Just Like I Pictured It...

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beantownbubba
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Just Like I Pictured It...

Post by beantownbubba »

...skyscrapers and everything. Especially more skyscrapers. And cars. Lots and lots of cars.

Haven't been to the big city in a while and as always I'm amazed by the constant change. I'm not sure that what NYC needs is more skyscrapers, but so be it. I will say that Brooklyn feels very discouraging to me. I know it's good for the people who work here to have all this new money floating around, and it's not like the subways and the schools, and the streets for that matter, were so great back in the day, but it was mine, the people were much more my type, I hate what I see and feel like a stranger in my home town. Like the man said, "You can't go home again." He also said "only the dead know brooklyn" and he was right both times.

I expect that, as always, the rock show will heal what ails me. As the other man said, "always go to the show."
What used to be is gone and what ought to be ought not to be so hard

LBRod
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Re: Just Like I Pictured It...

Post by LBRod »

beantownbubba wrote:
Fri Nov 05, 2021 4:18 pm
As the other man said, "always go to the show."
That man was a regular on the Cowboy Junkie's message board (RIP).
I stole it, used it on the Dr., who made it his tag line, and now I have it on a shirt.
I love it when things work out.
Don't hurt people, and don't take their stuff.

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Flea
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Re: Just Like I Pictured It...

Post by Flea »

Don't be an old white guy, Bubba.
Now it's dark.

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Clams
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Re: Just Like I Pictured It...

Post by Clams »

Would you rather be walking the streets anywhere else bubba? I'm gonna guess no.
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beantownbubba
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Re: Just Like I Pictured It...

Post by beantownbubba »

Clams wrote:
Fri Nov 05, 2021 7:28 pm
Would you rather be walking the streets anywhere else bubba? I'm gonna guess no.
Who you calling a streetwalker?
What used to be is gone and what ought to be ought not to be so hard

beantownbubba
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Re: Just Like I Pictured It...

Post by beantownbubba »

Flea wrote:
Fri Nov 05, 2021 6:14 pm
Don't be an old white guy, Bubba.
.

No lawns involved. And it’s the white people who suck. In my day they were called yuppies. I’m not sure what they’re called now but “ millennial” doesn’t quite capture it.
What used to be is gone and what ought to be ought not to be so hard

beantownbubba
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Re: Just Like I Pictured It...

Post by beantownbubba »

Flea wrote:
Fri Nov 05, 2021 6:14 pm
Don't be an old white guy, Bubba.
So, ok, Mr. Flea. You tell me. Is it me or them who has lost the plot when there are billboards around downtown Brooklyn advertising a new condominium tower in DUMBO this way: "They tore down the parking lot and put up a paradise."
What used to be is gone and what ought to be ought not to be so hard

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Flea
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Re: Just Like I Pictured It...

Post by Flea »

beantownbubba wrote:
Sun Nov 07, 2021 6:35 pm
Flea wrote:
Fri Nov 05, 2021 6:14 pm
Don't be an old white guy, Bubba.
So, ok, Mr. Flea. You tell me. Is it me or them who has lost the plot when there are billboards around downtown Brooklyn advertising a new condominium tower in DUMBO this way: "They tore down the parking lot and put up a paradise."
Beats me, Boss. Is gentrification always a negative? I have never been to DUMBO (in fact, had to look it up). I just get amused when people of our age proclaim "it was better when...".
Now it's dark.

beantownbubba
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Re: Just Like I Pictured It...

Post by beantownbubba »

Flea wrote:
Sun Nov 07, 2021 7:56 pm
Is gentrification always a negative?
The short answer is no. The long answer is, well, long.

I did not intend for my original post to be a rant against gentrification and a call for a return to the good old days. I regret if that's how it came across. I was trying to convey my very personal sense of dislocation upon returning home after a long absence and my feelings of not fitting in with "the new crowd." Those are, I suppose, aspects of gentrification but I was going for the personal. Also while I am not totally lacking in nostalgia, I tried to acknowledge in my post that the period when I grew up in NYC was actually pretty miserable in most objective ways and I don't think anybody pines for the levels of crime and poverty and the dysfunction of the schools and transit system that characterized that period. It just happened to be my time.

Change is inevitable. I don't, won't and can't fight it and don't want to. There are aspects of gentrification that are very positive and you'd have to be pretty far out of the mainstream to think that it's all bad. OTOH, it does raise a number of difficult and important questions, most of which tend to be ignored in the rush for development spurred largely by the profit motive. Sure, the new jobs, expanding tax base and renewed concern for the quality of the schools are all welcome, as is the new level of 24/7 energy and life in the most gentrified areas. But is there only one way to achieve those positive results? Do the poor and even the middle class have to be pushed out? Does Brooklyn really need to be as densely populated and skyscrapered as Manhattan in order for the positives to take root? And do the new people have to all be "like that" by which I mean entitled, snobbish, arrogant and way too wealthy for what they contribute to society (I acknowledge those are very subjective judgments)? I mean, you don't have to love parking lots to believe that condo buildings are not paradise, right?

Gentrification and urban development are longstanding interests of mine and I love to talk about them. If Flea or anyone else is interested I'd be happy to continue the conversation. But I'm guessing this is already more than anybody wants to hear on the subject so I'll stop now.
What used to be is gone and what ought to be ought not to be so hard

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