I recently had a job interview in the community I worked in 30 years ago. I wanted to make sure I got there on time. So I walk past all the Crackheads and Heroin addicts and panhandlers who line the sidewalks of what NYC’s mayor and the City Council claim is going to be the next great NYC community, downtown Jamaica Queens. The property values in the Community have skyrocketed recently , so I guess many people believe them. I board an LIRR train bound for Atlantic Terminal. I get my iPhone ready to take photos of the sites the train passes. As the train departs Jamaica station, it goes underground. Sadly, no sites to be filmed . Two stops brings me to one of the most dangerous communities in NYC when I worked there nearly 30 years ago. I’m an hour early so I figured I’d grab a coffee from one of the sidewalk carts and look at the graffiti. Nobody’s around. I get to Fulton where no sidewalk carts are to be found. All the stores that used to open at 9 am are gone, replaced by boutique restaurants that only serve dinner. Young white women on bicycles are the only people around all wearing helmets. A block away the armory is all clean and polished looking more like a museum than the men’s shelter it actually is. A panhandler appears out of nowhere and at the same moment an NYPD vehicle appears and whisks the panhandler away. I desperately search for street art but
find none. Finally, I come upon sidewalk art and bus art but both are commercial and not the “spur of the moment” works of art that speak to me. I find Restoration Plaza. 30 years ago, Restoration Plaza was a recent State Of The Art construction. Now it’s out of place, a deteriorated shell that houses a post office. Bizarrely, Applebee’s anchors one corner. I get to my destination and enter the building which is new State of The Art. A moment later a woman from my past walks down the stairs. Amazingly, I remember her  name and she remembers my name . Her name is Muslim and 30 years ago it didn’t matter but today is different. We yell each other’s names and embrace!  She hasn’t aged. I suddenly realize the building I’m in houses the new offices of my previous employer from 30 years ago. …and life goes on.