looking back at my recent post, i expressed myself a bit inartfully. i don't think that Jackson Heights - or anything else - should be frozen in time/made to stay static, and i think it came off as if i did. one caveat: if i could go back in time and preserve the now long-gone Cavalier forever, i would.
i was trying to express my fondness for the social, "ethnic" and economic diversity of the neighborhood -- a diversity that, like it or not, isn't always reflected here. JH Life is, by and large, representative of a specific group of residents, one that's majority white, majority middle class and up. the interests and desires of that group tend to be a little different -- not better, not worse, just different.
what i was trying to express was a frustration with what i see as a desire to blend/homogenize the entire city so that it's all one undifferentiated mass -- rather than a series of neighborhoods, each with unique character. yes, New York neighborhoods have changed for centuries now -- but way back when, they didn't change in order to become more like everything else around them; they changed and adopted new character(s).
new businesses won't necessarily do that (a place to get a nice Guinness or some high quality bedding would be welcome). but adding the same stuff, in the same proportions, block after block, from long island city to rego park, certainly will detract from our character. JH is more than just pre-war buildings -- it's a place with a unique soul, one that i (and most of us, i think) want to nurture for the long run.
