Things move really fast

Until recently, there was a supermarket on this corner, 100th and Columbus. Recently meaning, oh, a few weeks ago. It wasn't a supermarket I shopped at; none of the stores that were part of this now-demolished complex were. But probably the people who live in the Frederick Douglas housing project catty-corner to it, and the people who live in the Mitchell-Lama building next to it, did. Its place will be taken, no doubt, by yet another high-rise condominium, which, really, do we need this?


Apparently we do, because the church around the corner from me whose charming bells I hear every half hour sold its own retail complex -- which included a rug store and a tae kwan do studio, neither of which I'll miss -- for the same purpose. They're still demolishing it.


I wonder how long it will take the church to sell this vacant lot? Are there really going to be enough people to buy all these condos? I don't want them -- the people -- in my neighborhood. I don't want them waiting with me on the subway platform, shoving me out of the way in the tiny produce section at Gourmet Garage, making my Chinese food delivery 15, instead of 10, minutes away, because they're ordering from the same restaurant.

I realize progress is still defined by growth, and if Mayor Bloomberg's prediction that our city will be bigger by 1 million people by 2030, those people are going to have to live somewhere. I hope they open another Chinese restaurant in my neighborhood by then.