Lena Afridi and Armando Moritz-Chapelliquen excoriate the proposed Bodega for displacing hardworking business owners.
“Brodega allows the new city dweller to automate and sanitize urban life, to live in the City without actually participating in its civic and cultural life aside from contributing to its disappearance. Never mind the lives of the immigrant and refugee service workers behind the counter who work 80 hour weeks, who brew the City’s morning cup of coffee and wrap up our life-sustaining egg and cheese on a roll. Or the lives of the young parents who rely on the bodega because the owners give them food on credit when they can’t afford it, or the senior citizens who use the space as a community center and act as a de facto neighborhood watch. There’s little need for such a community safety net when that community ceases to exist.
New Yorkers know the difference between a vending machine and the real thing. The bodega is part of New York’s culture. Trying to replace the bodega with a glorified vending machine is like trying to replace the Empire State building with a low-rise strip mall.” – Lena Afridi and Armando Moritz-Chapelliquen