Schlepping in the West Village. Cold and windy but bright. Glamour and
sensuality are well hidden today, layered away for winter. The same
could be said for the heady, expansive displays of prosperity which
ruled till just yesterday.
Christopher Street, once the epicenter of gay commerical life, is half shuttered and empty. Many storefronts are bare except for rebtal signs in English and Spanish. Familiar coffee bars and eateries seem long gone. The same forlorn sense spreads to Hudson and Greenwich streets and beyond.
Well beyond. Shops and restaurants that were part of the familiar scenery become landmarks only when they disappear. I see it in my area, which is on the fringe of the Midtown East business district.
I'm not going to wax elegiac and nostalgic over these changes. You do worry though. How will a lot of people manage to pay the rent? How will they hang on? And, again in the context of the West Village, how many people will still shell out few grand for a Lulu Guinness purse?
This time I think it's trickle-up distress.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
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