Santa Monica, Calif.-based writer-artist-journalist Jennifer Sharpe recently revisited the East Village, where she lived in the 1990s, for the first time in seven years.
In an essay published Saturday at The 2 Star Traveler titled Is The East Village Ruined?, Sharpe writes about how she had been monitoring the neighborhood from afar.
I'd become luridly fascinated by a series of before and after photos, taken only seven years apart, highlighting some of the bigger losses. Like the way the Hebrew lettered charm of the 2nd Avenue Deli sign has been replaced by a flat Chase Manhattan Bank facade.
Sharpe says that she was prepped ahead of her arrival.
As the trip approached, I was issued warnings by friends who'd visited more recently, "Just realize, our East Village is gone," and "the whole city is pretty much a theme park for rich people now."
And then she was finally here.
Aside from the new bike lanes, nothing looked or felt much different. A few doors past the restaurant Veselka, I noticed the familiar sight of Ukranian letters on that long burgundy awning of the bar, Sly Fox. How had that place survived? And that awful Dallas BBQ restaurant with the turkey burger that once made a friend puke was still on the corner. For God's sake, how could STOMP! still be playing at the Orpheum?
I ducked into my old hardware store for some bungee cords, instinctively heading up the right aisle. The store's familiar glare of fluorescents off linoleum floors made me feel like a pause button on my former life had been released. By my LA tear-down standards, the East Village seemed cryogenically preserved. What was everyone being so melodramatic about? Exactly how little change did they expect from a living city?
She does discuss the reminders of Bloomberg's city and the crazy escalating rents.
But for the time being, Alphabet City seems to be in a golden moment. I wish the complaining locals who say the East Village is ruined would shut up long enough to appreciate what they've got while they still have it.
Read the whole essay here.
