Losing our identity
Interesting column in the Charleston Post and Courier, their daily newspaper. It's called "Charleston is on the cusp of losing its identity," and I guess it proves that the whole country is losing its identity. Things change and it's a thing that happens all over.
I have a cousin who has not lived in Williamsburg, Brooklyn for many years, maybe 30 or more, he's my father's cousin, so it could even be 40 years, yet he complains about the gentrification there. I'm sure he's remembering his childhood growing up in Brooklyn "When Brooklyn was the world," but he has not been back since. By the way, the When Brooklyn Was the World book is excellent. I've bought it four times already; once as a gift and three times for myself. I keep losing it or maybe people are taking it. Either way, it's a great book.
He calls the hipsters "hippies," and complains about the f-king hippies who ruined the area. Yet, Williamsburg, Brooklyn is so hip, it's almost over now.
In Charleston, the author of the column, Edward M. Gilbreth says, "People have had it with infrastructure problems, traffic, tourism overload, an unbelievable explosion of big box buildings and sprawling subdivisions, the paving of paradise to put up parking lots. Conde Nast and their now painfully annoying accolades and awards, changes in the city’s identity and dilution of its culture, drainage problems, worsening tidal flooding and no apparent progress being made to repair the Battery seawall and save parts of the lower peninsula from becoming another Atlantis."
Sound familiar?
He goes on, "Longtime residents are frustrated because, as the current and rather sad observation on the street goes, it took 350 years to build this great city and now we’re in the process of seeing it ruined in what amounts to the blink of an eye."
It's usually the things that attract people and new development that are eventually ruined in the process of it's popularity. In other words, the things people come for are the things that are quickly disappearing.
I have a cousin who has not lived in Williamsburg, Brooklyn for many years, maybe 30 or more, he's my father's cousin, so it could even be 40 years, yet he complains about the gentrification there. I'm sure he's remembering his childhood growing up in Brooklyn "When Brooklyn was the world," but he has not been back since. By the way, the When Brooklyn Was the World book is excellent. I've bought it four times already; once as a gift and three times for myself. I keep losing it or maybe people are taking it. Either way, it's a great book.
He calls the hipsters "hippies," and complains about the f-king hippies who ruined the area. Yet, Williamsburg, Brooklyn is so hip, it's almost over now.
In Charleston, the author of the column, Edward M. Gilbreth says, "People have had it with infrastructure problems, traffic, tourism overload, an unbelievable explosion of big box buildings and sprawling subdivisions, the paving of paradise to put up parking lots. Conde Nast and their now painfully annoying accolades and awards, changes in the city’s identity and dilution of its culture, drainage problems, worsening tidal flooding and no apparent progress being made to repair the Battery seawall and save parts of the lower peninsula from becoming another Atlantis."
Sound familiar?
He goes on, "Longtime residents are frustrated because, as the current and rather sad observation on the street goes, it took 350 years to build this great city and now we’re in the process of seeing it ruined in what amounts to the blink of an eye."
It's usually the things that attract people and new development that are eventually ruined in the process of it's popularity. In other words, the things people come for are the things that are quickly disappearing.
posted by Tom Falco at 4:00 AM
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