I personally don't live in Brooklyn for the tantalizing prospect of having "euro tourists" come to check out my neighborhood. Neither does "street cred" make it onto my list of criteria for why I love the neighborhood.

As far as franchises vs. mom & pops goes, when all the mom & pops (not just in Brooklyn, but all across this great land of ours) imitate the big chains, what is the difference? Quality / price / experience given whether its food, gas, clothes, furniture, money, alcohlic beverages, etc. means more to me than the sign above the door.

I'd feel a lot worse if the neighborhood was going in the other direction -- empty storefronts, abandoned buildings. Interest of new people, bigger businesses is a net positive.

It's not a conspiracy, and nobody needs to educated or chastised. Once this neighborhood gets too tame, lame, or whatever tipping point adjective that has meaning for you, then you, I, we all can just... move. It's really simple.

Posted by: rich at September 18, 2007 3:14 PM in response to StreetLevel: Atlantic Earns Some Bread

I agree 3.36 about putting blood sweat and tears into a place, but -- not to get too zen or anything -- I think the effort put in is the payoff. You can't control how things are going to go, you're rarely the only person with a unique insight that a place is great, and many of the other people that also think a place is great have different trade offs and ideas about what is selling out and what is ok.

and 3.43 has it right. in a city as dense as brooklyn, if you do something well (like ozzie's doesn't in my opinion and NONE of the mom & pops in boerum hill do yet - though a new place is opening on atlantic between bond and hoyt i'm hopeful about) the big chains are not going to run you out.

and chains come and go, but the investment in renovations in the buildings they occupy will last a lot longer.

Posted by: rich at September 18, 2007 3:53 PM in response to StreetLevel: Atlantic Earns Some Bread