Jesus Never Fails (Third Avenue)

I'm always pleased by the symmetry of restaurant/deli/church/deli/restaurant, on this block at Third & 9th. Third Avenue has certainly changed a lot over the last few years, with new restaurants, bars, coffee & pie shops.   This week's Brooklyn Paper has a story on newer merchants demanding more police presence, after the armed robbery of the owner of Four & Twenty Blackbirds at 8th.  The owner of Pilates Garage expressed concern:

“We do need more police patrol,” she said. “There’s a lot of riff-raff around here. There are some vagrants and drug addicts, and there’s prostitution.”

I hope the business owners & their staff stay safe.  I wish them well & am no defender of crime. If you've lived here a while though, & remember what the avenue used to be like at night, its fashionable rebirth is still startling.  In the eighties at least, this was prime hooker territory, before or after dark, and a place of forbidding mystery at night.  If you want a frisson of urban-grit with your business, you might need to be aware of vestigial danger in a quiet, industrial strip, & factor that into your plans.  It's still not squeaky-clean, & you sort-of wanted it (harmlessly) that way.  But that shouldn't last too much longer.  Real estate prices soar & the older stores, auto-shops & industries are vanishing.  The attendant riff-raff will surely melt away with them.  It should clean up nicely.