Today’s New York Times has an article about some of the people displaced so many years ago when the blocks southeast of Delancey and Essex were razed.

It’s a short, nostalgic follow-up to the article published in March about how local politicians kept the lots empty for decades rather than build more affordable housing in the neighborhood.

The Times’ version of the story is undoubtedly not the only one, but the two articles together, along with a new mayor who has made affordable housing a priority, signal a new round of attention on our neighborhood just as plans for a new development called “Essex Crossing” are finally moving forward.