The Sand Bar on 116th Street in the Rockaways was a great place to pass the dusk at the end of a beach day. An open-air bar on the boardwalk. A crowd of happy drunks. Cheap drinks.
"We are not affordable housing developers," said Mark Caller, the principal partner, to a reporter.
A friend of mine extolled the project.
"It will bring new life to that area."
I hate the condo plague. The Rockaways have always been working-class and I like it that way. But just like the East Village, Chelsea, Harlem, Chinatown and many lower-income neighborhoods throughout NYC, the city prefers luxury condos to middle- or lower-class housing.
Why?
Not because of taxes. Because these condos will suck the life of the city. Economic and ethnic cleansing. Which is why landlords are the first on the list to be executed in a revolution.
In the words of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, "All property is theft."
And Chairman Mao believed the same thing. Except he also believed that all property belonged to the state. There has to be a middle ground, but the Marcal Group's plans are only for the rich.
So up against the wall, mother-fuckers or mā le ge bā zi in Mandarin.
Bring back the Sand Bar___
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