The "Yutes" of NYC

In the great movie Heathers (which is 30 years old, sheesh!), the main character's mother asks, rhetorically, "Are you telling me this is not a time for troubled youth?"

The only honest answer to that is that it's always a time for troubled youth -- or, as they said in My Cousin Vinnie, "yutes." To be young is to be troubled, as, some might say, "natch." 

So what about "yutes" here in NYC -- are they troubled? 

Not really. Surely some are, but I don't think the young people of NYC are any more or less troubled than elsewhere -- unless, apparently, they live on Staten Island. I was a young person in NYC once, and I survived -- someway, somehow (but I wasn't on Staten Island).

One of the things we "yutes" of NYC did back in the day was go to video arcades, like Playland in Times Square that is now long, long gone. Video arcades have more or less vanished since people can now play games on their phones. Shockingly, however, there is one remaining arcade in Manhattan, in Chinatown, where yutes from all over the city congregate. Like many old school establishments that have been displaced by the Internet (like bookstores or shopping malls), this place had survived by becoming a gathering place, a hub of social activity. It's a perfect example of how a business can survive the digital onslaught by adapting and changing, and recognizing reality instead of fighting it.

That said, being a "yute" will always be difficult --  some things will never change!