I love our small town homeyness
I was talking to Louis at the information booth and I ordered coffee from Starbucks using the iphone app, I was about to walk across the street to pick up the coffee when a guy came over, I didn't know him, but I think Louis did. Well, the guy kept us talking there for about 15 or 20 minutes. By the time I excused myself to walk across and get my coffee, I realized the coffee must be cold and the whipped cream must be melted.
I walked into Starbucks with Louis and someone handed me the coffee. It was piping hot! I said to Louis, "The coffee is still hot!" Tara, who usually prepares my coffee heard me from across the room and said, "That's because I just made it. I saw you across the street talking and I didn't think you were ever going to get here, so I waited until I saw you starting to make your way over before I made the coffee!"
Isn't that great? It really made my day; not so much that the coffee was fresh and hot, but because she cared enough to do this. This small gesture said so much about her; and about our small community.
I think many of us fear that this will change when we see all the changes going on around here. The new construction represents something new and unknown. Some say we can't live in the past, and it's not that we want to live in the past; we don't want our current aspect of life to change.
People make up the community and let's hope with all the construction and changes going on around here, this small town homeyness doesn't go away. It's special.
posted by Tom Falco at 4:00 AM
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7 Comments:
I agree. I come in contact with many friendly neighbors and passerby's on Gifford Lane daily who have a smile and something pleasant to say. And there's always Trina Collins walking her infamous dog Charlie. Charlie literally seems to want to communicate with just about everyone; barking/talking, barking/talking and more barking/talking. Gifford Lane always has that small town feel. Jobie Steppe
Thank you Tom for a remainder that it's not all doom and gloom. It's easy to look around at all of the construction and closed streets and feel like all that is going to change the Grove ... but at the end of the day, the Grove isn't about the buildings that occupy the Grove ... it's about the PEOPLE that occupy those buildings. The people that choose to live and work in the Grove. The sense of community. Being able to walk down the street and seeing your neighbors and friends. Knowing the wait staff in all of the restaurants. That is what the Grove is and will continue to be when all of this construction is finally over.
THE GROVE IS NOT THE SAME ANYMORE...ALL THE QUAINT HOMEYNESS IS BEING BUILT RIGHT OUT OF IT! IN NO TIME AT ALL IT WILL BE OVERBUILT AND CONGESTED AND THERE WILL BE NO SEMBLANCE LEFT OF THE BOHEMIAN ENCLAVE THAT ONCE WAS!!!!
Oh yes, after every high-rise goes up and the never ending construction of the next next one that will go higher after that, smiling, friendly faces will peer out of every skyscraper windows all the way up to the clouds. I love progress.
All life evolves as will the congestion. The dust will settle. QUAINT & HOMEYNESS is in the eye of the beholder. I don't enjoy the congestion & traffic, but there are a ton of nice people walking dogs and pushing baby carriages all over the Grove. New life is moving in. Hell, a couple of seemingly older nice Grovites wanted me to stop feeding a beautiful stray cat. The old is not always what's good.
I had to go to Kendall this morning to buy something I couldn't find nearby. Of course, there was no way to get there except in a car. No one in Kendall in his/her right mind would walk or bike anywhere. I agree it's hard to know exactly what the Grove will be like when all the dust settles. But it won't be Kendall--ever. Thank God!
You talk about the quaint homeyness of Coconut Grove while holding a Starbucks cup. I am so struck by the irony of this that I'm not sure where to begin.
I'm happy for you that the server saw you and was nice enough to delay making your coffee until she saw you actually coming, but honestly why are any of us supporting a business that displaces real hometown coffee shops and gives Howard Schultz more billions? Why not support one of our local indepent coffee shops which are steadily closing in the face of corporate competetion?
Another factor that is undermining our original small town feel is real estate developers driving out long-time businesses with such exteme raises in rent they can no longer afford to stay open. Look at the number of empty storefronts.
I'll stop now but there are more things to be said about what's happening to the Grove to dispute the idea that it is such a quaint little village.
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