"Everything is niche now"

Matchas vs. bodegas, and what happens when cities are no longer for people in them

In the decade and a half I’ve lived in Brooklyn, I’ve noticed a strange thing. There will be a neighborhood business hanging on with great ardor. Maybe it’s a beloved old haunt; maybe it’s fallen into bleak times. Sometimes, it goes away. And across the neighborhood there is a special sort of urban curiosity: What will replace it?

The answer, almost alwa…