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.

Time Out New York has just launched a new group of neighborhood guides, helping our readers experience our favorite spots in the East Village. And– in the spirit of being a good neighbor–we wanted to recommend some additional blogs where our followers can get some additional resources and get a better vibe of the area. I wanted to give you an official heads up that we’ve included a link to your site! You can see the guide here: http://newyork.timeout.com/things-to-do/new-york-neighborhoods/2556677/east-village-les-blogs?package=2503085.

As the publicist for Time Out, I’d love to talk further about any ways we can work together to grow our audiences and get the best content out there possible! Please feel free to contact me with any ideas going forward and I’ll do the same. Thanks!

Meg Rushton
Digital Marketing Publicist
Time Out North America
(646) 432-3090
meg.rushton@timeoutna.com

t.

Oh yeah those condos really took over the street btwn Classon and Franklin, on both Greene with another going up on Clifton Place. The biggest one, maybe ten stories high, has sat empty and half-finished for like two years though the lower one next to it has been finished and looks to be occupied. I keep expecting squatters to move into the big tower but so far, no go. I guess they have patrols or something. You can see the area building up in anticipation of both the condos, and the overflow from Atlantic Yards – wonder what the neighborhood will look like when THAT goes through . . .

Montreal’s a great city. The period I wrote about, in the early ’90s, was probably the worst tension between French and English, with very high unemployment. Also the biker gangs were really taking off and drugs were flooding into the city – like four-fold increase between 91 and 93 or something. I haven’t been back in awhile, but I’m long due, easily my favorite city in Canada.

Chapter two in a couple of weeks. Been distracted by a million things, hardly have time to keep up this blog. I write scattergun notes on this fast-changing neighborhood. You can see them here:

http://cityofstrangers.net/newyorkpresent/notes-from-around-the-hood/

t.

t.

I was talking to someone who met a couple who’d moved into the condos just east of Dekalb, btwn Bedford and Nostrand. I can’t remember that they were paying, but it was close to Manhattan prices. Crazy or what?

I haven’t been to the bars on Dekalb for awhile, though I drop in on Mirrors sometimes. A year ago, Brooklyn Nights looked like it was going to close it was shuttered so much. Glad to hear it’s still around, I’ll have to drop in.

t.

I tend to despise most of the newly built condos, particularly the skinny one on what I believe to be Bedford and Clinton or Bedford and Greene. I despise this one the most, not just because it is ugly, but the audacity of the architect. In a neighborhood with elegant brownstone blocks and other turn of the century architecture, this paper thin monstrosity is erected as some kind of improvement? As much as I hate the other condos, this I hate the most. Its presence offends me like a conversation with a pompous asshole. As much as I hate the other buildings, they are “arguably” ugly. However, the ugliness of that building is a universal truth and yet it says to me “ugly as I am, my very existence is progress…” Get the f*** outta my neighborhood!