I’m extremely upset about this. This is both my community and my job. I need to give myself some time to become a little less emotionally charged before I say anything - but please, IF YOU’VE EVER BEEN TO OR PLAYED AT UNION HALL, SHOW YOUR SUPPORT!People aren’t going to be happy until the only people living in New York anymore are families with babies, or crotchety old ladies who go to bed by 9 o’clock.
Union Hall, of all places, is so much more than a bar. And this is just another example of how New York is not the New York I signed up for. Pretty soon not only is it going to be impossible for artists to afford to live here, but there’s going to be nowhere left for them to go.
This makes me sick.
I tried to write something eloquent about this, but couldn’t put together the words. It makes me sick too, and I’ve never been to Union Hall, and to Park Slope only once. I’m not a native New Yorker, or even really a long term resident. And I’m a member of one of those families. Money and suburban attitudes are changing New York at a crazy, crazy pace: even 5 years ago it was a very different place. If you don’t like people, all kinds of people, and aren’t willing to accept their peculiarities and their choices about how they live their lives, go live somewhere else. If you moved to Brooklyn for the peace and quiet you were only kidding yourself: go live somewhere else. If you renovate a loft but the homeless guys still seek shelter in your doorway, and you can’t stand what that does to your property value, sell the loft and go live somewhere else. The last thing New York City is about is you. Thank god.