[Rather random photo of 2nd Avenue by EVG the other morning]
From the EVG inbox...
I am a dedicated reader and appreciator of your blog. I am also 21, have lived in the neighborhood for less than two years, and am, in the eyes of many, part of the East Village's central problem. I have always wanted to voice my opinion on this matter, as it is one on which I feel very strongly, and such a feeling is only ever heightened after I read the many user comments on Grieve.
I recognize fully how the influx of young, yuppie college students and 20-somethings has dramatically altered the neighborhood, but I want to defend myself and say that while I can easily be grouped into this category (and I'm not arguing it — 21-year-old NYU student living in an over-priced apartment that still happens to be cheaper than living in an NYU dorm), I have found myself resenting this more and more.
Before I moved into an apartment (versus a dorm) in the East Village, I did my research. I investigated the shady and unlawful landlords, corrupt management companies to avoid, the best small businesses around the apartments I was considering, and the like.
As an 11th Street resident, I protested 7-Eleven when it arrived, I devote all my business to the local deli beneath my apartment, and I agree that many things happening in this neighborhood regarding rent, landlords, what have you, are truly absurd.
However rambling this may seem, I just want to give a voice to those younger residents who consider themselves to be on the same page. We are not all the same — I don't get belligerently drunk and hang off of fire escapes, I don't scoff at the rent-stabilized tenants in my building, I don't ignore my super and the other supers on the block. In fact, it's quite the opposite. I recognized immediately upon moving here that in order to make the most of the two years I'd be spending on this street, I would have to earn some respect by developing relationships with the people who've been here the longest and are truly residents of this neighborhood.
I also recognized that this is, in many ways, just how the growth of a city unfolds. My entire family grew up in a building on Christopher Street beginning in the 1940s, and they were priced out far before gentrification was a term being thrown around. While I did not live through the gentrification of this neighborhood, I can appreciate the good and bad it has done.
All I am trying to say in the end is that I want to enjoy and appreciate the East Village's quirks and unique charm as much as those who have resided here for decades, not drunkenly puke all over them in the early hours of a Saturday morning.
Sincerely,
Olivia
11th Street Resident
We asked Olivia why she finally decided to write this. The post Monday about the "obnoxious drunk girl" who threw up in her lobby and left a note and the post from July 20 about the game of truth or dare that ended with a fall helped inspire her.
59 comments:
Thanks, Olivia, for writing this letter. It is good to be reminded there are still young people who come here, much like I did over 20 years ago, not to party and puke all over the place but to live and work and appreciate the neighborhood and the people who live here and make it special. Enjoy your time in the East Village!
It was a noble effort, but I'm afraid the complainers here cannot be appeased. Facts do not sway them. And they will all respond anonymously.
Good for her! I'm so tired of people hating on each other. We need a little love, peace, compassion and tolerance!
Ok, well said, but still, John Sexton is not cool.
Your neighbors are lucky to have you !!
As a long time resident I understand that you cannot judge people solely on their age, appearance or income bracket and there are cool and not cool people from all walks of life. Olivia may seem like the exception but in fact she is not however most of us only pay attention to the drunken 20 somethings and forget about what appears to be a minority of 20 somethings that are not keeping us at night and annoying as all hell during the day. The overwhelming tone of this blog is for those that often feel powerless to combat the money and powerful that have descend upon the neighborhood with the only apparent intent to use it resources, make a profit in real-estate regardless of how many people are displaced. The community garden next to my home had a volunteer day and I was pleasantly surprised to meed 5-6 very decent people your age that loved the neighborhood enough to give up a saturday to move heavy debris and soil instead of brunching at some foodie place. Thank you for posting and reminding the rest of us to not judge too quickly and appreciate those cool kids like yourself.
Go Olivia! I do wish there were more like-minded people like you. I'd welcome you as my neighbor.
In my experience, it isn't the NYU students who give me and my neighbors problems. It's the post-grads coming here from elsewhere — the people who think they are still at a sorority mixer Thursday-Sunday.
Good for you kiddo. Keep you head up. Unfortunately there are always going to be these people in the East Village who are going to scoff. What they don't realize is that *They* were the drunk kids hanging off the balconies once, and in many cases not even here in New York. You can live here for 20 years and still have these folks get on your case. I give it right back to them, and call them on their BS.
Just keep your wits about you, and keep trying to keep the sense of community in mind. You'll do fine.
Last night I was looking at my video from 6 am last Sunday morning when I went up on our roof to confront the trespassers who were setting off fireworks onto 6th St. At 6 am. They had done this a couple days earlier at 5 am. When I came out on the roof, the first thing the half dozen 20-something year old drunks said while waving their beer bottles around was "who the fuck are you?" They were really upset that anyone would question their behavior at 6 am. It is a good things guns are illegal in NYC because I would have used one.
Thanks, Olivia! I too would be delighted to be your neighbor. Any newcomer with a sense of history, some creativity, a healthy level of respect for and friendliness toward others and a non-Defcon-level dependence on alcoholic beverage is welcome.
This has always been a city of immigrants. :)
Of course there are a few good kids that come here but NYU students arent really residents of the city. They are transients who have no real vested interest in the city and the vast majority of them leave after graduation.
The problems of this city are so far beyond the drunken 20 somethings I cant even begin.
There is so much blame to go around.
Thanks for the letter Olivia. As someone who frequently and loudly rails on NYU and the disproportionate amount of students they pump into the eco system of the neighborhood, I can understand where you're coming from. The squeaky wheel tends to get the grease.
When I first moved to the city in the 90s, I lived in an apartment complex made up of mostly seniors and families. They greeted me and my shoulder length white hair and tattoos with hesitation, comments made under their breathe, doors slammed in my face, or, just flat out wouldn't look at me. Charmed! But like you, I befriended my neighbors, got involved with various neighborhood groups and became part of the neighborhood. But I honestly feel people like us are in the minority.
What we as a whole are going through right now is not gentrification or organic change, it's a post 9/11 corporatization of NYC that we've never seen before and this vision is incredibly dividing. The past few administrations have waged a socioeconomic war against New Yorkers (and the kooks like myself who moved here to be New Yorkers) to rid us from the city in favor of a more predictable, bourgeois, transient crowd of people who will not only willingly feed off this corporate carcass of a former New York City, but thrive on it one Cronut at a time.
What does this vision look like? If someone sells a loosie cigarette on a park bench, they'll be choked to death. If they're young and white, they can rove the neighborhood in drunken packs every Friday and Saturday night, destroy property, throw up, urinate and defecate, wherever, whenever, and generally do whatever they want completely unchecked. Why? Because they are banking on the war zone-like atmosphere they've created and allowed to flourish will drive us away so they can merrily roll out Walgreens, fro-yo and bank branches as far as the eye can see, pump even more money into new housing nobody lives in nor can afford and do whatever else they want politically because the only people with roots here will be the affluent and they'll always vote 'yes'.
But I digress. You sound like a lovely person and the kind of people we need more of. Thank you for your letter.
Admirable and commendable letter by Olivia, however there's only a penny a dozen of the likes of her compared to a dime a dozen of the obnoxious drunk girls and the participants of the game of truth of dare and the woooooers, which includes the bridge-and-tunnel crowd, including the UESider and UWSider, that invades the EV on weekends, and the post college grads, tech bros, and the young Wall St. analysts douches living in the neighborhood. And she has connections to the NYC of past, so, she understands. Those that don't understand are the ones who think that NYC was born during SATC, that EV was always like this and the EV was made for them. If you want to know who they are, see them during move-in day and college day/parents weekend and see how they act, esp. the parents, towards the locals and NYU staff.
I still dont understand how people need to "justify" their existense. We live in a capitalist system and things and neighborhoods change; get over it. But not to be too picky, but I LOVE 7-11. I work in the neighborhood, make a lower middle icnome salary and welcome that I can get an ice cold soda for $.99 instead of the flat outdated hot soda at any local deli.
Furthermore, if you look at the people in 7/11 on East 11th Street they are mostly people from the public housing by the river and I am sure they welcome the excellent prices, quality and selection 7-11 offers. So if you really want to fit in, stop with the 7-11 nonsense.
I wish someone would protest outside the hair salon on East 11th between A&B with the no 7-11 sign. How about we start protesting all the $100 haircut places (or to put it another way, my entire weeks foods bill)
Anon 8:57 i was never that guy when I moved here and either were any of my friends. We drank and we partied like everyone else when they first move here but we had common sense and respect and awareness for those around us.
1) Olivia, you are the type of person I wish many more of would move to NYC, rather than the heedless, narcissistic twits we are drowning in. 11th Street is lucky to have you, sorry it's only for two years.
2) NOTORIOUS, you are the man. Love your dead-on comment; you should run for office.
3) schmucknyc, you, once again, are the tool. And I signed my name so you know it's me saying it.
YAY
As a fellow 20-something living in the EV, I really appreciate this post. On the one hand, I don't think people should be entirely dismissed just because they get drunk once in a while, but it's also not a very good look. People in their 20s are like any other segment of the population, there are good ones and bad ones. I think most of us skew more towards Olivia than the "pukers," though. I love the East Village, and I'm so glad I can call it home, even if just for a little while. Well said.
Thanks for your letter Olivia, and as you read the comments directed at NYU and other students, realize that we do not think all NYU students are drunken misbehaving obnoxious cretins, however it seems that almost all of the drunken misbehaving obnoxious cretins in the Village these days fall into one of these categories:
1) Crusties (most of whom never attended NYU)
2) Yuppies from uptown who come down here on the weekend acting like Crusties and drunk NYU students
3) NYU Students
There have always been drunk people in the Village, it's part of the culture of a freewheeling neighborhood. And the neighborhood has cleaned itself up, just look at some old pictures of 14th St and down to the Bowery from the 70's, you wouldn't recognize the old skid row that used to right next to NYU.
The problem these days is that NYU has over expanded, and pushed it's student population further east in numbers that never existed before. While the majority of the students are fine, the drunken misbehaving cretins are so numerous they give everyone a bad name.
My question is, do the well-behaved NYU students recognize this problem, and if they do, what are they doing about it? I have never heard of any discussion about it within NYU. My family has several NYU alums, we go to reunions, get the alumni news, and there is never any talk about these issues.
NYU has changed drastically in the last decade, not for the better. Thanks to John Sexton and the corporate cronies who run it now, it has turned into a cash cow and slush fund for mega projects, including bussing students to Blood Bath & beyond instead of supporting local merchants, using slave labor in Dubai to build new campuses, and of course the NYU 2031 project which would bulldoze the central Village and erect huge buildings that will likely destroy the character of the neighborhood and remove public park space forever.
Do NYU students care about any of these quality of life issues, and are they addressing them within the University? I have yet to see any proof that they do. Maybe that's something for good students like you to address, since i'm sure you don't like living around drunken misbehaving obnoxious cretins any more than we do.
I want to preface this by saying that I'm sure Olivia is a good person.
However, when people talk about, say, racism: I don't feel it's necessary for me to make an impassioned defense that I'm not like those other racist white people! I just go about my business.
Also, "gentrification" is not simply a "word being thrown around." It's real and it is serious.
Finally, I think it's hilarious when people get all het up over Anons, as if "shmnyc" is like your government name or something.
Thank you for writing this Olivia.
And @ 9:56
"if you look at the people in 7/11 on East 11th Street they are mostly people from the public housing by the river"
Whoa. Blanket statement. How do you know this? What makes you think this? Did you ask each of them for proof of residency? Please explain your simpleton comment.
Ya know what it is ? The previous generations were simply more interesting, more cerebral, more creative, more community involved.
Sure we partied but we did so in our own neighborhoods and had to answer for our actions if we acted like idiots.
Now its just transients, whether students , bridge and tunnell or uptowners coming down for the sole purpose of getting plastered drunk with no affiliation with the community.
NOTORIOUS, thank you for giving this tread the big picture here. And Giovanni's comment as well. Olivia’s well intended post notwithstanding,what is going on here, Brooklyn, etc. is the dormfication of NYC. As I have posted before, an Eco system is healthy only when it is diverse. Bloomberg’s and Burden’s vision of New York was not a healthy one. My fantasy “Bro” apartment in hell: Bloomberg, Shaoul, Kushner, Sexton, and Rob Speyer as roommates. Burden comes over to visit them as the “It Girl”.
Anony 9.56 AM. I guess you have not been following the No 7-Eleven protest movement. I guess you missed the stories about their hired thugs vandalizing great local EV businesses like TSB and Hi-Fi. And their illegal A/C units. And generally being a horrible neighbor. And guess who stayed open during Sandy? Not 7-11 but the bodegas. And you have used the classic "get over it" line. But you must get your $.99 soda. Priorities.
I second Gojira, schmucknyc is just trolling again for the corporate 7-11/NYU interests over the people who actually live here. Olivia sounds like a nice person, but her words are not facts, just her opinion, which I accept.
But to act like NYU students and SantaCon drunks and all the human dreck that fills the sidewalks every night with their drunkenness is OK while cops are choke holding to death people selling loosies, and harassing people dressed like superheroes in Times Square just to make a bust, and stomping on peoples heads, while Bros run wild through the streets shows how crazy and warped this city has become.
NOTORIOUS ht the nail on the head, the real estate people are not just gentrifying neighborhoods to drive out businesses, they are driving out the kind of people they don't like. When they pick drunks, bros and students over the rest of us as the kind of people that they want to live here, I have a real problem with that, and so should people like Olivia.
Olivia is fantastic. Love her! I wish the other NYU students and young people that have turned the East Village into a frat/sorority house would learn from her example. I don't think any of us have a problem with people drinking. We all drank when we were kids, and I remember stumbling home from the bars a few times. But I didn't have huge parties on the roof of my building, and I didn't stand out in front of bars with dozens of my closest friends screaming woo-hoo! My friends were way too cool for that. We didn't travel in packs because we were outsiders and had a close-knit circle, and we weren't screamers. It's a whole new kind of twentysomething that has invaded the neighborhood. I hope they aren't driving Olivia crazy!
To anonymous @ 9:56, wish granted! The hair salon on 11th between A & B is closed.
I would hope that neither olivia or anyone else shows any direspect to their rent stabilized neighbors.
Why would you ? Because we are a few hundred dollars cheaper then you after haveing struggled and toiled here for 20, 30, 40 years ?
As a matter of fact you should should not only not show us disrespect but you should show us reverence.
Dont resent us because we got here long ago and enjoy a slightly lower rent. Do you also hate the little old ladies who bought their coop for 10k in 1960 ?
dear olivia,it's good that you wrote. obviously you are a core new yorker with family who lived deep in the village in the 40s. you shouldn't have to defend yourself i suppose. i guess all of us together should continue to be upset at the annoying types who are not very good neighbors.
the issue here is NOT that NY has never had bars and freewheeling culture - of course that has always been here. and obviously there are things (duh) that make NYC different from the suburbs that people escaped from. in past there has been more respect somehow. nyu and the east side have been around for a long time. some things have started to happen in the last 20 years increasingly that show disrespect to the 'hood and NYC. it's weird. of course certain things make NY but something was different in the past and my fellow blog people have probably articulated this better. re: Grieve & Vanishing NY
i had a similar situation in another big city when i went to college some years ago in the 90s. i worked several part time jobs at any time since my parents could not afford to contribute and i paid my own apartment costs and school by tooth and nail and loans. i ended up here some years ago hoping to live in the EV but ended up in an outer outer borough as that's where the working class live nowadays.
given how expensive the EV is now unless you find something lucky, i am just curious if you got scholarships and are working part time jobs to afford your apartment and school.
Yep, thanks Olivia. Good thoughtful comments. And I agree with the assessment that the East Village is devolving from a neighborhood of diversity to one of high income homogenization which is not a good trend. Poor 20 something behavior is one thing, but the system that promoted and encouraged overdevelopment in the name of "growth" with no sense of community planning has done NYC the greatest disservice and harm.
shmnyc, I think you owe everyone here an apology and a big one. You should do it in a post like Olivia's, not just a comment.
NYU tends to get the blame but I think much of the obnoxious behaviour in the East Village is created by recent graduates from other places thinking they are still in their Penn State frat house. God those people annoy me.
bowboy, I stand by what I said. Why should anyone have to defend themselves against relentless, anonymous attacks? Imagine the focus was on Jews, and someone wrote "I'm a Jew, but I'm not like *those* Jews. I agree with what you say about them!" Would people be so fawning then?
"Some of my best friends are NYU students, but..."
Thank you, Olivia! We need more people like you in the world - and definitely in our neighborhood!
PS to Anon @ 8:57 AM: I went to NYU a million years ago and I was NEVER the "drunk kid hanging off the balcony" - in fact, I was never drunk at all, amazing as that may seem. It IS possible to go through life having a great time without needing drugs or alcohol to "have fun."
Thanks Olivia! The East Village is luck to have you. I lived below three (or thirteen since they treated the apt like a dorm) college kids. It was an endless nightmare culminating in one of them entering my apt in the middle of the night blind drunk and high and trying to get into my bed. Thankfully they were evicted by my amazing landlord who swore never to go down this road again. The truth is, I think we should hold the landlords responsible more than the college students as they have the power to decide who lives in their buildings!
shmnyc,
Clearly, Olivia's facts did sway many, and few comments are anon'. Stand by it if you want, but that doesn't make it true.
And, are you not aware that once you hit Godwin's Law your credibility is zero? You're all but there.
SMDH, you're the comment equivalent of toilet paper stuck to a shoe.
This is heartfelt letter by Olivia and shmnyc had made this all about him. SMDH. Figures.
shmnyc you've hit a new low in your rabble rousing.
shmnyc, you are the worst.
Go away please.
If you want to make a real statement to NYU let me move back to the East Village-LES and be your roommate. I don't mind sleeping on the couch.
Now let's all skip down Ave. A while holding hands. I suppose this blog can quietly fade away now as well. (why do people read it if they get upset at criticism?)
One nice letter doesn't make up for the hundreds who invade the hood every thurs through sun, vomiting as they go. Yes 20 somethings will always behave like 20 somethings, but the EV was still better two decades ago. It just was. It attracted a different element.
A friend of mine who lives in the West Vill recently described the crowd who now invades the piers as "stale". It's the same all over.
Still, it was a nice letter.
This has been a civil thread considering the topic. shmnyc enough with your anonymous trolling. You add nothing to the conversation.
Thank you for much-needed balance, Olivia and Grieve. It's all to easy to generalize and stereotype.
There are certainly NYU students who are civil people and a positive addition to the neighborhood (just as there are non-NYU locals who are a detriment). Perhaps most NYU students are more like Olivia, and it's unfortunately the rude and loud minority of obnoxious students who make a bad name for all of them.
This neighborhood has gone through many versions, from waves of immigration, to counter-culturalism, to gentrification, etc. Let's hope some hybrid of all its influences can function somewhat harmoniously now and into the future.
Anyway, thank you again for this.
Peace -
- East Villager
Good for you Olivia!! I've been here for 8 years but assume I'm kind of seen as part of the problem (I look yuppie-ish, what can I say) but I love the energy of the neighborhood and the characters that are here. Sometimes I feel like the true east villagers that are always griping on this page are starting to sound like a bunch of grumpy old farts!! Great post and great reminder for all of us not to stereotype any group for the actions of a few!!
Olivia you're a nice girl. Wish more were like you. The market rate renters in my building rarely make eye contact, and the few times they actually speak to me I am usually caught off-guard. Sorry you're only here for 2 years. I moved in just before the start of my senior year in college and never moved away. Which is how a community becomes.
Most New Yorkers have NOTHING to complain about. Do you know why? Because those supposedly politically savvy citizens elected to vote for 20 years of Republican mayoralty. We even let this SCUMBAG Bloomberg rescind local election laws to run for a third term. Now we're facing the consequences. In other words, the chickens have come home to roost. This is what happens when people don't pay attention. Elections have consequences.
Yes, Olivia's letter is "heartfelt". The issue is that she's young and earnest, and thinks she needs to defend herself against the scurrilous claims being made here every day. She was put into that position by those here who always complain. This isn't about me, it's about the complainers.
oh come on, Olivia was not put into any position. She stepped up and took this on all by herself. That's just ridiculous... "she was put into that position..." You clearly give you neighbors too much credit.
I applaud SMDPSHT for standing up for the privileged and persecuted NYU students in NYC! I look forward to his Million Student March down the Bowery to, like, wherever.
Real talk: I don't get why everyone is falling all over themselves to congratulate Olivia for being a decent citizen. I find her letter a little special-snowflake. Like "Yes, my parents pay over 50K a year to send me to this fancy school, but I'm really chill, so please pat my back for not being an asshole."
She's clearly NOT an asshole, to be clear, but I don't hand out cookies for low-level stuff like not being a vomitor or litterbug or frat bro. That's ... like, what you are supposed to do at base level as a human being. And I'm kind of surprised at all the people rushing to over-congratulate Olivia for being a normal person.
@11:37 Because if we offer any kind of constructive criticism at all, we'll all be labeled "haters" and SMDPSHT would just push to have her sainted.
Unfortunately, Olivia is probably just part of maybe 5% of these type of kids (newly grad obnoxious yuppie and frat types) who are behaving and actually do care about the hood. 95% of them are still annoying as fck.
Also, Olivia's letter come off as "look at me I'm a nice person!!!! I do this and that!!!!". So yeah, not really impressed.
And what does she even do, really? Homeless outreach? Volunteer at Cooper Square Committee? Advocate for the elderly? Don't get me wrong--lots of us don't do any of that stuff either! But we also don't write whiny letters demanding that people like us for being NYU students who miraculously aren't assholes.
Hey Olivia -- I'm with you. The NYU student neighbors in my building -- and there've been many over the years -- have all been friendly, interested, genuinely charming and never showed a sense of entitlement despite their privilege. I'm about to visit a former NYU neighbor from a few years back to check out his new neighborhood in the Heights (hoping it'll include a dinner -- his cooking next door was irresistible).
My guess is that many of the barflies are not local here and not NYU students at all. It's true that NYU students played a big role in erasing the old neighborhood by speeding up the rate of rent increases, but that's history and that's not about the student as person.
Just want to give voice to those of us old folks who don't hate NYU students. The yuppies-with-entitlement have not been students, in my experience.
Walter makes a good point. How many people know who their city council member is or what they are up to? Or what the community boards are up to?
Agreed. I moved here at 18 in 1995 to attend NYU, never lived above 15th st, and I've been living in a rent-stabilized place near TSP since '98 (I guess because I couldn't help the fact that I grew up outside Chicago and not in NYC, and that I was born after 1970, I feel the need to set forth some cred here, heh). Back then, Sexton was the dean of the law school, and his reputation as a grade-A dickwad preceded him even then. NYU knows not to even think about calling me and asking me for money.
Olivia sounds like a lovely person, but that does not change the impact that thousands (yes thousands) of young white people have had and continue to have on this once racially diverse mostly low income neighborhood. I was in Duane Reade yesterday it looked like an abercromie and fitch ad in there! Landlords know that you can pay more and that means your presence will cause long term tenants to be harassed, through no fault of your own but it's just the truth.
Whatever it is that plagues current EV inhabitants, kids in their 20s are, if not directly blamed, then heavily accused of having the bad values that make said "current plague" possible. I moved into the EV in 1980 and life was nothing but a litany of how awful people "my age" were, primarily because we were not "their age," meaning core (as opposed to 'late') boomers. As such, whoever we were, and no one really cared specifically, we must have lacked key '60s values and would, by our mere presence, destroy the "free vibes" of the junkie crack den that was the nabe. We loved it! we loved the dumps we shared (4 to a lease)! They were the ones buying up real estate. There's more than a hint of this eternal prejudice in Olivia's situation and among commenters.
Anyone who supports these landlords in their greed is complicit in making everyone else subject to the same abuse. If you pay $3,000 a mmonth for bullshit, you are hurting your community, no way around it. I hate all this fake talk of tolerance, as if we should tolerate having our communities destroyed so rich kids can have a party. Yeah what a blow hard I am, I should just shut up and take it right? Get real!
Post a Comment