…on cycles

"this shit runs in cycles", the bastard says to himself.

no really.

I said this to myself on the train this morning.

you move into a hood.

everything is shiny and optimistic

then shit ensues.

it happened in fohi

it happened in the reverse in manhattan.

and the cycle seemed to start up.

you see, we moved into a new building and in the back is an old building that used to be a bar.

and it turns out it's gonna be a bar again.

so the bastard is thinking it's 2000-2008 on metropolitan all over again.

I decide that I don't want it to be like that again.

also, the guy who is going to run the place is doing a build blog.

so rather than let history repeat itself, I decide a better man (the better man I want to be) will ask upfront what's gonna happen.

and he responded.

turns out he's a reasonable guy.

doesn't want to make the hood mad. he wants to be a good neighbor. because he wants the hood to come drink beer at his new place. this seems like a foreign concept with relation to my experience in forest hills.

the bastard is optimistic about this. he likes when a businessman wants to work with the community.

be a good neighbor.

not just some guy trying to turn a buck.

nothing like Danny was.

and as I sit out on the balcony overlooking this new bar, sipping bourbon, I wonder if Danny still walks the earth.

karma dealt him a bad hand after his restaurant closed and I'm not altogether unhappy about it.

I just hope the fates don't give me pancreatic cancer for being a dick to my neighbors.

—the bastard