A Burger Bit

I was not at city hall last evening but reviewed the various postings very carefully.  The complaints about how The Burg has changed are true.  Even when the Stewart family moved to Trenton 27 years ago, The Burg was still the Italian neighborhood.  Today it is Central American, probably mostly Guatemalan, but I'm sure there are a few other Spanish speaking republics represented.  Before I continue, I admit that when I go into Italian Peoples and have trouble getting my point across because I do not speak Spanish, I get annoyed.  Yet, the changing face of The Burg is natural and to be expected and even celebrated. 

Blogolanders, how many of you know that 100 odd years ago, Chambersburg was a separate municipality and very WASP.  For various reasons, the WASPS relocated and the Italians moved in; they also built up a nice area.  Time goes by and the children and grandchildren of the original immigrants do very well for themselves.  They become doctors, lawyers, accountants, professors, and they move onward and upward!  These people live in Lawrence, Princeton, the Upper Eastside of Manhattan, Palm Beach and don't give diddly about Chambersburg.  So a new immigrant group moves in - in this case Central Americans.  In fifty years someone will be complaining that The Burg used to be such a nice Hispanic area and now it's crawling with immigrants from Mars (or somewhere).  In place of the Italian restaurants, Central American restaurants are opening (and many of them are damned good).

Even here in South Trenton there was a shift - the original residents were Englishmen who worked in the potteries; there was even an Anglican church down here.  The English moved out, Eastern Europeans moved in.  Most of them have moved out, and yes, Hispanics are moving in. 

So all of this shifting and changing is not only normal but also a good thing.