The Avenue

The avenue looked pretty much the same. Actually, it looked better. The infusion of fresh immigrant blood, mostly Asian, had revitalized the long-tired boulevard. But this was nothing new; it had always been an immigrant neighborhood, first occupied by the Irish, then Hispanic, and now Vietnamese and Cambodian. The storefronts, no longer draped in plywood, were open for business--family-run businesses, alive with new energy and the high hopes that accompany immigrants to the land of opportunity.