news from the hood

This guy was just a kid when I lived in this apartment building.  These apartments are 300 sq ft and he grew up here with a brother and 2 little girls and a little boy that were cousins - and their grandparents.  The mothers of the kids dumped them to be raised by the grandparents who were from the Dominican Republic and didn't speak any English.  The two little girls both ended up getting pregnant and having kids by the time they were 15 and I have no idea what became of them.  When I lived there, the guy (that was just arrested) got a scholarship to a college in Indiana and was the first in the family to get a shot at college.  I remember the day he left for school, the grandmother thought she was having a heart attack because she was so distraught about him leaving home.  He ended up getting expelled a few months later for having alcohol on campus and came home and ended up becoming a heroin addict.  He is still a junkie to this day.  His older brother died of an overdose about 5 years ago.  The grandparents died many years ago and this guy ended up inheriting a great deal on a rent-controlled apartment.  To be honest, I am surprised he is still alive.  44,59,54,0,B

Moe's Meat Market

Was chatting with one of my old NYC neighbors from Elizabeth St. the other day.  Her building which was across the street from mine got turned into a low income co-op about 12 years ago.  The city ended up relocated all the tenants so they could completely renovate the building.  She is just moving back in this week after waiting for 8 years!  She said it will be strange being back in the hood with a bunch of strangers on the block.  The old street is totally gentrified now with hipster tenants and expensive shops in almost every store front.  The building right next door to mine was owned by a nice old Hawaiian artist named Robert Kobayashi.  It still has the original sign out front from when it was a butcher shop.  His store front was a gallery of sorts for his paintings and sculpture.  He was always good for chats about when he first moved to the neighborhood when it was a drug infested wreck - and he loved talking about my crazy landlord that ended up going to jail while I lived there.  Did a little digging online and found out Kobi (as he was known) died last December.  His wife still owns that building and is sitting on a gold mine.  Kobi bought the building in 1977 for $35,000 and it is worth well over a million now.  My crazy landlord bought his building for $45,000 around the same time.  It sold in 2004 near the height of the housing bubble for $1.8 million.  92,101,78,0,C