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stujessica · 7 years ago

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#RIPNYC

i just finished reading “vanishing new york” by jeremiah moss (and i thoroughly enjoyed it, and it made me angry, lol). i’ve probably bumped into the blog the book stems from a bunch of times, and didn’t realize it.

if you’re unaware for some odd reason, i’m from queens, NYC... and i’m fucking cranky about the current state of this city. i’ve seen it though the 80′s, 90′s, and clearly the 00′s. my mother is a native new yorker as well. she was born in manhattan, and raised in queens (4 blocks away from my current residence, actually). i’ve heard countless stories from my mother over the years (obviously), and feel like i was right there with her too. there was just a different vibe in this city before the 00′s that is hard to describe. it’s just not there anymore... and i don’t say that from nostalgia. i really mean it.

it’s a book of facts, quotes, and tidbits of jeremiah’s NYC experience circa the early 90′s. overall, i agree with so much of the book. i didn’t think i could get anymore jaded as a native new yorker, but here i am. hating every corrupt politician, real estate developer, even more so - the idiot currently residing in the white house, and robert moses. it’s a more enlightened level of loathing, i guess you can say.

the only thing that i disagree on, and perhaps it’s my age (probably not), i don’t like the complaining about ALL chain stores. now, maybe i’m biased because i hail from the outer borough “midurbs” as i like to call them (northeast queens, on the border of nassau county - kind of suburban, not quite rural, but in the middle), but some chain stores i do appreciate.

as an independent teenager in the 90′s, i started going to the city on my own in 1996. aside from frequent family and school outings, these were my coming of age years. i spent most of them in the east and west villages, and in soho. i can relate with so much of the village being gone from the book. my poor st. mark’s being gone. it breaks my heart. so many of my favorite manhattan bars, restaurants, venues, shops, stores are all gone.

as i’ve grown older, i started hanging out in williamsburg when i lived in ridgewood in the early 20teens, but only bc of convenience... it was on the way home, in between my bff’s house and my apartment, and i had friends that worked on bedford. in fact, we only really ever went on weeknights to avoid the shit auras of the transplants.

i hate * billyburg*.

i hate weirdo fake hipsters, i hate try-hard transplants, i hate paying $8 for a friggin’ latte, i hate the beards and the waxed moustaches, i hate every store that is trying so damn hard to outdo one another... the crowds suck, the music sucks, i hate PBRs and the stupid IPA fancy beers, and it’s like every other storefront is the same to me. vegan this, vegan that. ice cream with waffles and hot sauce, i dunno wtf any of it is, i don’t care. when dunkin donuts opened on bedford, i was HYPED. i was super hyped because i’m from queens, where dunkins THRIVE, and have for DECADES. my parents used to have dinner in dunkin together in the 70′s on metropolitan aka “east williamsburg” (gag).

that dunkin was sticking it to those pretentious transplanted twats, and i THOROUGHLY enjoyed every turkey, bacon, american cheese on an english muffin with hashbrowns on the side, when i was drunk from the cheap bars that no longer exist anymore. (RIP cyn lounge, RIP 4th down, RIP grand victory, RIP trash bar, RIP berry park - which is still open but BLOWS now...)

i can’t say i’m happy for anyone displaced in williamsburg before this wave of hoity toity, yuppie, hipster shitheads, but you best believe i love every time a damn starbucks opens anywhere in brooklyn.

where was i? oh right, chains that i don’t mind...

a) sorry jeremiah, starbucks coffee DOES NOT just suck... at least not all of it, or you’re not drinking the right things (i’d love to grab one with you and stew in our hatred together, not trying to knock you) b) i need more starbucks out there in midurban queens c) i support both starbucks AND dunkin equally. sbucks for coffee, dunkin for food. around my way, there isn’t a place to get cheap coffee but this SHITTY bagel spot (the only one around here in rego park) that i don’t fuck with.

otherwise, back to the midurbs:

where i’m from in queens, the only mom and pop shops (aka not really bc we really just had a bunch of local chains) that ever closed were supermarkets and odds/ends stores. scuttoro’s, A&P, waldbaums, dans, woolworth’s, that kind of stuff all closed because of places like caldor, walmart and target. it’s a vicious cycle, but if certain stores don’t have certain things, people go elsewhere. the location convenience was never really a problem where i’m from until the mid 00′s. then they started replacing local supermarkets with banks and drugstores. additionally, caldor, walmart and target are NOT in walking distance anymore for elderly people, people that don’t or can’t drive anymore. that’s where we’re hit the hardest on a local level.

i go out of my way to not shop for certain things in certain places. food shopping is done at supermarkets, NOT target or walmart. unless it’s a particular item i can’t find, i do not food shop there. if i can buy something in a store vs. online, i do it. i still go to malls. i still shopped at barnes & noble until they took the queens locations away from me. i buy all clothing IN STORES, aside from band tees.

there are little things you can do to help out where you can. don’t let websites like amazon rule your world. fuck those idiots trying to pull of that bodega displacing vendor bullshit. do not buy an alexa... i swear i probably sound like i’m sitting here wearing a tinfoil hat, but i don’t use google for ANYTHING but searching.

all of these greedy companies are just sucking the life out of everyone and everything.

getting back on track here, my point was, i don’t think starbucks is evil. i think it’s delicious.

overpriced, but delicious.

whenever i stroll around looking for lattes or cold brews from places other than starbucks and i’m not in the city (in manhattan), they’re hit or miss. #HARDPASS i’m a new yorker, i need the coffee that i want and need, not a hit or miss coffee.

i think if you balance out buying things from both small stores and big stores, you shouldn’t have to feel guilty. just do your best to help where you still can. there’s very little percentage of the city that still exists in that small capacity of actual communities. also: please stay out of them. you’d be doing a great thing staying THE FUCK OUT of places like east new york, jamaica, etc.

domestic transplants, please go home and make your own city better... this city is overflowing.

i would love to know how i could help further, bc my big mouth would love to complain about my city... feel free to reach out with further info.

#vanishingnewyork #oldnyc #RIPNYC #nativenewyorker #jeremiah moss #saveNYC

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