I was born in Elmhurst, Queens, which at that time was a predominantly Italian neighborhood – it was where Justice Antonin Scalia was from – and I lived in Astoria, which was then a predominantly Greek neighborhood. And even though I was a kid when my family moved us to Northern Virginia, I remember the milieu very well nonetheless. And every visit to New York in recent times makes the bifurcation or the dichotomy between the “Old New York” and the “New New York” very much visible to me. Astoria, for instance, has very much been overtaken by the “New New York.” I would assume that most of the city has been overtaken by the “New New York.” But as I said before, I am very much of the “Old New York.”
And I had a train of thought going with this, this was in fact supposed to lead to some other important point, but it has eluded me at this very moment for some odd reason. The point is perhaps that these changes and transformations then prompt the question of how to cope or deal with them. It’s perhaps more of a cultural shift than it is an economic shift, even though there are economics involved as well. The White, Jewish, Italian, and Greek New York is very much being overtaken by a Slavic, Middle Eastern, African, and Asian New York, along with a wealthier New York now being eclipsed by a working-class New York. It’s fascinating and intriguing to say the least. But New York is perhaps a microcosm or a sample of what is going on in a global sense, let alone in the country itself. Given, of course, that New York is the wealthiest and most important city in the world on so many different dimensions and levels.
Adam A. Azim 