Change happens. It’s not always good. It’s not always bad. I live in a part of the country where a 17,000 square foot yard with 4 levels of house is considered middle class and not all that big. Developers come in and try to fuck it up by putting four houses on an acre, maybe six. I hate it. But you know what, if I owned the land that a developer wanted to buy, would I stand on principal or sell? It’s easy to say what I would do if I am NOT in the position to do it. But it’s naive and disingenuous to say FOR SURE that I would.

As for your cynicism and quick temper combo, what the hell do you think keeps me coming back to disagree??

I myself am more of a cynical optimist smart ass who tries always to say what others are thinking but don’t have the balls to say.

You deliberately miss my point to announce what everyone who reads this site already knows: that I’m a cynic with a short temper. But I DID have a point in writing this post.

Certainly, if Varvatos had kept his mouth shut, that would have been a great start; I mean, I wouldn’t have been able to write this post if not for the stupid press release. But the very tone of the press release is sickening: Varvatos could have just announced that he was opening a new store – but he had to go out his way to talk about CBGB and the connection his store will allegedly have to CBGB. Is Hilly Kristal’s estate getting any money out of this? No. Varvatos has about as much to do with CBGB as this site does with country music; it’s bullshit posturing to give the create the perception that Varvatos is hip, and, ultimately, to make money off of that perceived hipness.

To that end, I’m really upset that yet ANOTHER neighborhood in Manhattan will now be tainted by the presence of a souless chain store. Real estate values will continue to rise, landlords will continue to raise rent (as is their right, I suppose), and nothing that ISN”T a Varvatos or Starbucks or Rite Aid or fucking whatever will be able to exist, and Manhattan will become a place of no cultural value, no historical value, no natives, and no actual interest to intelligent human beings; it will be Toledo with taller buildings. Call me idealistic, but the New York I grew up in – the NY we see portrayed in countless films, television shows, plays, books, the NY that so seems to fascinate people – will simply cease to exist. And what do you think will spring forth from this new New York? Another Ramones, another Patti Smith, another Velvet Underground – or fucking Fall Out Boy? I understand that you and I don’t always see eye to eye when it comes to music, but can’t we all agree that we don’t need another band that’s all surface and no substance – and that those bands naturally grow from a) lack of genuine life experience and b) greed?

Good for the landlords and CEOs for making so much money. They’re incredibly short sighted and we will all be the poorer for their short sightedness.

-AR

is, at least, respect.

Unless your answer is, “Just move your company quietly into the space and shut your mouth,” I sincerely wonder what would have made everyone here happy. Please educate me as to what scenario WOULD have played out without unlimited scorn from this site and its visitors? Because I truly believe NOTHING would have been satisfactory.