Standing Water
©2011 Craig Ashby
Digital Photograph

Standing Water is another shot from my neighborhood. A bridge right near the dog run. Neither of which are ever truly kept up. It’s always standing water and droopy cyclone fencing.

Most of the neighborhood still has this kind of detritus and decay. Gentrification can’t win against entropy. Standing water happens even when Michelin stars are present.

Gentrification has been coming for our neighborhood for many years. Once the New York Times building went up we knew things were going to be forever different. It didn’t take long for the hotels to come in.

My favorite hotel marketing scheme in our neighborhood is one that sells itself as green. Trust me when I say the construction nightmare they created was anything but green. They only know one kind of green and it has nothing to do with being ecoconscious.

For the most part the building boom in New York City and particularly in our neighborhood is frightening. I thought that the malling/mauling of this city would eventually end. I never thought it would become so intense I could lose the narrative.