Seeking Change in a Transforming Neighborhood
By Cory Carroll


Avenue C in New York’s East Village has changed significantly in the past few years. On any morning one can see both prim professionals catching cabs and shopkeepers washing late-night revelers’ debris from sidewalks. On Super Tuesday, both the gentrifiers and the gentrified went to the polls to vote for even more change.

Among them was East Village resident Cecilia Traini, eager to vote for the first time in a primary. She said she chose the candidate she thought would best address both national concerns and those prevalent in her neighborhood. “Things are so screw[ed] up,” Traini said. “The issues are war, reproductive rights and housing.”

Most voters interviewed at one polling station, the Barrier Free Living Center on 270 E. Second St., voiced similar concerns. Lizzie Seeman said her priority was health care.

What is needed is a better “universal, quality healthcare program,” she said, “instead of the clinics around here.”

Others voted for candidates who reflected their interest in a subject of particular importance to the East Village: development. “Building and economic development in the Lower East Side bring more professionals, like myself, into the neighborhood,” said Meredith Genova. While she also said her concerns that the development changes, such as a spate of new luxury hotels, were threatening “working class” people, she added that “with development comes opportunity.”

Avenue C is clearly part of a neighborhood both overwhelmed with change and begging for more.