Yesterday my good friend and neighbor informed me that he was moving to Miami. To be more specific, what he said was that he was moving to Miami in 2 weeks! This certainly came as a shock to me as he is the most popular guy on my block. When he moved here from England he did so with an idea of what living in a New York City neighborhood was supposed to be like. But when he got to this neighborhood much of that community feeling that the West Village once had was dissipated,so he he did his best to recreate that feeling all around him. In the summer he hangs out on his stoop when he's not working or at the gym or riding his motorcycle. Everyone who walks by gets a hello, and most of the time he knows the person.
So when he told me he was moving after ten years on the block I was a bit confused. All that love I thought he had for G.V. yet he was still able to just pick up and book it at moments notice... Thus the question of the day is: How long does it take for Greenwich Village to lose its mystique?
The rent is no longer affordable, the food is outrageously overpriced, most of the tenants would never have fit into what G.V. was twenty years ago... Still, my buddy was able meet and even introduce me to newer members of the community who I, with my nostalgic chip on my shoulder, would never would have thought twice about speaking to...
The constant is always that things change. But whether or not they have changed for the better is the real question. I suppose for my buddy, with the constant cycling of new people in and out of the area, the insane increase in the price of living, living in GV had become as much of a burden as it was an adventure... Plus he got robbed the other day, something that could happen anywhere. I guess he figures it's time to try living anywhere else...
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