N.Y. Journal: The recession's silver lining

New Yorkers talk a lot about gentrification. I've never met someone who can give me a clear definition of this, but I at least understand it to be "the replacement of all that is rough-hewn and authentic with all that is slick and smooth." I know that it means everything becomes sleeker, cleaner, shinier, and more modern---and hence uglier and less genuine while also more expensive and altogether less worth having.

I also know that I am supposed to oppose gentrification on principle, despite being the cause of it as the young, white, middle-class working professional who moves to the ethnic neighborhood and demands Thai food and free Wi-Fi.

There's a silver lining to the recession in that it has slowed down developers and builders, and thus slowed down the uglification of New York City.

A friend involved in historic preservation told me that a real estate mogul was going to tear down three regal old townhouses whose brick and big windows take you straight to New York's past. The houses stand in midtown---a glut of buildings whose features are mainly being very tall and very square and very practical, and we can expect the same when the houses come down. Thanks to the recession, though, the developer has gone into debt and run out of money, so for now the houses still stand.

Other ugly buildings have halted in construction, half-finished. Another skyscraper stands in midtown with a brilliant green insulation plastering its outside because the builders took off the scaffolding and then ran out of money.

I know that construction creates jobs and that economically, the halt is not healthy. But aesthetically, we can enjoy the fact that developers won't be severing so many links to history so fast. New York's glamour is best redeemed when underneath there's a glimpse of its less glamorous, immigrant past. When you go the Lower East Side, you should be able to look past the hipsters who are draped across the bar and see the tenements where immigrants used to huddle. Thanks to the recession, we can see that a little more clearly for a little bit longer.