There Goes the Neighborhood
Photo by kluv32, under a Creative Commons license
I used to love Jersey City, a quaint hodgepodge of an enclave where cutting edge abutted the antiquated, and peals of church bells dinged the hours on the hour. Well, alright, a part of me still does, but the neighborhood keeps changing on us, subtle and chameleon-like, until one day I peeked out of the window and barely recognized the new thing it’s become. Condos are being erected—huge concrete phalluses that soar into the sky and obscure the waterfront. The musty secondhand bookshop moved, then the bakery, which always had fresh, piping-hot peach pastries and melt-in-your-mouth chocolate croissants. Our favorite tea shop shuttered. The following month, the Chinese restaurant that was practically an extension of our home changed owners. (The food just doesn’t taste the same. Plus, they’ve repainted the walls a nauseating salmon.)
The lovely lesbian couple upstairs bought a house in Journal Square, so we don’t see them anymore, nor do we hear their yapping Lhasa Apso, Lola, or feel her wet nose nuzzle into our hands. A man and woman now live upstairs; over the course of a year, they’ve became more than roommates, adopted a pair of kittens, and have loud sex. We think they must wear combat boots and herd rhinos the way they stomp about at night. Our landlord and his wife—as well as his Indonesian Chinese mother-in-law, who always pressed containers of leftovers into our hands—moved out from the downstairs apartment to find room for their growing brood. In their place, two nondescript girls who never say hello, and a crass smoker who tosses his garbage into the recycling bin and never picks up his mail. If this is “progress,” then I think I’ve had just as much as I can stomach.
Oh, and we’re getting a STARBUCKS.
Rory said,
March 17, 2008 at 9:02 pm
Though being new to Jersey City, I know exactly what you mean. I took the light rail home last night and it occurred to me that all new portions of JC are simply huge massive piles of concrete. No character, no life, and I can’t imagine these places to be very homey and have a sense of community. Maybe we should be neighbors. I’m a maniacal recycler.
Sheryl said,
March 17, 2008 at 11:35 pm
I had the pleasure of living in Europe for awhile and I miss it terribly. In so many cases they stuck to neighborhood classics and resisted “progress”. That wonderful community living is very hard to find in the United States.
Christina said,
March 18, 2008 at 8:14 am
Ugh… why can’t people just be a little more respectful. I hate inconsiderate neighbours.And as for that guy putting rubbish in the recycling bin, my blood would boil! Here in Ireland some people think “progress” is concreting over our beautiful countryside with ugly badly built suburban estates and bungalow blight. Poor planning and greed is destroying our country, so it’s an infection that’s spread here too :(
Juanita said,
March 18, 2008 at 9:59 am
So, my dear friend, is JC going to lose your inhabitance?
craftydabbler said,
March 18, 2008 at 11:24 am
I’m sorry. One of my favorite neighborhoods is going through this right now. It used to be eclectic, art-full and interesting, now it is martini bars and clothes shops for 20-somethings. Sigh. I just make a point of going to the places I love as much as possible in hopes they will remain.
matt said,
March 18, 2008 at 7:00 pm
I feel your pain. We owned a condo in an older building, in our quiet SF Bay Area town. It was right in the middle of a bunch of really cool older Spanish-style homes, and other relics of the 1940s. And then people started selling to developers, and new ugly condos started popping up. No loud neighbors, just the non-stop din of construction.
We moved and now have our own cool, little 40s bungalow on the other side of town.
erin said,
March 22, 2008 at 10:15 am
oh…its so sad….and happening everywhere. the popular developer nightmare here in new mexico is legions of quickly built plywood homes then made to look like adobe….we call them plydobe. their gross.
kalen said,
March 25, 2008 at 3:15 pm
i’m always terrified that one day our peaceful, nice neighbors will be replaced with wild, loud, 10 children families that play awful music, smoke, and play baseball with trash in their yard.
here’s to hoping that never happens!
Julie said,
March 27, 2008 at 2:03 pm
I really enjoy your blog, it’s blogs like yours that helps to make my path towards ecoism easier.
Sorry to hear about your neighborhood. I live in Long Island City and I understand completely, all the nice neighbors in my small building have moved out and in their place, we have young surly, unfriendly, even quite rude people moving in. We don’t have a Starbucks yet, but it’s only time til they move in. Sigh!
Philippa said,
March 29, 2008 at 7:11 am
My south London neighbourhood, which I have loved for five years, has just acquired its second estate agent. In the space of as many months. It also has a designer Italian kitchen shop, instead of the Portuguese deli which rarely had any food, but, when it did, made your heart stand still for a second, and my favourite curry house has changed its flock wallpaper and shelves of plastic plants for white, white, and white, and, I suspect, a different cook, as the brinjal bhajee hasn’t been quite the same since. The people in the flat upstairs (who, actually, I’m pleased to see go) are trying to sell their flat to a developer, one of the (long-closed) local pubs has spawned umpteen studio flats, and the local friendly home-food restaurant has become a lounge bar. I think it’s time to move, but just that thought makes my stomach turn over and my heart ache, like knowing that you have to face up to the loss of a loving, nurturing relationship somewhere along the way when you just weren’t looking.
hele said,
April 11, 2008 at 11:49 am
I’ve just happily discovered your blog.
Our neighborhood is also changing. The fields are getting smaller, the roads are being tarred and a huge train track is being built across the bottom meadows. There is nowhere to move now but out of town.