I thought I was the only one who missed the old seedy abandoned-building Midnight Cowboy charm of Times Square. I thought I was the only one who thought the cleaning up of Times Square was kind of a shame.
I mean, I think it’s great the city is not so randomly violent anymore. I do. But I don’t like the homogenization of so much of it now. And where have all the hookers gone … long time passing …
I didn’t move to New York City to be in a safe stable environment. I didn’t move to New York City to walk the straight and narrow. Sure, it’s good for business, Times Square as it is now. I know all the reasons. I feel grateful that I can ride the subway up to my friend’s in Morningside Heights and not feel like I am going to be raped at any second for having the AUDACITY to take the subway through Harlem. I don’t miss THAT part of New York. But I do miss the old landscape of Times Square, I miss the old specific signage (Lileks takes great photos of that stuff (like this series– you still can see the old signs from the 40s and 30s here and there, but you have to have a reaaally good eye now), I miss the vague sense of naughty things going on behind closed doors.
I took a series of pretty amazing black and white photos (if I do say so myself) of the grime and porn and old strip joints on Times Square before they gutted the whole thing and made it tourist friendly. I’m so glad I did. The end of an era.
(I do realize that my emotions in this regard probably has to do with this. Nostalgia is a big deal to me. Honoring the past is a big deal to me. And also – I have a hard time letting go of things. It’s all of a piece. I hate change. I don’t hate progress – not necessarily, but I don’t always LIKE it, and what progress DOES. If there’s a grove of trees I adore, that has always been there since I was a child, you can bet that I will have to mourn the loss of it for a good week or so when they cut the grove down to make room for condos. And I will feel a pang for YEARS to come when I drive by the new neighborhood of condos – remembering: “God, member the grove of trees that used to be there??” I don’t take things lightly I guess is my point.)
9th avenue still has a few hookers on it, so I hear.
I saw some on 10th Avenue once, but they were down on 27th street.
You never see hookers out on the street anymore. Except for maybe Hunt’s Point.
I remember that a few years ago, right in front of my home there was an open space with the most amazing plum tree you’ve ever seen. One day I came back from college and it was gone from its place and reduced to a pile on the corner of the street.
I was devastated.
I kept a tiny branch with a few leaves pressed in a book, but still, after all these years (around 10, I’d say), everytime I look at the horrendous building erected in that place, I cannot help but think of the tree.
Anyway, I guess I also have trouble letting go of things, wouldn’t you say? ;-)