Setting the scene - part 1

on 4/29/14

The building I live in is nothing special. It’s story is typical of buildings built on the Lower East Side of New York in the late 1800’s. I like to believe that it’s nondescript life is representative of a larger whole, of a story not quite yet pinned down by history.  Let me give a brief overview so you can see what I mean. 

Compared to many other cities, New York is very young. It's indexical historical sense of self, carved out when the Landmarks Commission was formed in the 1960's, is evolving as established neighborhoods are slowly being transformed piecemeal by new development.  Instead of whole areas being swallowed up in the name of urban renewal, empty lots and one story shops are cleared and luxury condos rise in their wake.  Six story tenements, most built in the late 1800's, are slowly being bought by mega-landlords and their tenants booted so the buildings can be gutted reinvented as high-end rentals.  On the outside, these tenements represent the "authentic" aspect of the neighborhood, as placeholders for the identity that new arrivals seek.  But I'm off topic here - identity formed by living in a specific neighborhood is a subject for another day. 

My street on the Lower East Side is a short one.  Much of it's presence on the grid was obliterated by various housing projects built in the mid-twentieth century below Delancey Street.  Also a playground for a school just across the way divides the three blocks that are left into two. My particular block, over the years, was shaped so that residential buildings were left on the ends near the cross streets and the middle was filled with one story garages and warehouses.  A lot did change in the 1990’s in terms of vacant buildings being renovated and rented, but the block overall seems to have been mostly overlooked during the last few waves of new high end construction.  That's all changing, hardcore, right about now.  

to be continued......

first post - an introduction

on 4/27/14

The possibility exists, more than ever before, that soon I will be rendered obsolete, a former tenant not only from a time but from a space which will no longer will exist. I know now is the time to anchor the constant swirl of thoughts in my head, but I'm finding it hard to know where to start. Twenty three years is a long time to be worried that you are (theoretically? conceptually?) most likely going to have to leave because "who knows how much the rent is going to go up" and "where are we going to find a new roommate this time" and "its just always so damn cold inside in the winter".......

Much like the gut renovations currently going on in parts of my building, facts, memories, and opinions can be cut, spliced, and reordered to create a coherent whole. I like to know the history of things, of how they they came to be, of how they became what they are, and this can run you around in circles. I know how quickly things can be revealed, then hidden, then forgotten. My hope is by creating this blog to share small digestible chunks of information I'll be able to begin building a coherent whole of the immense change that's gone on both outside and inside my window.  

Here we go........

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