Letter to the Editor

A reader commented online on our story "Bringing Main Street to Columbus Avenue," by Adam Janos, September 12, about an effort to revitalize the storefronts on a stretch of Columbus Avenue between 104th and 106th Streets:

"I am very wary of this. I live at 104th and Amsterdam and have noticed a genericizing of storefronts on Amsterdam and Columbus, from 105th to 110th. It's a good 10 buildings with multiple stores in each - maybe all buildings have the same owner? All have standardized paint job, same lettering, and above-door/window lighting...it's really awful not being able to distinguish one place from another at a glance. Whole swaths of blocks instantly lost all of their character. It's too recent to see on Google maps, but walk around the area and see. Sad."

- Online reader "morecoffee"