(no subject)
It's amazing how my opinion of the city makes a 180 the moment it starts to get warm out. The trees are budding, the daffodils are blooming, and I even see some hints of pink on the magnolia and plum trees. The Greenmarket is bustling with people and there are more and more vendors each weekend. It makes me remember why I love this city so much. It's days like today that make me question my sanity when I think about that week when I was dead set on transferring to Cornell.
This morning I walked through Little Italy looking for people to interview for my cities communities and urban life class. Or rather, I walked up and down Little Italy, since you can't really walk around a single street. But after the first few shopkeepers I approached wouldn't talk to me, I went into this coffee and pastry shop called Cafe Roma on the corner of Broome and Mulberry (which I now cannot believe I never bothered to go into, because it's beautiful and the pastries looked AMAZING) and the manager agreed to answer my questions without hesitation. She was so nice and straightforward and she gave me a ton of good information. Then she was like "go see Tanya at Umbertos and Frankie at Grotto Azzurra. They'll talk to you, the rest of the people on this street are bitchy," and then she actually walked me over to Grotto Azzurra and introduced me to Frankie. He was also a great help and gave me even better answers than Roseanne (Roxanne? I don't remember, but it doesn't matter since we can't use names in sociology anyway). From both of the interviews I just got this general sense of sadness, cause both people just sort of said that Little Italy had already mostly disappeared. Did you know up to 12 years ago Little Italy extended from Canal to Houston and from the Bowery to Lafeyette? That's HUGE. Now Little Italy is only on Mulberry Street from Broome to Canal. And even that's a stretch, because right before Canal a lot of jewelry stores owned by Asians have crept in. Rents are so high that anyone not in a rent-controlled apartment has to leave, and that means that a ton of Italians have had to leave, and a lot of businesses and restaurants can't afford to renew their leases (like, going up from $8000 to $40000). Little Italy is holding on to it's status as an actual neighborhood by a thread and not simply a Disney Land stop for tourists, and neither shop-owner could see it lasting too much longer.
Sorry to bore you. But I get really excited about sociology a lot. I love that I can just listen to what people have to say and not have to worry about dissecting their brains or anything like that.
Then on the way back from the gym I stopped at the Greenmarket and in Union Square I found my favorite artist and just decided what the hell, I want to buy the print that I've been eyeing for ages. So I did. And it makes me really happy. I've realized lately that whereas Maddy goes out and buys clothes with any extra money she has, I'd much prefer to buy books or decorations or art or even music. Clothes don't last nearly as long.
I'm actually going out tonight. It's for Maddy's birthday and we're going to get dressed up and go to Columbia and have a girls night at the college bars. And this time there will be no Ari. So I will not have to sit there staring at the tv screen being awkward third wheel for 6 hours.
This morning I walked through Little Italy looking for people to interview for my cities communities and urban life class. Or rather, I walked up and down Little Italy, since you can't really walk around a single street. But after the first few shopkeepers I approached wouldn't talk to me, I went into this coffee and pastry shop called Cafe Roma on the corner of Broome and Mulberry (which I now cannot believe I never bothered to go into, because it's beautiful and the pastries looked AMAZING) and the manager agreed to answer my questions without hesitation. She was so nice and straightforward and she gave me a ton of good information. Then she was like "go see Tanya at Umbertos and Frankie at Grotto Azzurra. They'll talk to you, the rest of the people on this street are bitchy," and then she actually walked me over to Grotto Azzurra and introduced me to Frankie. He was also a great help and gave me even better answers than Roseanne (Roxanne? I don't remember, but it doesn't matter since we can't use names in sociology anyway). From both of the interviews I just got this general sense of sadness, cause both people just sort of said that Little Italy had already mostly disappeared. Did you know up to 12 years ago Little Italy extended from Canal to Houston and from the Bowery to Lafeyette? That's HUGE. Now Little Italy is only on Mulberry Street from Broome to Canal. And even that's a stretch, because right before Canal a lot of jewelry stores owned by Asians have crept in. Rents are so high that anyone not in a rent-controlled apartment has to leave, and that means that a ton of Italians have had to leave, and a lot of businesses and restaurants can't afford to renew their leases (like, going up from $8000 to $40000). Little Italy is holding on to it's status as an actual neighborhood by a thread and not simply a Disney Land stop for tourists, and neither shop-owner could see it lasting too much longer.
Sorry to bore you. But I get really excited about sociology a lot. I love that I can just listen to what people have to say and not have to worry about dissecting their brains or anything like that.
Then on the way back from the gym I stopped at the Greenmarket and in Union Square I found my favorite artist and just decided what the hell, I want to buy the print that I've been eyeing for ages. So I did. And it makes me really happy. I've realized lately that whereas Maddy goes out and buys clothes with any extra money she has, I'd much prefer to buy books or decorations or art or even music. Clothes don't last nearly as long.
I'm actually going out tonight. It's for Maddy's birthday and we're going to get dressed up and go to Columbia and have a girls night at the college bars. And this time there will be no Ari. So I will not have to sit there staring at the tv screen being awkward third wheel for 6 hours.