Okay, I'm sure we are all familiar with Chinatown and the fishy scents that seep out of the streets, but for a long time, Chinatown has some how remained untouched by the city's overpowering wealth. Chinatown has remained distant from the overpowering hipness that NYC has to offer. It has always been known as being cheap or to put it nicely, less expensive than the rest of the city. It is a place to escape from the madness of the rest of this super expensive city. It offered a sense of mystery and a feeling of being real. To the people who lived in Chinatown and the others who visited it, it acted like a vacation away from the rest of the city. It was like you could be in NYC, but in a different country!
Chinatown didn't surrender like most of the other NYC neighborhoods have. Changing their environment into sleek five-star restaurants, trendy nightclubs, or into fancy doorman apartments. Chinatown was and hopefully still will be the place where you could get dinner for under $5 and although it might be shady, a message for $35 and a haircut for $8. The average person in Chinatown makes $20K. Now, the apartments in Chinatown are of course not cheap, but they are not as much as an apartment in the hip and trendy Soho neighborhood. I even know someone who rides their bike to Chinatown once a week to buy their fruits, vegetables, and meats just because the prices are so cheap compared to other grocer prices throughout the rest of the city.
The question is, will this last, there is already talk that Chinatown might be the final and last spot to be swooped up by the city's money. But, I don't want to see Chinatown turn into something that is clean and pretty. I don't want to see trendy restaurants overpowering the tiny streets and I definitely don't want to see 7-figure apartments being built to drawl in the wall-street crowd. I think the city needs to keep Chinatown just like it is. Please, let their be one neighborhood that doesn't revolve around money in this city! Let Chinatown be the one neighborhood that is still real!?
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2 comments:
I hope that Chinatown does stay the way it is. That is part of its charm. I would hope that the city won't take it over but I fear they will. They are already building in Harlem so what will stop them from building in Chinatown? It seems they are taking over every possible place they can. It really is a shame.
I know, why is NYC so hungry to gobble everything up. Can't anything stay the same. I understand that change is good, but all the changes that take place seem to involve the city getting way toooo expensive! Let's hope nothing happens to Chinatown!
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