[LarryRda]

There is always a balance.

Diversity should never drive away the "locals". Unfortunately, few places ever have a balance between local heritage and foreign influence. One drives the other out or keeps the other from gaining a foothold.

The problem seems to be that locals do not like to spend money. I am being harsh, but that seems to be the key.

The frugality may be two fold. The first is that the trend setters coming into an area like the East Village have, and do, spend a lot more than who wa sthere before them. They want to use money to take the novelty they find and make it comfortable enough for them to live in.

Second is just plain frugality. As much as everyone decries WalMart, I guarantee you most peopel in NYC would shop there, in sunglasses and an overcoat, to save money over Amish Market when looking for their daily needs.

And that 1-2 zaps the locals, who may get some buisness from people, but more people will go to Starbucks than to a genuine Italian cafe in Manhattan. Strangers will stick with what they know. People might get a good pair of dress shoes from the Italian Cobbler, but they will not get their daily shos from them. Off to Wal Mart! And w/o that daily purchasing, many cannot make enoug hto stick around.



Combine the 1-2 with 3. The fact that once people start moving in, all the locals do like we do. "It's not the same anymore" yadda yadda yadda.

While some of this has merit, removing a dry-cleaner for a curry shop might be great to most. But some will lament Sal being forced out of the city and what a great loss that tailor/cleaner will be to the community.



It is very easy to go one way or another, but keeping history and welcoming change has never been easy. Why do you think there are so few places that have done that?