Should the shrine at Nostrand and Park Place, R.I.P.?

The former version of western CH is disappearing because folks like you insist on tearing it down + painting it over (albeit through sly passive language- "the former version of western CH is rapidly disappearing"- says who?)

I would just leave the mural alone. Its existence is of no consequence to the "new" CH and it could continue to provide some much needed familiarity to the "old" CH.

We, the recently arrived or of a different skin tone, always get blamed for everything. Really the people blaming us should blame themselves for being unable to accept change in the world.

newguy88 said:

We, the recently arrived or of a different skin tone, always get blamed for everything. Really the people blaming us should blame themselves for being unable to accept change in the world.

Its not a matter of having different skin color as it is completely rejecting/disregarding/painting over the old character of the neighborhood. Id say the same to whynot if he were black. I left CH because where I was did not line up with what I wanted in a neighborhood... I didnt disregard the folks there and treat it like a blank canvas to be painted to my liking.

CTK has enough sour grapes to start a whinery.

The "character of the neighborhood" has changed a dozen times over the last century and a half. No one has asked anyone's opinion about it before, not when farms were being turned into mansions for wealthy New York bankers and lawyers, not when immigrants started flooding in, not when in the 1970's after MLK was killed and it wasn't safe to be white in this neighborhood anymore and that section of the population largely moved to New Jersey and Long Island, nor in the 1980's when crack arrived.

There are only two groups of people for whom the neighborhood is not better now than it was in 1990: drug dealers, and those who can't afford it anymore. For the latter, I'm sorry, but it's a free country, and you can't stop people from freely buying and selling real estate, opening stores, or renovating spaces and raising rents. That's part of what makes this country great, and what makes New York City the vibrant, dynamic, and heterogeneous community that it is.

If you felt you represented the good "character of the neighborhood" that isn't here anymore, CTK, then maybe you shouldn't have left. You have no one to blame but yourself.

Meanwhile, everybody else can go and enjoy the parade.

Well, It seems the names are all homicide victims. The Marines were murdered in North Carolina, but one of them lived in the neighborhood. Another was shot in a nightclub. My personal favorite is Damon Allen, a decorated sanitation worker who had rescued a girl thrown out of the window of a burning building, was shot in the head while protecting others at a birthday party. Shooter had strong armed a robbery and came back for retribution after he was chased and captured but got away.