have lived in forever,” Ms. Ryan said.

This is how I remember it. There weren't any cutesy restaurants. Just indecent Chinese food places that took immense shit from the bused Junior High School students. And as my neighborhood dies a slow death, people swoon over "feeling safe" and "socioeconomic revival". It's only natural for people to be protective of the land they know as home. Domicile is sacred--from cave to Victorian shingle. I'm not a fan of yuppies; who know everything and nothing at the same time. Yuppies are the goons of Anthony Burgess fame--a new hegemonic force re-appropriating land that doesn't belong to them. Then the atmosphere turns into a scene from Amelie, a Wes Anderson film or the Science of Sleep. And suddenly the discussions you overhear are of Vicky Cristina Barcelona and how some crazy black guy gave his crazy white girlfriend a really (really) naughty look. Sure, everything is relative--yuppies are people too. But I don't want these social climbing chimps fcking up the warmth of my neighborhood with indie rock, environmentally friendly ascots and bangs everyfckingwhere.

“It’s changed for the better,” says Sam Levin, an owner of Cortelyou Hardware, a few steps from the check-cashing store, at 1004 Cortelyou Road.

“I can see a new face every day coming into the store,” he said, “and automatically, the neighborhood’s much safer than before because these are new, nice people.”

Really man? Come on...Some people really love affectation.Didn't know you were such a pussy.

In the words of a good friend (Sr. Haroon)--on feeling safe

Personally, I'd rather thank education, better jobs, better economy, social programs, after school programs, better schools, better teachers, cleaner streets, more jobs, better libraries, etc. But if you'd rather ignore the problem and just confine the less educated and poverty stricken people to one isolated, congested area where they are forced to commit crimes and possibly expand, then be my guest. It will definitely come back to haunt you if you just ignore the problem rather than tackle the root cause.

NY Times: A C a f e S t r u g g l es To Stay Afloat