For more than 13 years now I've lived near the corner of 10th Ave. and 49th St. in Hell's Kitchen, pictured last night (above). Watching the area evolve swiftly over the past decade has been fascinating...sometimes exciting and occasionally a little sad. In a Sunday article, the New York Times looks at this increasingly gay, yet still somewhat diverse Manhattan neighborhood. Worth monitoring will be the future impact from the current burst of construction happening along the edges of Hell's Kitchen.

"It’s like having fallen in love with a band during its early years," [local resident Addison] Smith said. "You feel like, ‘I listened to them early on, and now I can’t even get a ticket.’ I hear people say that Hell’s Kitchen is over. I don’t even know what that means. “Yeah, the rents are going up, but they are going up everywhere. I don’t care. I’m not leaving.”
[photo © eugene hernandez]