Nope, this time I'm talking about Beijing. Turns out their local government treats them as disrespectfully as ours does us.
An article titled
"Before Guests Arrive, Beijing Hides Some Messes" appeared in today's New York Times, and it portrayed some pretty striking parallels to what's going on on our block:
"A veil of green plastic netting now covers Ms. Sun’s restaurant. Mr. Song’s house and several shops that he rents to migrant families were surrounded by a 10-foot-tall brick wall last week, part of a last-minute beautification campaign. The authorities deemed his little block of commerce an eyesore."
A green wall erected to deal with blight?
Sounds about right."Now a wall conceals a little cove of entrepreneurship"
If Freddy's isn't a cove of entrepreneurship, then what is?
"Zhao Fengxia, a neighbor who owns three shops, said she believed that officials and developers were using Olympic beautification as a pretext to strangle their business and put pressure on them to leave."
Officials and developers are using pro basketball as a pretext to pressure us to leave. What is it with politicians using sports as a weapon against the poor? Give the poor sneakers, then evict them, then watch them compete from your sky box. That is sooo lame.
"The developers want him to go, but he is holding out for more money."
ahem. Pony up boys. Destroying a neighborhood don't come cheap.
"The city has bullied her to leave. One night last year, a bulldozer slammed into the building. ...Her building is falling apart."
Falling apart you say?"“For those of us who have lived through the Cultural Revolution, this life is like heaven.”"
My thoughts exactly.
This wall here isn't all bad. It was able to offer shelter to this homeless woman while she went through the dumpster in front of the Union hall on Dean St. She then laid down for a rest in it's shade.
Someone, perhaps Bruce Ratner, has taken it upon himself to gussy up the Dean St. Wall with artificial flowers. Maybe the developer was feeling some remorse for blighting up an unblighted neighborhood for so many years. Or maybe to coincide with the recent announcement that the arena won't be built for at least 4 years, FCR has decided that they should try to make some extra bucks by renting out the footprint as a wedding venue.
like to take this opportunity to familiarize those of you who aren't Dean St. regulars with what it means to live on this block. See these photos over here? That ravine (moat? maybe it's to protect us from invaders. oh wait, too late for that) is just a few feet from where we lay our heads at night. It now extends the entire length of the street and then some. It poses an annoyance in the form of making me walk farther every time I have to go somewhere and an extreme fire hazard in the form of preventing any convenient access to our building should it catch on fire. The walking further I can deal with. My work requires me to load and unload a lot of heavy gear into vehicles, and now I have to carry that stuff a good distance further, which sucks, but that's just me, and I can deal.
