Tuesday, April 25, 2017

WRITING AT DUSK


"Gatsby"
135 Houston Street, New York City
I wonder how F.Scott Fitzgerald would have described this?
 Suddenly Houston Street's become the Street of Dreams--a venue with classy lush life vendors and fancy nail salons for the 'wanna-be's', the late night private clubers and daylight sight seers. It's a mixed neighborhood now, very rich and extremely poor. Like oil and water, it can be painfully divisive, sometimes fatal for those in the latter group, who are, for the most part, original residents increasingly unable to afford living there.  Whole blocks of low to moderate rental buildings have been raised, making way for huge towers to rise, pushing the elderly aside, blotting out sunlight and sky in order to house that former group in the life style which they wish to become accustomed.
(see link for photographs)
example:

Hortus
 "We strive to create a relaxing and soothing experience for all of our guests. please kindly refrain from speaking on your mobile phones." How long would it take you to get used to superior nail salon luxury?
(see link for more information)
“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
-from The Great Gatsby" by F.Scott Fitzgerald- 
~*~

Weather
On one of many stormy evenings, having spent a day sorting medical and benefit files, my thoughts drift forward; what's difficult now is surely going to be more difficult as the years accumulate.
I'm jus' sayin' - It's what's on my mind.

I've begun to research those 'Independent Living' apartments with elevators. wheelchair friendly layout, and Social Services in residence. A positive step I might have taken ten years ago had I been conscious. Yes there are long wait times and shrinking options because of our currently over stressed economy, but, 'Better late than never', or so they say, and I'm rooting for 'them!

EIGHTY
by William Stafford
No big deal, anyone could do it
just count by tens: ten, twenty,
thirty, forty, fifty, sixty,
seventy - and you're there,
perched on the little island
with the cake on it,
ready to sing all those years again
and untie the ribbons 
~*~
links
The Gatsby Hotel
http://www.gatsbyhotelnyc.com/gallery
Hortus
http://www.hortusnailworks.com/about/
"Eighy"
http://www.williamstafford.org/spoems/pages/being80.html

2 comments:

grace Forrest~Maestas said...

independent living

Mo Crow said...

(((Michelle))) the gentrification of the inner city is happening here too, displacing the artists, poets, vagabonds and madmen, people are begging on the streets, government housing is being sold off to the rich, our time in this big city is drawing to a close, would like another 4 years til I am eligible for a government pension and we can become grey nomads...