Awakening!

I was riding my bike today coming from a local meeting in Crown Heights. Jonathan Weinberger is a 49 year old orthodox jewish guy who owns 59 buildings in NY City. Needless to say he is "Rich Bitch," and really smart. He bought this condemned building that was subbing as a homeless shelter/section 8 building. The building has 50 huge units; and he was able to buy the building from the city for $1,000,000. Now that's where he is hooked up; now here is where he is smart. The location of the building is still a little hood crunchy; but not bananas. So what he decided to do with the space is make it a artist centric building called "Creative Heights." He found a local artist of color on Craig's List and offered her a free apartment to manage the space and recruit all of her artist friends to live there. Of course he has offered these apartments for well below market rental rates. He understands that the best way to gentrify a "borderline" is to bring black artists and recent college grads into the area. Soon pioneering whites will come as they feel cool and comfortable loving amongst the cool negroes, and the property value of the neighborhood will skyrocket. Now years ago; I would have felt weird about knowing this and not getting mad; but today, freak it!! At least some cool black folks have awesome cheap apartments, I'm not mad. Not only am I not mad; I'm profiting from it. I am consulting him on how to provide Internet access to residents in the building for free. 

On the way back from the building I ran into my boy Naya; he at once invited me to his new crib in Crown Heights, MAN!! This guy's crib is awesome, I was so inspired! This guy pulled his bucks together as a freelance photographer and events promoter. When I say awesome, I mean limestone, huge...come up!! Naya is a bit older than I am and has always been about his money. I am an idea person and my money has always been secondary. This year is all about the gwap; I need to buy a crib, absolutely!!