Editorial comment: A pain that lingers

If there’s anything you need, and you can find it in Kingsbridge, now is the time to buy it.

The Kingsbridge area has just been kicked while it was already down.

Millions of gallons of water, mud and even oyster shells that exploded out of the ground below Broadway at West 231st Street poured into businesses that were already facing hard times.

The city reacted with great speed, and a walk through the intersection could leave you doubting that anything ever happened there. There’s no water to be seen and even the hole in the ground that looked so grievous is already patched almost to perfection. People up the hill in Riverdale may already be forgetting the day when some of them turned on their taps and waited for water that would take more than 24 hours to arrive.

But the merchants of Kingsbridge may have a harder time forgetting what happened at 3:30 a.m. on that Sunday morning.

A story in the June 11 edition of The Press detailed some of the problems facing the area under the el. They ranged from limited parking, to the recent 231st Street Station renovations, to usurious lending practices, to an economy that has left many out of work and may still turn out to be more akin to a depression than the type of recession — however terrible — that most of people have experienced in their lifetimes.

All of the above issues are undoubtedly factors in the troubles facing Kingsbridge. But there are also problems that have been around for at least 20 years. New Yorkers’ shopping patterns have changed, especially in areas like Riverdale, where many people own cars. People, when they need something, tend not to look to their neighbors, but to shopping malls and big-box stores.

The abandonment of main streets is a national fact, as seen in endless news reports, but it’s also very much a local issue

There are plenty of reasons to head up to White Plains, or Westchester, or even New Jersey to do your shopping; big name brands, sometimes the promise (though not always the reality) of lower prices, and a variety of identical products sold under different labels at often ridiculous prices.

But you can’t get in your car, add a size to your carbon footprint, buy a burger from McDonalds, stop by the Abercrombie and Fitch store for a $30 T-shirt and then complain about the homogeneity of America. By heading out to the mall instead of heading down the hill or over to Johnson Avenue, or up to Riverdale Avenue, we begin to rob our area of the uniqueness we say we crave, while picking the pockets of our neighbors.

It’s a problem you can do something about. You might want to start in Kingsbridge, which now badly needs your help.

Stores that were flooded because of the city’s aging infrastructure sell everything from food (some of it delicious), to clothing, to art.

If there’s anything you need, now’s the time to buy it. Need a haircut, want to see yourself in the latest hairstyles? You have plenty of places to choose from. Do you have some money in your flexible-spending account that you were planning to spend on a new pair of glasses by the end of the year? Stop by an optician down on West 231st Street and order them today. If you’re hungry, stop by for a sandwich, lunch or dinner. Need any sort of hardware or paint? You won’t have trouble finding it in Kingsbridge.

It’s time to give Home Depot and Banana Republic a pass and try a store on Broadway.

This is part of the June 25, 2009 online edition of The Riverdale Press.

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