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\nI arrived in New York just in time to experience the final gasps of smut<\/a>. Times Square was a wasteland of boarded up porn-theatres and peep shows, with rickety “decor” along the exteriors, showing the buildings’ seedy show-biz beginnings. There were a couple of peep shows holding out along 8th Avenue – clustering close to Port Authority – but those too are now gone. Once The Lion King<\/i> arrived, the area was “revitalized” and “cleaned up”. Which isn’t entirely a bad thing. But … I don’t believe that having an Applebee’s on 42nd Street is an improvement. <\/p>\n When I first moved to New York, I wandered around the area – and of course I had been to New York many times as a child and teenager when it was far FAR worse than a street of boarded-up buildings. I visited New York for the first time in its wildest most chaotic era, you know, when graffiti covered all the subway trains. By the time I came to New York to live, the “party” was over, but the Lion King<\/i> “party” hadn’t started yet. I could sense changes were coming. 42nd Street wouldn’t be a ghost town for long. So I took tons of pictures. I wish I had taken more. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I arrived in New York just in time to experience the final gasps of smut. Times Square was a wasteland of boarded up porn-theatres and peep shows, with rickety “decor” along the exteriors, showing the buildings’ seedy show-biz beginnings. There … Continue reading