City of Cranes

Downtown:


Old is replaced by new. Though in this case, we still would have had the old if circumstance hadn't intervened. And whether we like or dislike the finished product that's put on those sixteen acres downtown, they'll be old friends one day.

The big news lately has been that Mars Bar finally closed, or was closed by the health dept, in advance of the building being torn down next month. All of the hip, "save old New York" people are crying and saying that NYC is finally dead. I even read in a blog by one of these people where the person states that, "all my favorite places are closing."

Now I've posted on this blog several times about how I feel about the changing city, and how I feel about the complainers who complain about our changing city, but for the first time, I've realized that it's absolutely selfish to want things to stay the same. "All my favorite places are closing." Isn't it the height of self-indulgence to want everything to stay the same just for you? Now I've said before that I'm not thrilled with all the changes to the city either, but I've come to accept them. I've come to accept that I've lived here long enough so that I had "my city" and my time. Then again, I'm still here and this still is my city.

For every old fart and late 20s early 30s fart who moved here a few years ago and wishes everything would stay in some kind of 1970s time capsule and that nothing would be torn down and nobody would die, there's hundreds of young people moving here for the very first time thinking that New York City is the greatest place on earth (which it is), and in 20 years, they'll be bitching about how all their old haunts from 2011 are now being knocked down for condominiums or windfarms or soylent green processing plants or god knows what.

And yes, I know that the closing of Mars to be replaced by a high rise has nothing to do with the project downtown, but it's my blog and if I want to discuss both in one post, I'm a gonna do it, by gum.

So yes, as I've said before...Cities are always going to change, and the longer you stay in one city, the more it's going to change. And yeah, sometimes change can hurt, but that doesn't mean it ain't gonna happen. Just be thankful you had what you had, and hopefully you didn't take it for granted. And instead of bitching and crying, why not look ahead. If that place and those people meant so much to you, pick up the phone. Keep in touch. Keep those bonds tight if you mean what you say. If you don't, then what was it all really for?