Working life - Masako's New York

Another side of New York

By Masako Yamada

古いビルの壁に消えず残っている、一本5セントで売られていたことろのコカ・コーラの広告

All over upstate New York, former industrial towns are standing still. It's as if entire towns are waiting for the factory bell to ring again, their thousands of laid-off workers waiting to spring back to action. A few miles away from the manicured green suburb in which I live stand many crumbling buildings that have been left to rot.

I'ｖe seen photos of my town from the early 1900s where the main street, State Street, is bustling with hundreds of pedestrians. Now, with its abandoned storefronts, it feels like a ghost town. One of my friends from a nearby town told me that his town saw its peak in the late 1800s. He's only half-joking. It's easy to love the old brick buildings on New England campuses and the antebellum mansions in the South, but this is a different story: There is very little charm in buildings that have been abandoned for decades.

Thankfully, some of the old buildings have been carefully preserved. The main post office in my town is a beautiful building with real marble floors and dark stained wood trimmings. There is a charming theater on State Street that I think is far more elegant than the concert hall or ballet theater in Boston. Unfortunately, many of the surrounding buildings have no tenants. They show glimpses of beautiful architecture behind their barricaded windows and doors, but many of them may very well fall down before they are restored to their former glory.

If the town center is no longer vibrant, where do people live and shop? The action has moved to sprawling developments. Housing complexes have many cookie-cutter apartments and shopping malls are full. I was driving around my town last week, when my friend asked me, "Haven't we been on this street already?" In fact, we had not been on that street; it simply looked the same as the other streets.

It's sad to see strip malls sweep into towns with deserted mom-and-pop stores. This makes all the more impressive those special family businesses that have flourished in spite of the depressed economy, and in spite of the recent onslaught of chain stores.

I'ｖe taught a local schoolgirl whose grandmother owns a restaurant that 's been in business since the 1940s. Her grandfather sings to customers on his accordion, her mom tends the bar, and her father washes the dishes. She helps make the salads. They are not creating any new high-tech industries to boost the local economy, but they run a genuine family restaurant that no market-researching firm can ever copy and sell. They should be proud and we should be grateful.

I have a colleague who is working - sometimes hopefully, sometimes grumblingly - on trying to improve our town. He has seen Pittsburgh change from a "former steel mill town" to an attractive city. He's tried to get involved in the town development council, but has been facing resistance from locals who have lived here for generations: He's just a suspicious outsider with a Ph.D. from the Czech Republic. Change takes time, and it has to come from within the community. It will probably take several years before my friend will be accepted as a local - and nobody knows whether he'll be around that long.

Fortunately, I think many residents are eager for change. The mayor has been trying to revitalize the town by "recruiting" potential residents from New York City. There has been a collective effort around State Street to keep the doors open longer at least once a week. Several shops near State Street, including a cool cafe-restaurant, have decided to stay open until 9 p.m. on Thursdays. This is far from a hopping nightlife, but it's a start. I'm looking forward to seeing how the area will evolve in the future.

Shukan ST: Sept. 12, 2003

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