Had dinner down the street at the Central Kitchen on Thursday night. The halibut was excellent, but the atmosphere was a little noisy. If you go, try to get a table as close to the back as you can.

Random side note: It looks like they’re hiring.

Cambridge’s conversion continues, as workers prepare the Necco building for Novartis.

To convert the 1926 Necco candy factory into Novartis Pharma AG research labs, construction workers first had to deal with the building’s sticky past. During the decades when Necco cranked out its signature pink, purple, green, and yellow candy wafers, sugar spores burrowed into the pores of the building’s concrete walls. A gooey residue coated the basement floor, where six tanks once stored 30,000 gallons of corn syrup, molasses, and sugar. Small sugary patches remained in areas where mixing vats once held batches of chocolate.

Sugar and laboratory experiments don’t mix, though. So floor by floor, workers are power-washing away the remnants of sweeter days, with hot water and bleach.

Today’s City Weekly in the Globe talks about the gentrification of Cambridge.

The abolition of rent control six years ago has hollowed out the middle class in Cambridge. The ‘’People’s Republic of Cambridge'’ still maintains 17 percent of its housing stock for government-subsidized, low-income residents, but now, it also boasts the highest concentration of million-dollar homes of any large city in the nation.

The article quotes many residents adversely affected by this trend. As it turns out, this is the worst thing the author could have done, because, while I sympathize with these folks’ plight, they sound incredibly whiny.

To Erik Brown, a 28-year-old musician who grew up nearby on Cottage Street, the yuppies think they own the street. ‘’They got their little Saabs, and their little additions to their houses, and they come in with their little attitudes,'’ he said. ‘’These people who are fairly new to the neighborhood think their buck can buy respect here, but we’ve been here since Day One. They have to earn their membership in the neighborhood.

The article also discusses the Central Kitchen and the Enormous Room, businesses succeeding by adapting to new conditions. Some businesses refuse to adapt, and are now indignant about having to pay the price.

At the store [Magazine Spa], where Hostess Twinkies, Cap’n Crunch cereal and Slim Jim beef sticks still line the shelves - despite a growing demand for organic breads, fruits, and specialty products - owner Joe Sordillo says his sales are down 40 percent. … But Sordillo refuses to change his products to cater to the upscale market.

While I enjoy being demonized — people like me who move into town and screw everyone over with my tax payments, my support of the local businesses (Central Square Florist, 1369 Coffee House, Koreana, ABC Pizza, Rodney’s Books, etc.) who carry products I like, and my quiet neighborliness — I don’t see myself as the bad guy here.

Also, I really don’t want to sound like a math snob, but it’s hard to take seriously an economic argument forwarded by a man buying scratch tickets.