thanks for your comment. We work with what we know. I didn’t know the LES back in the ’50s – I wasn’t alive – and I’m sure if you grew up there and watched its decline, with the onset of drugs and gangs and crime, it was very painful to witness indeed. I saw what I saw, and I’ve never denied my vision is limited, and idiosyncratic.

Actually, I am kind of fascinated by the NYC of the ’50s. So tell me – what was it like? I’ve lost my home (my home town is in fact a ghost town) many times.

T.

How many can remember the neighborhood in the 1950′s?

I can.

Let me tell you, it was a different world. A world most of you cannot imagine. And based on that memory, I was never happier to witness police brutality in my life. It should have happened much sooner, but cops don’t really want to work, do they?

Those who were bloodied, beaten, and ousted, had mugged me and my friends, threatened my neighbors and kept rats as pets. Talk about hell. . . that was Tompkins Square of the 60′s and 70′s.

Of course, the neighborhood of my childhood remains just a memory and regardless of how “safe” or “clean” it is now, it is a ghost town. For me, anyway.

Sorry it took me so long to get back – been neglecting the blog of late. Yeah, I miss the feeling of the Village in those days, it was a little rough, definitely had a dark undercurrent, but there was a warmth there too. You felt community, and spirit. Thanks for the reminder.

T.

Thanks for the comment. Yeah, it was rough but you’re right, I don’t remember it being too heavy, or not as much as people might expect. Though I did hear of things.

T.

Thanks for the compliments. Yeah, it was pretty amazing when I first came to New York. After London in the late 80′s, where squatting was normal and the dole was freely available, NY seemed like capitalism run amok. There weren’t just homeless in the parks, but every second, third doorway all over Manhattan, on the trains, even in the tunnels.

There were a lot of reasons for it – not least the mass release of the mentally ill from state institutions – but yeah, it was kind of amazing to see. Pretty hard life though. I was struck, going to Asia after the first time I’d lived here, how being homeless didn’t mean quite the same thing. People retained family, even community. The homeless here, even in the parks, seemed mostly alone.

All gone now though.

T.

What good came out of it? I think Dinkins had already launched an ambitious housing program. Possibly this had started even before Dinkins – NY had a lot of empty housing at the time. But I think people underestimate the power of street protest. They can keep authorities honest. Look at the tea party. They get all the press only because they’re the only protest game in town. If the left ever managed to organize something like that, maybe we wouldn’t be drifting rightward again. Or maybe we would . . . by ’91, the left had really run out of steam and they’ve never really got it back.

T.