NYC Reflections
Oct. 12th, 2004 09:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
richardf8One of these days it may come to pass that Morgan and I return to New York. I've been dreading it on some level. You see, when I return I know there will be a conspicuous absence.
No. Not THAT conspicuous absence. The hole in the skyline at West Broadway and Wall is something I've pretty much reconciled myself to.
I'm talking about Times Square.
More than anything else, more than the loss of the Towers, I find myself heartsick at the prospect of coming home to find Times Square squeaky clean and family friendly. It used to be one of those regrettable but necessary places one finds in every city, where the X-Rated theatres, the Dildo Shops, and the stages advertising "Live Sex On Stage" exist cheek-by-jowl with venerable New York institutions like Tad's Steakhouse and the Russian Tea Room. Not to mention the place where I had my first taste of Indian food and the theatre where the fundies were protesting "Last Temptation of Christ," which my friend Roxanne and I were going to see, and the Korean Green-Grocers that made some of the best sandwiches and could be counted on to stock my personal vice - YooHoo.
More than the hole at ground-zero, I dread the prospect of a sanitized Times Square, Disney-Logoed and free of any reminder that humanity is not without its dark side.
No. Not THAT conspicuous absence. The hole in the skyline at West Broadway and Wall is something I've pretty much reconciled myself to.
I'm talking about Times Square.
More than anything else, more than the loss of the Towers, I find myself heartsick at the prospect of coming home to find Times Square squeaky clean and family friendly. It used to be one of those regrettable but necessary places one finds in every city, where the X-Rated theatres, the Dildo Shops, and the stages advertising "Live Sex On Stage" exist cheek-by-jowl with venerable New York institutions like Tad's Steakhouse and the Russian Tea Room. Not to mention the place where I had my first taste of Indian food and the theatre where the fundies were protesting "Last Temptation of Christ," which my friend Roxanne and I were going to see, and the Korean Green-Grocers that made some of the best sandwiches and could be counted on to stock my personal vice - YooHoo.
More than the hole at ground-zero, I dread the prospect of a sanitized Times Square, Disney-Logoed and free of any reminder that humanity is not without its dark side.
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Date: 2004-10-13 04:07 am (UTC)On the other hand, economic cleansing can't push that neighborhood far away... How is the places around Times Square? I like how DC has Georgetown, which is more or less pristine, with... debauchery... all around it. ^^
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Date: 2004-10-13 03:48 pm (UTC)Richard, I think any place filled with commercial advertising has enough reminders of humanity's dark side. I think everyone knows it's nasty, whether they admit it or not.
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Date: 2004-10-13 07:08 pm (UTC)Also, shopping malls can not evil. They are incarnations of beauty! Truth and Beauty, dammit!
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Date: 2004-10-13 09:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-15 02:49 am (UTC)I distinctly recall somebody at work talking about visiting the Toys-R-Us in TS and looking at her like she was from Mars, I simply couldn't imagine it. Having re-acquainted myself with NYC in the last couple of years, I have to say the new version is a distinct improvement.
Still, although it is great to visit, I think the best thing about being from NYC is not being in NYC anymore.