Exploring New York @ May 2013

Brooklyn / Will.i.amsburg

Just forget it.


Wait, wait, there is something to say, in case you are a sensitive soul, do not read this.
Brooklyn's Williamsburg is achieving an altitude of cultural hegemony within the Non-Manhattan-scene-propaganda which a good reason to get afraid or angry.
A chain reaction was following those reports in mass media between 2005 and 2010, that had reported on  Williamsburg as a interesting place beyond Manhattan's long term cultural ruling times. Yes, indeed, Williamsburg has been interesting. Many people went there. many people experienced nice streets with some bars, clubs, bakeries, boutiques and hotels. The chain reaction mentioned above came after a the huge body of copy-and-paste-journalism and it was produced by the Williamsburg folks. Travelling there often for many years, I have to state that this fame is not in a reciprocal relation to the real "realities" on Williamsburg. Either in the media conveyed reality or in the real world on "streets" the first and foremost phenomenon which one is encountering is a bunch of  overbearance, cockiness and hubris personified in young, explicitly bearded men with very slim trousers and a non-achievable niveau of sophistication.
The real and measurable outcome of cultural values, economic dynamics,  scientific knowledge or even, because often proclaimed, of their "creativity" is merely low.
Williamsburg is, evidently and obviously, a low intensity area in regard to  cultural values, economic dynamics, scientific knowledge and creativity.
It is, clearly, a high noisy ara: noise in the sense of physical noise (Rauschen) and in the sense of being just too loud. Implicitly echoing to it self.

 Ok, just forget it.     

Exploring New York @ May 2013

Bowery and NoLiTa are getting more mature.

In terms of cool urban places that offer a variety of subtle and small zones of comfort, no one beats NoLiTa. It 's just beautiful. It's a vision of city in the very European understanding: Cafés are (almost) European, the coffee is (almost) Italian, the bakeries are (almost) German and Austrian, groceries are (almost) Dutch or French. And I hope, indeed, they never became entirely European, the notion of being almost something is the most attractive thing about NoLiTa. 

Exploring New York @ May 2013

NY's Lower East Side is gentrifying, hell, why not?


China Twon is still, now for years, as I could remember, a well defined 3rd world enclave within the turbulences of gentrification, velocity, digital revolutions, big money, big data and big media.

Still, folks in China Town are wearing the same clothes they wore in the time of arrival. An arrival that could have been happened in 70ies, 90ies or three years ago. It does really not matter, when they came to NY, or why they chose NY as "exile", they work hard, as they did in other places, they earn their own money, and, indeed, they reject any kind of symbolic, representational or material assimilation with non-China-Town areas of NY or other urban epicenters of USA.

Still, folks in  China Town have similar habits on streets in regard to body movements, direct contact, noise production, symbolic gestures, wearing clothes, combing hairs, and looking people in the eyes; they had previously somewhere else. A subtle charm, a curious and distant gaze, and, more interestingly, a shameless ignorance of the surroundings.

I liked  China Town very much, and the people there. Their cool resilience, their calm resistance, their altruistic 3rd world charm and the look.

Exploring New York @ May 2013

Again, NY is a marvelous place to be