I don’t live in the Big Apple, but I have siblings there and have visited frequently since the 1970s. I am very interested in New York’s history and geography, but the Bronx is the one borough I have not explored very thoroughly. I rode in the 5 Boros Bike Tour in May, and only a tiny section of the course went through the Bronx, just popping over the East River and back again. But yes, NYC in general has become more affluent, and also less interesting over the years. It’s also safer and generally more orderly, and when you are older those things aren’t so bad.

I live in Pittsburgh now, and just rode my bicycle down Butler Ave. through the Lawrenceville section of town. There must have been a cool little coffee shop every block, multiple micro-breweries, several live music venues of various sizes, and lots of restaurants of every variety. 25 years ago this area was an almost abandoned mill community with a lot of boarded up old buildings, but young entrepreneurs came in , did the work, and built the community back up. The city just stayed out of their way. Are luxury condos going in? They sure are, but the people moving into them are moving there because of the funky scene. Will all of this turn into Williamsburg? No, because it is still located in Pittsburgh, where the population is still less than half of what it was in 1960, so real estate is still affordable. Incidentally, Robert Moses designed our highway system here too, drawing up the Moses Plan of 1938 on contract with the city. For all of his faults, no real estate developers ever told that guy what to do.