Sunday, November 23, 2008

New Luxury Kills Old Beauty

I know just how these two buildings feel: The new guy moves in and tries to squeeze you out with his parvenu insensitivity. (Try Trader Joe's any day of the week and see how long your ankles last after being pounded from behind by your swanky new neighbor's shopping cart.)
If the Landmark Commission really protected old New York instead of bowing down to developers we wouldn't now have two old brownstones on Lexington Avenue crumbling from the new construction between them. (Check out the serious cracks on the front of both brownstones.) But what can one do? Well, short of joining Earth First and getting one's name on the FBI's most-wanted list, one can take photographs to serve as a record for the sad piecemeal destruction of our City. And like mice laughing at elephants, we can also continue to make fun of powerful ignoramuses; we will always have petty ridicule to comfort us. Can anyone say, combover? Doughy offspring?  Wilted cuckold?