Those reporters wouldn't know Pleasant Avenue from Pleasantville. That's all I'm saying
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PB, speaking of pleasant avenue I haven't been down that way since 1991, are there still some locally owned Pop Stands or is it all Starbucks and Craft stores now? In your opinion was it the most mobbed up area in NYC at that time or was some of that reputation undeserved?
No, it wasn't an undeserved reputation. It was mobbed up, all right. But it hasn't gentrified, either. The Mom and Pop stores haven't turned into Starbucks in East Harlem, it's just that the Moms and Pops are all Latino today.
My grandparents lived on Pleasant, between 117th and 118th, for over fifty years. My Dad grew up there, and married my Mom at Mount Carmel on 116th. And although I, myself, grew up in the Bronx, I still spent half my life in that neighborhood.
My Dad is almost 85 now and he's still on the Mount Carmel/Giglio committee, so we go back a few times a year. And take it from me, the Italians are pretty much all gone.
