That Dahn Yoga

A couple of weeks ago, I was bitching in this very forum about the transformation of neighborhoods like mine. Specifically, I was lamenting about big chains moving in and supplanting smaller local businesses. I want to clarify that I'm not wholly averse to urban change; I recognize that urban landscapes are constantly transforming, emerging, decaying, revitalizing, etc. An area is what it is for an indeterminate period of time and then it becomes something else. For instance, I don't believe in the mythology of an Old New York which is supposedly being bastardized these days. Of course, New York isn't what it used to be. But it wasn't that before then and it will be something different in the future. Gentrification and the development that follows is an urban reality and anyone moving into a cheap neighborhood (in which they didn't grow up) is a part of it. So, the same is true of Central Square. I'm sure some local hipster was carving a scathing diatribe into a stone tablet back when Burger King moved in next to HiFi Pizza. (Incidentally, in a hilarious turn of events, that Burger King closed and the space is now occupied by an upscale,
$30-an-entree restaurant called Rendezvous. They didn't even physically alter the facade or the interior really. They just changed the color scheme and put in fancy tables and a bar. Is there anyway in hell anyone who has been to Central Square in the last year or before is going to go in and pay $30 for the rosemary infused lamb and $8 for a side of mash, when the spirit of the $3.95 whopper and fries meal is clearly still occupying the space? Is there any chance that this place will not close within 8 months?)

Basically, what I'm saying is that I hate seeing chains move in (he typed as he drank a large coffee from au bon pain). I just prefer to see local businesses thrive (like the coffee shop he stopped going to because of the 40 cent price differential and his boredom with the baristas). I don't have a problem with new locally owned businesses opening in my neighborhood.
That said, the editors at Von Trapper Keeper would like to officially welcome the arrival of Dahn Yoga, which recently opened a few blocks from my apartment. Can I just say that I love that Dahn Yoga? I don't like yoga, mind you, but I love that Dahn Yoga. I just wish that it would merge with the Buddhist Community Center down the street so that it would be God Dahn Yoga. I laugh every single time I walk by Dahn Yoga. I've never laughed walking by a Sunglasses Hut. That's all I'm saying.

So I walked by that Dahn Yoga shop (*giggle*) yesterday on my way to support another local shop, Gnomon Copy, by giving them my business - printing business cards to promote my website. Unfortunately for them, they're douchebags who made no effort to appear interested in my money, which they could have done simply by paying attention to what I was saying to them. And if there's one thing I hate more than the ubiquity of corporate chains, it's douchebags. So I went down the street to Kinkos and will be picking up my cards this afternoon. Am I a hypocrite? Perhaps, but ultimately, I don't give a Dahn.