I live about 6 blocks from Dean Street where the story to this point (CHPT 7) takes place. I'll snap some photos tomorrow after work to give everyone a visual of the setting.
I was dropping some stuff off at the Salvation Army today and turn around to see Pintchik Hardware (CHPT 4). I had just read that chapter not 20 minutes before. Really bizarre.
Favorite quote so far, "Maybe to perfect a thing is to destroy it." It's a few pages into Chapter 2. In seeking to perfect skully Dylan kills the game. In seeking to "perfect" Boerum Hill, Isabelle starts the destruction of Brooklyn as it once was.
This is a feeling I get everyday walking down my street. The creep of gentrification is one the "neighborhood" doesn't take lightly. Our mostly black and puerto rican neighbors only speak to us if necessary. There are no "hello's" and "how was your day" for the white boys. It's a passive aggressive beat down. Maybe even worse than a physical assault, to know that you're seen as a virus to the neighborhood. It's really interesting because we're right in the middle of two gentrified neighborhoods converging on a few blocks of old Brooklyn. 30 yards west I wouldn't walk alone at night. 30 yards east are million dollar homes and boutique baby strollers.
The rapidity of spreading money is mind boggling. But even more unthinkable is the gap that it's creating between the top and bottom. Old Brooklyn is still there, it just can't afford to be by the white people anymore.
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I have been meaning to ask you about how close to Dean Street you are. That is crazy. It's really that culturally segregated? Why do you suppose that is? It seems like there is so much diversity in a place like New York that people would integrate more. Especially as we become more and more removed from the Civil Rights movement. There is more equality now than ever, and I guess I thought that people eventually overcome their racist tendency. I would love to see some pics.
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