but then we voted for Obama…
and the dream of hip gentrification just didn’t happen…
Not fair to blame him for this - yet:
WHEN Emily Cook, a screenwriter, bought a house four years ago in Eagle Rock, a neighborhood on the Northeast side of Los Angeles, she fantasized what the area might look like in a year or two, with cafes and boutiques replacing tattered old businesses. “It was like fantasy football,” said Ms. Cook, 38, who also sings in a band named Fonda.
A sad flower shop on the corner, she thought, could become a miniature Whole Foods. An upholstery store could be a gastropub where she and friends would grab a beer, and a neglected 1940s diner could become a retro spot for a quick meal.
But Ms. Cook has stopped fantasizing about what might be, and started worrying about what might shut down. The flower store has closed; no gourmet market is moving in. Lucy Finch, a vintage boutique, folded last month. That Yarn Store, a hangout for crochet-heads, didn’t survive a bad winter.
And what will become of the storefront that once housed Blue Heeler, which sold Australian imports?
“Please don’t make it another martial arts studio,” Ms. Cook pleaded. “What is it about Eagle Rock and martial arts?”
I can’t go on. My heart is breaking.
Oh what the heck? Just one more juicy tidbit:
“Those places are important — they dissolve some of the cruel anonymity of everyday life,” he said. “They’re part of the equation of making the local real to us. But they’re not the whole equation. They’re not enough.”
Mr. Waldie added: “I’ve got enough handmade soap. I don’t need anymore.”
- Aggie
Carol said,
February 26, 2009 @ 9:32 am
What is it with artsy-fartsy types, and you can bet she believes she is an artist, and reality? I do not have any trouble identifying what is real - my house, my cats, the stores over on the strip - and what is not - Obama’s knowledge of economics and foreign affairs. But this silly woman needs stores or something in her neighborhood to “make the local real to us.” I don’t even know what that means.
Or perhaps I misunderstood and she needs her mythical Whole Foods store or her never-there pub or imagined retro diner, things that never ever existed, to make the local real.
Bloodthirsty Liberal said,
February 26, 2009 @ 9:46 am
She is a product of our era, or more specifically the upper-middle class of our era. It is a package. I take some responsibility for this because we raised her generation. They are dangerously naive. What will happen to them when they are faced with actual problems? Will they even recognize the threat?
- Aggie
The Recession and Bohemians « I Think ^(Link) Therefore I Err said,
February 26, 2009 @ 9:52 am
[…] 26, 2009 · No Comments BTL links to this NYTimes story today about Bohemian neighborhoods being affected by the […]