I walked today from the neighborhood I have lived in for more than 50 years to the neighborhood my husband and I lived in when we first moved to New York City.
I was ostensibly checking out a restaurant some friends are planning to meet for lunch next week. But because it was my old neighborhood, I tried to remember what remained and what was new.
Almost everything was new. The area has gentrified considerably. Restaurants that didn’t exist then line Columbus Avenue. Joe’s Seafood Restaurant, really a classic New York coffee shop, is gone; where it stood is a string of storefronts under construction, the building above them for sale. The Cuban deli on our corner is now a fancy hair salon. What had been the Sloan’s supermarket is now Gristede’s; the two chains appear to have been part of a series of mergers, according to a Google search. What had been a seedy, even dangerous bar called Donohue’s is now a trendy café, with lots of pandemic-generated outdoor tables.
What remains the same? The Spanish-language Mision Bethel still has its sign, but the building is for sale or rent. The elementary school on 83rd Street and the high school on 85th remain. That’s about it.
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Hi, another born and raised Big Apple dweller here. I know how you feel. The former tenement where I lived as a child is now a children's playground. A former supermarket is now a Walgreens, but the pizza shop remains. Going "home" is never the same for us urbanites, the City changes so quickly now.
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