So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[Zombie_61]

A flash of cold heart-stopping horror flashed thru me this morning when I opened the local paper to discover that, after decades of living in the North End, I am now a resident of "NoRo."

I truly despise the trend of giving old working-class neighborhoods cutesy names devised by greasy real-estate speculators to encourage gentrification. I despise it even more when it's my neighborhood so renamed.

Our house is so close to the westernmost border of Whittier (California) that you can't go much farther west without being in the next city. If I ever hear anyone refer to it as "We-Whi" I'll punch them right in the face.

 

[Fading Fast]

A flash of cold heart-stopping horror flashed thru me this morning when I opened the local paper to discover that, after decades of living in the North End, I am now a resident of "NoRo."

I truly despise the trend of giving old working-class neighborhoods cutesy names devised by greasy real-estate speculators to encourage gentrification. I despise it even more when it's my neighborhood so renamed.

The worst example of this in NYC was when, one day, I had no idea what people were talking about (which does happen a lot to me), when they said "he moved to "'Clinton,'" referring to a common friend of ours. And this was back when Bill Clinton was president, which only confused me more. Whoever was behind it - probably a combination of narrow-thinking developers and shallow-thinking bureaucrats - I don't know, but the incredibly tough, rough, blue-collar Irish neighborhood "Hell's Kitchen" (now that is a name) had become the God-awfully boring "Clinton."

I never thought it would stick, but it's "Clinton" today and only a few (like stubborn me) still refer to it as "Hell's Kitchen." I feel like it is an insult to all those Irish families that got their start in America in that neighborhood. I worked with a girl from there - back when kids with normal backgrounds could still manage to fight their way onto a Wall Street trading desk - and she had a street toughness to her that she masked for the job, but as we became friends, I saw she was no delicate flower. "Hell's Kitchen" made for hearty people - we should embrace its past and its name.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I always loved that Milton J. Cross, the most urbane radio announcer who ever lived and longtime broadcast commentator for the Metropolitan Opera, was born and raised in Hell's Kitchen. Likewise David Ross, who grew up to win an "International Diction Award" for reading poetry on the air in a rich faky voice. Ain't dat sum'pin'.

 

[Fading Fast]

I always loved that Milton J. Cross, the most urbane radio announcer who ever lived and longtime broadcast commentator for the Metropolitan Opera, was born and raised in Hell's Kitchen. Likewise David Ross, who grew up to win an "International Diction Award" for reading poetry on the air in a rich faky voice. Ain't dat sum'pin'.

Not playing that far from type, the '30s actor George Raft - who played a lot of gangsters - was from Hell's Kitchen.

 

[tonyb]

A flash of cold heart-stopping horror flashed thru me this morning when I opened the local paper to discover that, after decades of living in the North End, I am now a resident of "NoRo."

I truly despise the trend of giving old working-class neighborhoods cutesy names devised by greasy real-estate speculators to encourage gentrification. I despise it even more when it's my neighborhood so renamed.

In years past (more years than I care to recall) I resided in what were then called "inner-city" districts, a designation which connoted crime, danger, etc. I lived in such places because I could afford to live in such places. My motives were truly nothing more noble than that.

Those districts are largely gentrified now. And the names of the neighborhoods have in some cases been supplanted as well. One old home of mine, where I lived for nearly 20 years, went from the Central District to South Capitol Hill. The property itself didn't go anywhere, of course, but it seemed that everything and everybody else did. (That modest little house has since been demolished and replaced with a structure built as wide and as tall as code allows, and to hell with the neighbors and their views, which is precisely what I predicted would eventually happen.)

Now I live in a suburb, in a neighborhood of split-level and ranch-style houses all built within a year or so of each other during the 1970s. This neighborhood is considerably more "diverse" than those old "inner-city" districts are these days. My new neighborhood is where the persons of color and the young working-class families and the retirees on fixed incomes live, for mostly the same reason I do: it's what we can afford.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The downfall of our neighborhood has begun with the purchase of an old church which some fromaways turned into an art gallery and are now trying to flip for three times what they paid for it. It's only a matter of time before we turn into North Williamsburg. "NoRo" my toches.

 

[BlueTrain]

Some neighborhoods in some cities may never be gentrified, if it's of any comfort. Some will scarcely change, others may continue to decay until finally they neighborhood is razed, all in the name of urban renewal. Part of the problem is, we, as Americans, generally don't like being told what to do and one result is that it is impossible to have any kind of community control over where we live until it's too late. Then the neighborhood becomes not so much gentrified (thought that happens) but commercialized in a different way. The little people get thrown out, even including small businesses. Neighborhoods become sterile, which of course is what some people want. They don't want a place where people can actually both live and work and sit on their stoops in the evening but merely a place to stay when they come home from work.

You know those parts of town that are usually considered the bad parts of town? That's what most parts of most towns were at one time. The nice people who lived in the nicer parts of town scarcely knew anything about the people who lived on the other side of the tracks. They were invisible.

Curiously, I believe those who want to make living conditions better for those who live in dumps may do more to create homelessness than anything else.

 

[tonyb]

Interesting story on this very matter in the latest issue of The New Yorker. It doesn't plow any new ground, but it does shine a light on some persistent myths.

I accept that things change, which is not to wash my hands of all that is wrought by change and my meager part in it. What I can't stomach, though, is newcomers casting themselves as saviors. I just wanna choke those professional class white people who profess to treasure the "diversity" of their recently adopted district. Do they not recognize that the 'hood is made all the less diverse by their very presence?

Don't apologize for your whiteness, or your occupation, or your education. But don't throw out your shoulder patting yourself on the back for moving into a neighborhood that had been down at the heel.

 

[BlueTrain]

It isn't whether you're white or black, it's who gets to say which you are.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Meanwhile today is the first day of the local Blues Festival, an event which brings about ten thousand hard-drinking people to town, in a town with about six hundred parking spaces. If that's not fun enough to look forward to for the next three days, I am now sitting in my home office, about a mile and a quarter from the festival grounds, and the thunderous din of distorted electric guitars is shaking my floor. Ah, the happy days of summertime.

 

[vitanola]

The worst example of this in NYC was when, one day, I had no idea what people were talking about (which does happen a lot to me), when they said "he moved to "'Clinton,'" referring to a common friend of ours. And this was back when Bill Clinton was president, which only confused me more. Whoever was behind it - probably a combination of narrow-thinking developers and shallow-thinking bureaucrats - I don't know, but the incredibly tough, rough, blue-collar Irish neighborhood "Hell's Kitchen" (now that is a name) had become the God-awfully boring "Clinton."

I never thought it would stick, but it's "Clinton" today and only a few (like stubborn me) still refer to it as "Hell's Kitchen." I feel like it is an insult to all those Irish families that got their start in America in that neighborhood. I worked with a girl from there - back when kids with normal backgrounds could still manage to fight their way onto a Wall Street trading desk - and she had a street toughness to her that she masked for the job, but as we became friends, I saw she was no delicate flower. "Hell's Kitchen" made for hearty people - we should embrace its past and its name.

For a few years in my youth I lived in an old factory building at Tenth and 52nd, a couple stories above a dry cleaning plant. I used to use the freight elevator to bring my little old car upstairs and park it in the living room.

 

[tonyb]

Meanwhile today is the first day of the local Blues Festival, an event which brings about ten thousand hard-drinking people to town, in a town with about six hundred parking spaces. If that's not fun enough to look forward to for the next three days, I am now sitting in my home office, about a mile and a quarter from the festival grounds, and the thunderous din of distorted electric guitars is shaking my floor. Ah, the happy days of summertime.

I half expect "summertime blues festival"(TM), examples of which can be found in all corners of this great land, to become shorthand for a type of cliched cultural phenomenon, sort of like "Kumbaya" is for the folkies. You know, "that bandana is sooooo summertime blues festival."

The drag of it is that really good blues is a really good thing.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The audience does seem to be a certain type of sixtysomething white person who travels around the country in an outsized RV, smokes a lot of dope, and drinks a lot of beer. Hopefully not all at the same time.

It can be pretty entertaining though. They close off Main Street on Saturday night for a "pub crawl," allowing all of these folks to imbibe freely until 1 am, and you do get some paradigm-shatterers in the mix. A couple years ago there was a fellow with a boa constrictor wearing a little vest that said "service animal." And the year before that, a grown man wandering the street in a full Batman costume. In 90+ heat. His cape was rather damp and smelly by the time he got to our end of the street.

 

[vitanola]

The audience does seem to be a certain type of sixtysomething white person who travels around the country in an outsized RV, smokes a lot of dope, and drinks a lot of beer. Hopefully not all at the same time.

It can be pretty entertaining though. They close off Main Street on Saturday night for a "pub crawl," allowing all of these folks to imbibe freely until 1 am, and you do get some paradigm-shatterers in the mix. A couple years ago there was a fellow with a boa constrictor wearing a little vest that said "service animal." And the year before that, a grown man wandering the street in a full Batman costume. In 90+ heat. His cape was rather damp and smelly by the time he got to our end of the street.

So it's just like "Bixfest", only different, eh?

 

[Touchofevil]

The drag of it is that really good blues is a really good thing.

And hard to find around here. I can easily find plenty of cheesy middle aged mediocre talented blues called crap. It's like calling Kenny G. a jazz musician let alone a good one.

 

[tonyb]

The audience does seem to be a certain type of sixtysomething white person who travels around the country in an outsized RV, smokes a lot of dope, and drinks a lot of beer. Hopefully not all at the same time.

It can be pretty entertaining though. They close off Main Street on Saturday night for a "pub crawl," allowing all of these folks to imbibe freely until 1 am, and you do get some paradigm-shatterers in the mix. A couple years ago there was a fellow with a boa constrictor wearing a little vest that said "service animal." And the year before that, a grown man wandering the street in a full Batman costume. In 90+ heat. His cape was rather damp and smelly by the time he got to our end of the street.

Outsized RV beats the hell out of a VW Microbus.

How does this festival rate among the events that bring money to your fair little burg?

Speaking of service animals ... The dewy-eyed bride tells of riding on a city transit bus when a young man boarded with a live chicken under each arm.

"Don't tell me," the driver said. "Service chickens?"

 

[tonyb]

And hard to find around here. I can easily find plenty of cheesy middle aged mediocre talented blues called crap. It's like calling Kenny G. a jazz musician let alone a good one.

No argument here. Just because blues is simple doesn't mean it's easy.

I happened to spend a couple of school years in the company of one Kenny Gorelick. We had a couple three or four classes together. I doubt he has any recollection of me whatsoever.

I don't begrudge him his success. Which is not to say I listen to him much. But obviously some people do. Lots of 'em, judging by the record sales.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Outsized RV beats the hell out of a VW Microbus.

How does this festival rate among the events that bring money to your fair little burg?

Speaking of service animals ... The dewy-eyed bride tells of riding on a city transit bus when a young man boarded with a live chicken under each arm.

"Don't tell me," the driver said. "Service chickens?"

What it brings here is hard to quantify. It's the biggest weekend of the year, by far, for our many drinking establishments, and the beer distributors keep fully loaded trucks on call, but increasingly people sleep in their RVs or trucks rather than stay in the hotels for the weekend. We tried participating in it at the theatre for a couple of years by having a band in to play during the pub crawl, but the free music in the streets made it kind of pointless and it was very difficult and expensive to pay for the extra help needed to police the drinking. So we gave it up, and just run our regular programming. Which doesn't do much for us, but if I put a coin lock on the bathrooms we'd make a fortune. The people who rent out their dooryards for parking at $10 a throw also do well.

 

[Trenchfriend]

@LizzieMaine

Of course the same problem, like in Germany. All usual "events/festivals" are nothing more than gastronomy-festivals, in reality. That's because I don't like usual festivals and so all festivals with music and gastronomy.
And with the Blues, I think you mean loud "Blues-Rock" going on. The typical problem, like here, that the people probably don't want loungy music, like only Blues. So normally Rock or Blues-Rock is played, because the people want entertainment and drinking and the event-organizer offers this.

So, I can feel for you, Lizzie!

Years ago, we got year by year a metal festival with more or less than 7.000 people outside the edge of my little-town, because the organizer was from nearby village and so the festival happens between our town and the nearby village.
And the people here were of course very happy, that the festival was far enough from our little-town, so sleeping at night, with closed windows, wasn't a problem. And of course the people were happy, too, as with one year the festival moved to another area, far from our area and will never come back.

 

[Fading Fast]

The worst example of this in NYC was when, one day, I had no idea what people were talking about (which does happen a lot to me), when they said "he moved to "'Clinton,'" referring to a common friend of ours. And this was back when Bill Clinton was president, which only confused me more. Whoever was behind it - probably a combination of narrow-thinking developers and shallow-thinking bureaucrats - I don't know, but the incredibly tough, rough, blue-collar Irish neighborhood "Hell's Kitchen" (now that is a name) had become the God-awfully boring "Clinton."

I never thought it would stick, but it's "Clinton" today and only a few (like stubborn me) still refer to it as "Hell's Kitchen." I feel like it is an insult to all those Irish families that got their start in America in that neighborhood. I worked with a girl from there - back when kids with normal backgrounds could still manage to fight their way onto a Wall Street trading desk - and she had a street toughness to her that she masked for the job, but as we became friends, I saw she was no delicate flower. "Hell's Kitchen" made for hearty people - we should embrace its past and its name.

So I post this ^^^ yesterday and then caught this line in today's WSJ:

Known variously as Hell’s Kitchen, Clinton or Midtown West, the neighborhood runs along the West Side of Manhattan.​

My experience is "Clinton" has replaced "Hell's Kitchen" but, yes, sometimes people say "Midtown West," but since the article disputed what I said - and what I still believe to be true - I wanted to post for honesty's sake.