Reincarnation may not exist but sometimes, as the saying goes, "what's old is new again"; people or things from the past are either resurrected, rediscovered, or reimagined for new generations.
Think of every reboot of every old show currently on television.
Well, this blog post is not about TV reboots but about two very seperate, very old, and very NYC things that have, in very different ways, gone from old to new again.
The first, most notably and most infamously, is the World Trade Center. For almost 30 years the Twin Towers glowered over NYC until September 11, 2001. The next several years a battle over rebuilding what was known, for a long time, as Ground Zero until, more than a decade later, One World Trade Center emerged as its replacement. The new tower was obviously a reminder and a replacement of the old World Trade Centers, the past coming back to life in a new way, up from the ashes, into the future.
The man at the center of rebuilding the World Trade Centers, of turning Ground Zero into a gleaming, shining structure, was Larry Silverstein. He has a new memoir about his long career as an NYC builder and what it took to rebuild in Lower Manhattan -- although, as this article points out, while a gorgeous new building was constructed, the thing was a big missed opportunity. Instead of reimagining the area as a mixed-use, residential/commercial, affordable neighborhood, they just built another big office buidling that, nearly a quarter of a century from 9/11, remains largely empty.
But another, more enjoyable rediscovery, is the 1981 movie They All Laughed. Made by NYC director Peter Bogdanovich, it was a mad caper about private detectives hired to follow unfaithful wives -- until the detectives get double-crossed by their prey and hilarity ensues. At the time of its release, it was a critical and commercial flop, and it marked the end of Bogdanovich's time as an A-List director. For decades it wasn't watchable anywhere but now it was reemerged, to great acclaim, on TCM and currently steaming on Max.
It's great to see older, excellent, and underappreciated work rediscovered. Also, directors Quentin Tarantino and Wes Anderson have said that this film specifically was an influence on them. From the ashes of critical and commercial ignomy to the heights of canon and influence, that is something great to see.
Let's take a little trip. Let's travel from one end of Manhattan to the other.
Let's traverse this narrow thirteen-mile island that fascinates and captures the imaginations of peoples around the world.
And let's do it via the #1 subway line, noting the most signficant stops along the way, subway stations that are more than just various gateways into Manhttan -- they are portals into American culture, history, and power.
Now there's something important to remember: Manhattan technically extends beyond Manhattan Island. There is a small neighborhood just north of the island called Marble Hill that is legally part of the Borough of Manhattan. So as we look north from the bottom of Marble Hill, we can look north towards the Bronx.
Then we turn around and see the northern tip of Manhattan island as well as the bridge with the crosswalk and subway tracks that will take us into it.
Now we'll go upstairs to the Marble Hill 225th Street station and take a look at the subway route on the #1 that we'll be following (as well as map of the geographic route we'll be crossing).
Now the train has rattled into the station, we get on and sit down, and we're off!
After a few stops we hit 181th street street. This is where we'll find the George Washington Bridge. Dubbed "the world's busiest bridge," this northern-most expanse connects the city to the rest of America, with cars flowing in and out of NYC and the rest of the continent. It's also, apparently, a popular place for some lost souls to end their lives -- sometimes to dark, comic effect.
Few more stops and we hit 137th street and City College.
This public college in the heart of Harlem is one of the great institutions for American learning. For over a century, poor kids from all over NYC could go to City College and pursue the American dream. The students and graduates of City are extraordinary: ten Nobel Prize winners, mayors, Supreme Court justices, US Senators and Secretaries of State, Oscar-winners, Emmy-winners, Pulitzer Prize-winners, astronauts and founders of big companies, and so many more! Heck, even fictional people have gone to City College: Gordon Gekko from Wall Street and Don Draper from Mad Men most notably.
Also, it's where both of my parents worked for almost 40 years, met, fell in love, and produced Mr NYC.
One more stop and we're in Harlem, above ground, at 125th Street.
What else can I say about Harlem, the capital of the black American experience, where great black artists and pioneers lived and worked. Also, it's also one of the hearts of American culture with Apollo Theater and the Cotton Club.
One of the seven Ivy League Universities, this institution of higher learning pre-dates the United States itself, originally chartered in 1754 by King George II (hence the original name King's College). Besides being a great and famous university, Columbia has been a site for brilliance and controversy, where great minds have flowered and fought over decades.
Now we chug down past several stops on the Upper West Side to 66th street and Lincoln Center.
Home to ballet, opera, symphonies, musicals and plays, Lincoln Center is the multi-theater complex that, along with Broadway, defines NYC as the cultural capital of America. While encompassing only a few small blocks, its impact across America is massive -- including the many performances that are broadcast from there. I have personal recollections of performing at Lincoln Center and have blogged about it a lot -- including my own experience in partaking in a live broadcast.
One more stop and we're all 59th Street and Columbus Circle.
The site of the big memorial to Christopher Columbus, it is one of the crossroads of Manhattan, with different avenues intersecting and hugging the lower southwest portion of Central Park. It is also, to my knowledge, the only traffic circle in all over NYC. And these days it is now home to the massive Time Warner building that looms over it.
Two more stops and we're in the most square in all the world -- Times Square.
Dubbed the "Crossroads of the World" it is the very center of American culture, bedecked with electronic billboards, Broadway theaters, massive chain restaurants -- for many it is New York City, the heart of the heart of it all. And, obviously, it's where the world celebrates New Year's every year.
A quick one-stop and we're at Penn Station on 34th street -- or Pennsylvania Station as it's officlally known.
If the George Washington Bridge is the city's businest car-route into America, Penn is the easily the busiest railway route. Amtrak, New Jersey Transit and the Long Island Railroad all go through it, a central hub that connects the outer-edges of Long Island to the West Coast of the United States.
Penn Station also has a tortured history -- the once gorgeous station was torn down in the 1960s and replaced by a dingy undeground hovel. In the last twenty-years it has been dramatically rebuilt and re-imagined, a vast improvement of what it was but a sad reminder of what we could have had if we had only preserved the original. Hey, at least the new Penn Station now has a Dunkin' Donuts!
Now we go down several stops and hit Christopher Street -- Stonewall Station.
Christopher Street is actually a quiet, beautiful area of Greenwich Village but it is now of the iconic birth place of American gay rights movement. On June 28th, 1969, right after the death of gay icon Judy Garland, the Stonewall Inn was raided by cops -- and for the first time, gay people fought back. It took decades for gay rights to be enshrined into American culture and law but it has triumphed mightly. And it all started on this small block of Manhattan.
Our journey is almost over but we have one more stop until the end -- the World Trade Center.
Of course it used to be the World Trade Centers -- until September 11, 2001 when it became Ground Zero, then, after an extensive rebuilding, One World Trade Center.
The story of this patch of Lower Manhattan is one of great triumph and tragedy in American history, where George Washington celebrated his victory in the American Revolution and where American was also brutally attacked two centuries later. It's the symbol of American financial power and dominance. Its where Manhattan and NYC began and where it grew out from. It is the complicated heart and soul of the world's greatest nation and its greatest city.
And now we come of the end of our journey. We reach the South Ferry-Whitehall Station aka. the Battery, and we pop up out of our seat and go upstairs into the very southern edge of Manhattan.
We're right across the street from the entraces to the Governor's Island and Staten Island Ferrys, and we can see (and smell) the vastness of New York Harbor, the watery gateway to city and the force that unites the five boroughs.
And then we walk down a few blocks, turning to look uptown to see where we came from ...
... and then we look down to the southern tip of Manhattan with the rest of NYC and America beyond it.
I hope you've enjoyed this trip along the #1 subway line, seeing the amazing stops and spots of Americana along the way. You can do it yourself in just under and hour. And I hope, maybe, that you learned something!
Lower Manhattan has always been terrorist target. 9/11/2001 was only the most horrific example of attacks that have taken place in that area for nearly a century. Wall Street was bombed in 1920 and Frances Tavern was hit in 1975. And 9/11 wasn't the first time the World Trade Center was attacked -- it happened in 1993, twenty-five years ago today (below is a new clips from that day, showing what a relatively small story it was at the time). Densely populated, the economic center of the world, and a historical nerve center, Lower Manhattan shows both the greatness of NYC and America -- and these terrorist attacks also show the dangers that come with it.
That Mayor Bloomberg is one tricky SOB. He does one thing after another that annoys me (just read this blog) and that means I bust his balls on here on a pretty regular basis. Then he turns around and gives the most impassioned, sensitive, and amazing speech of his career -- a profound calling for religious tolerance. Wow.
NYC's mayors are not necessarily known as great speechgivers and, in his 8 1/2 years as mayor, our Mike has rarely said anything particularly memorable. But this speech was. Read it here:
“We've come here to Governors Island to stand where the earliest settlers first set foot in New Amsterdam, and where the seeds of religious tolerance were first planted. We come here to see the inspiring symbol of liberty that more than 250 years later would greet millions of immigrants in this harbor. And we come here to state as strongly as ever, this is the freest city in the world. That's what makes New York special and different and strong.
“Our doors are open to everyone. Everyone with a dream and a willingness to work hard and play by the rules. New York City was built by immigrants, and it's sustained by immigrants -- by people from more than 100 different countries speaking more than 200 different languages and professing every faith. And whether your parents were born here or you came here yesterday, you are a New Yorker.
“We may not always agree with every one of our neighbors. That's life. And it's part of living in such a diverse and dense city. But we also recognize that part of being a New Yorker is living with your neighbors in mutual respect and tolerance. It was exactly that spirit of openness and acceptance that was attacked on 9/11, 2001.
“On that day, 3,000 people were killed because some murderous fanatics didn't want us to enjoy the freedoms to profess our own faiths, to speak our own minds, to follow our own dreams, and to live our own lives. Of all our precious freedoms, the most important may be the freedom to worship as we wish. And it is a freedom that even here -- in a city that is rooted in Dutch tolerance -- was hard-won over many years.
“In the mid-1650s, the small Jewish community living in lower Manhattan petitioned Dutch governor Peter Stuyvesant for the right to build a synagogue, and they were turned down. In 1657, when Stuyvesant also prohibited Quakers from holding meetings, a group of non-Quakers in Queens signed the Flushing Remonstrance, a petition in defense of the right of Quakers and others to freely practice their religion. It was perhaps the first formal political petition for religious freedom in the American colonies, and the organizer was thrown in jail and then banished from New Amsterdam.
“In the 1700s, even as religious freedom took hold in America, Catholics in New York were effectively prohibited from practicing their religion, and priests could be arrested. Largely as a result, the first Catholic parish in New York City was not established until the 1780s, St. Peter's on Barclay Street, which still stands just one block north of the World Trade Center site, and one block south of the proposed mosque and community center.
“This morning, the city's Landmark Preservation Commission unanimously voted to extend -- not to extend -- landmark status to the building on Park Place where the mosque and community center are planned. The decision was based solely on the fact that there was little architectural significance to the building. But with or without landmark designation, there is nothing in the law that would prevent the owners from opening a mosque within the existing building.
“The simple fact is, this building is private property, and the owners have a right to use the building as a house of worship, and the government has no right whatsoever to deny that right. And if it were tried, the courts would almost certainly strike it down as a violation of the U.S. Constitution.
“Whatever you may think of the proposed mosque and community center, lost in the heat of the debate has been a basic question: Should government attempt to deny private citizens the right to build a house of worship on private property based on their particular religion? That may happen in other countries, but we should never allow it to happen here.
“This nation was founded on the principle that the government must never choose between religions or favor one over another. The World Trade Center site will forever hold a special place in our city, in our hearts. But we would be untrue to the best part of ourselves and who we are as New Yorkers and Americans if we said no to a mosque in lower Manhattan.
“Let us not forget that Muslims were among those murdered on 9/11, and that our Muslim neighbors grieved with us as New Yorkers and as Americans. We would betray our values and play into our enemies' hands if we were to treat Muslims differently than anyone else. In fact, to cave to popular sentiment would be to hand a victory to the terrorists, and we should not stand for that.
"For that reason, I believe that this is an important test of the separation of church and state as we may see in our lifetimes, as important a test. And it is critically important that we get it right.
"On Sept. 11, 2001, thousands of first responders heroically rushed to the scene and saved tens of thousands of lives. More than 400 of those first responders did not make it out alive. In rushing into those burning buildings, not one of them asked, 'What God do you pray to?' (Bloomberg's voice cracks here a little as he gets choked up.) 'What beliefs do you hold?'
"The attack was an act of war, and our first responders defended not only our city, but our country and our constitution. We do not honor their lives by denying the very constitutional rights they died protecting. We honor their lives by defending those rights and the freedoms that the terrorists attacked.
"Of course, it is fair to ask the organizers of the mosque to show some special sensitivity to the situation, and in fact their plan envisions reaching beyond their walls and building an interfaith community. But doing so, it is my hope that the mosque will help to bring our city even closer together, and help repudiate the false and repugnant idea that the attacks of 9/11 were in any ways consistent with Islam.
"Muslims are as much a part of our city and our country as the people of any faith. And they are as welcome to worship in lower Manhattan as any other group. In fact, they have been worshipping at the site for better, the better part of a year, as is their right. The local community board in lower Manhattan voted overwhelmingly to support the proposal. And if it moves forward, I expect the community center and mosque will add to the life and vitality of the neighborhood and the entire city.
"Political controversies come and go, but our values and our traditions endure, and there is no neighborhood in this city that is off-limits to God's love and mercy, as the religious leaders here with us can attest."
ChatGPT: New York City has a rich and fascinating history that dates back hundreds of years. Here's a brief overview of its history:
Early History:
The area where New York City now stands was originally inhabited by various Native American tribes, including the Lenape people. In 1524, Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano became the first recorded European to enter New York Harbor. In 1609, Henry Hudson, an Englishman sailing for the Dutch, explored the region and claimed it for the Dutch.
Dutch and British Colonization:
In 1624, the Dutch West India Company established a trading post called New Amsterdam on the southern tip of Manhattan Island. The settlement grew slowly, focused primarily on fur trading. In 1664, the British, under the command of the Duke of York (later King James II), seized New Amsterdam from the Dutch without much resistance. It was renamed New York in honor of the Duke.
American Revolution:
During the American Revolution, New York City was a strategic location and a major British stronghold. In 1776, the Continental Army under General George Washington attempted to defend the city but was forced to retreat after a series of defeats. The city remained under British control until 1783 when the Treaty of Paris ended the war and the British evacuated.
19th Century Growth:
In the 19th century, New York City experienced rapid growth and transformation. The completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 connected the city to the Great Lakes region and boosted trade and transportation. The city became a major center for finance, trade, and immigration. Waves of immigrants, including Irish, German, Italian, Jewish, and others, arrived in New York City, contributing to its diverse cultural fabric.
Civil War and Reconstruction:
During the American Civil War (1861-1865), New York City played a crucial role as a major hub for recruiting soldiers and supplying the Union Army. The city's economy boomed during this time, benefiting from manufacturing and trade. After the war, the city experienced further growth and urban development.
20th Century and Beyond:
In the early 20th century, New York City continued to expand and solidify its status as a global metropolis. Landmark events include the completion of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883, the opening of the subway system in 1904, and the construction of iconic skyscrapers like the Empire State Building in the 1930s.
The city faced numerous challenges, including the Great Depression, social unrest, and crime waves in the mid-20th century. However, it also witnessed significant cultural and artistic movements, such as the Harlem Renaissance, which showcased African American talent and creativity.
In recent decades, New York City has remained a vibrant and influential city on the world stage. It faced a tragic moment on September 11, 2001, when the World Trade Center was attacked, leading to the loss of thousands of lives. The city demonstrated resilience and unity in the face of adversity.
Today, New York City is a global center for finance, commerce, culture, and tourism. It is known for its diverse neighborhoods, iconic landmarks (such as Times Square, Central Park, and the Statue of Liberty), and as a hub for arts, entertainment, and media. It continues to evolve and shape the world around it while preserving its rich historical legacy.
I just finished reading the amazing book Blue Highways, a travel memoir by Missourian William Least-Heat Moon.
A contemporary classic, the book chronicles a three-month cross-country odyssey that Moon took in 1978 after he had lost his job and wife. Armed with little more than some savings and a truck that he owned call Ghost Dancing, Moon drove a circle around the southern, western, northern, and eastern parts of the USA on the "blue highways" -- the secondary highways on the maps shown in blue that were distinct from the main highways marked in red.
Published in 1982, the book spent 42 weeks on The New York Times Bestseller list. And it holds up as a deep, profound tale about this country more than 40 years later.
On his adventures, Moon encounters brutal racial segregation in the south, monks in the desert, the small towns of the west and northwest -- including several spots where Lewis and Clark once roamed -- the absolute blankness of the Plains and Prairie states, and the bustling seafaring and fishing life of New England.
And he even makes it to NYC -- briefly.
In his travels, Moon was determined to avoid going into any major cities. He wanted to visit the towns and places that were, we would say today, "off the grid", away from the cosmopolitan bustle of a metropolis. He was fascinated by people who made their lives away from the main arteries and gathering places of American life -- and, as you might imagine, he encounters some really interesting characters in these places.
Moon didn't stop for long in NYC but he did manage to capture the equivalent of the city's "blue highways", the places in the five boroughs where most of the city's residents and visitors never travel to -- or through. He writes about driving into southern Queens and Staten Island from Long Island (after having taken a ferry across the Sound from Connecticut):
"... Things raced past like the jumpy images of a nickelodeon: abandoned and stripped cars on the shoulders, two hitchhiking females that nobody could stop to pick up, a billboard EAT SAUSAGE AND BE HAPPY, low-flying jumbos into Kennedy International, the racetrack at Ozone Park, bulldozed piles of dirt to fill the marsh at Jamaica Bay, long and straight Flatbush Avenue, Sheepshead Bay, Coney Island, the World Trade Center like stumps in the yellow velvet sky. Then a windingly protracted ascent up the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge (the Silver Gate of the East coast) with its world longest center span, and below the bay where the Great Eastern, the Monitor, the Bonhomme Richard, and the Half Moon sailed.
The low sun turned the Upper Bay orange. Freighters rode at anchor or headed to the Atlantic, and to the north, in the distance, a little glint of coppery green that was the Statue of Liberty. I slowed to gawk and got a horn; the driver passed in a gaseous cloud and held aloft a middle digit opinion.
The lanes descended and shot me across Staten Island; just before it was too late, I pulled out of the oppression of traffic and drove down Richmond Avenue to find the bridge across Arthur Kill into Perth Amboy, the city (if you follow your nose) that gets to you before you get to it. I don't know how I lost my way on a thoroughfare as big as Richmond, but I did. I could smell Perth Amboy, but I couldn't find it. Instead, I found Great Kills, Eltingville, Huguenot Park, Princess Bay, and Tottenville. I asked directions from a nervous teenager who was either turning his engine or stealing someone's distributor.
Just as darkness was complete, I reached New Jersey ..."
As you can see from this passage, Moon is a great writer and wordsmith. Even though his time on the NYC "blue highways" is brief, he brilliantly captures the "other side" of NYC, the more obscure, ignored, downtrodden parts of the five boroughs, far away from the glamour of Manhattan, the bustling hives of Brooklyn, the leafy suburbs of the Bronx and northern Queens, and the so-called "inner cities" (It's just a shame he didn't make it to Broad Channel!) He finds not "the real NYC" as some might call it but the NYC of the fringes, the other NYC that people who rather not travel to and forget.
Obviously his observation of the World Trade Centers makes you shudder a bit but it's still beautiful how it existed and is forever burnished this is beautifully captured moment in time.
Read Blue Highways and you'll encounter many other such moments -- an amazing read!
When the new Hudson Yards development opened last week, NYC didn't just get a new neighborhood, it also got a new mall.
Even though this city probably has more individual stores and shops than any other place in the United States, NYC is replete with malls -- every borough has at least one big stand-alone mall but there are many more housed in big developments like the Time-Warner Center, the new World Trade Center, South Street Seaport, Times Square, Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn, Flushing, even the South Bronx.
The malls vary.
Some are big traditional malls with a mixture of different kinds of businesses. Some are mostly food courts and big grocery stores. Some are based around clothes or discount shopping. Others are not technically malls at all but "shopping centers" that are more neighborhood based.
Go to this Google Map and drag your browser around the map of NYC and you'll be started at the number of mall in this town (or maybe you won't, how the hell would I know?).
But safe to say, the next time a big development or building opens, "dollars to donuts", it'll probably add another mall to NYC.
As 2013 ticks away into 2014, our city is poised to get its first new
mayor in over a decade. At the stroke of midnight, the Bloomberg
era ends and the De Blasio era begins.
WNYC radio has had a
great series of reports called New York Remade: Before and After
Bloomberg. A lot has happened, both in the city and beyond, during these
past 12 years. As the series' website explains:
On Jan. 1, 2002, when Michael
Bloomberg was sworn into office, these things barely existed: iPods,
Blackberries, pocket digital cameras. These things didn't exist at all:
the Barclays Center, Citi Field, One World Trade, or the Gehry NY
building.
People smoked, all the time, in
restaurants and bars. Almost no one rode bikes, and T.V.-less yellow
cabs drove down Broadway right through Times Square. Back then, a market
rate apartment in Harlem was about $1,200 — about half of what it is
today. Pizza was $1.50 a slice, same price as a subway token.
Carrie
Bradshaw lived in a Manhattan brownstone, drank cosmopolitans and typed
onto a black and white computer screen. The High Line was a rusted and
weedy hulk, not the locale for furtive kisses for the "Girls" crew
before they head home to Brooklyn. Adlai Stevenson High School still
existed. The Success Academy and six hundred other schools did not.
You could be anonymous in 2001. Now, not so much. We are watched, everywhere, if not by security cameras, then by each other.
New York has been transformed in the last 12 years, in ways that are wrenching and huge and intimate.
Might I add: the city was also still
reeling from 9/11. Ground Zero was a smoking hole with clean-up
crews moving away the rubble of the old World Trade Centers and still
finding bodies.
Back then, our city's biggest fear was getting hit by another terrorist attack. Now it's being able to afford to live here.
The
first decade of the 21st century has been a profound transitory time
for our city. I don't recognize the town I was born in the 1970s, and
grew up in the 1980s and 1990s. The 20th century is but a faint memory
now, another time that is both feared and fetishized in our collective
memory. If you go back and watch movies made in NYC back then, movies
like "Taxi Driver", "Do the Right Thing" and "Bad Lieutenant", it
made NYC look like a nightmare. Now we go to movies like the recently
released "American Hustle", set in the late 1970s, and you'd think the
city was simply "funkytown" back then.
Perhaps it was better,
perhaps it was worse. Perhaps what we've gained in public safety,
health, and schools has been lost in a sky-high cost of living, a
bleaching of the culture, and a loss of communal spirit. The debate
rages endlessly on. But one thing is clear: maybe we don't actually want
to live in Funkytown anymore but we still want to talk about it.
And
in 2013, four notable New Yorkers died who lives embodied the late 20th
century city, who rode high during the era of Funkytown: former mayor
Ed Koch, rocker Lou Reed, pornographer Al Goldstein, and news reporter
Stan Brooks. They were four very different men,
occupying quite different spheres in this city's life and imagination,
but their lives and careers are essential to understanding that time in
our city's life that is now so definitely over.
Ed Koch was
mayor from 1978 to 1989. In his time, he improved the city's disastrous
finances and built affordable housing. He had a proud legacy but was
also very divisive. He was famously irrascible, screaming at
anyone who disagreed with him, and he seemed to relish conflict with
anyone who wanted it. Koch's natural successor was not his actual
successor, David Dinkins, but Rudy Giuliani: both men polarized the city,
setting black against white, rich against poor. The Bloomberg era has
been markedly different both in tone and governance: race relations have
greatly improved and he has openly supported gay marriage. As for the
poor, Bloomberg hasn't played rich against poor: he's simply forgotten
about the poor and forced them out of the city. (Problem solved.) So a
governing style of quiet ruthlessness and embracing diversity has
replaced the divisive, rough-and-tumble governing style of
Funkytown -- and the man who embodied its spirit left us in 2013.
Lou
Reed made his musical career in the 1960s and 1970s writing songs about
drugs, death, bondage, and drag. His music was about the dirty and
dangerous city -- and it was brilliant. As NYC changed and Lou Reed got
older, his music became legendary not only for its great experimentation
but also for its memories of the vanished city. The city of "Sally
Can't Dance" and "Dirty Boulevard" is gone and now, sadly in 2013, is Lou Reed.
But we'll always listen to his music and remember that time and its
poet, a man who made lyrical beauty out of the decay of Funkytown.
Today,
anyone can get porn on the web. My generation was the last that had to
work hard to get its porn (usually by begging an older friend to buy a
magazine from a creepy vendor and then hiding it under the bedroom mattress,
stressing out that mom would find it when making the bed or discover us
reading it when she called us to dinner -- let me tell you, it was
stressful) but today's "yutes" can simply go online, search vast amounts
of naughty content, and then hit the "Clear History" tab on their
browsers when mom calls. The man who represented
the mattresses-hiding time of porn was Al Goldstein, the foulmouthed
pornographer and provocateur and New Yorker extraordinaire, who founded
"Screw" magazine in the 1960s and then, from 1974 to 2003, hosted
the racy cable show "Midnight Blue" on Channel J. He was gross and
offensive and wanted you to know it. He was "the man" during the time
when Times Square was a bastion of porno theaters and drug dealers. Al
Goldstein became the symbol (for many) of everything that was wrong with
NYC back then, the filth that Travis Bickle in "Taxi Driver" so
desperately wanted to wash away. Giuliani started the scrubbing in the
1990s with raids and new blue laws but, in the Bloomberg era, it was
washed away by the Internet and gentrification. Goldstein's magazine and
TV show didn't survive, and he literally became homeless as a result.
But his recent death is a reminder of that time, of the sleaze of
Funkytown, when the city was a wild place -- fun for some, revolting for
others -- that is now clean and, for many, very boring.
And finally, Stan
Brooks. You might know his name: he was a reporter for 1010 WINS radio
news for decades. He had a great voice, one that was born for radio, and he reported on everything from the 1971 Attica Prison riots to
the recent election of Bill De Blasio as mayor. Any history that was
made in NYC over the last 50 years, Stan Brooks reported it first. If
you ever saw the movies "Goodfellas", it's his voice that reports on the
Lufthansa heist made famous in that classic film. Stan Brooks was the
memory bank of this city, the man who explained what was going on in
Funkytown to its residents. Now Stan Brooks is gone, along with the city
he reported about for so long. We've lost a great reporter, a great New
York voice, and a living link to our city's past.
As another great New Yorker, novelist Don DeLillo wrote: "It's all falling indelibly into the past."
The song "Funkytown" was a one-hit
wonder released in 1980, a year when the city was deep in the era of Ed
Koch, Lou Reed, Al Goldstein, and Stan Brooks, and when yours truly
was just three years old. The song was written by a guy named
Steven Greenberg for a band called Lipps, Inc who were all from
Minneapolis and dreamed of moving to NYC. The song was an open
love letter to the dream of this city, to its spirit and danger, to why
people wanted to live here, even back then, the so-called bad old days.
Just remember the first few lines:
Gotta make a move to a Town that's right for me Town to get me movin' Keep me groovin' with some Energy
You can't be funky without some energy, and energy was the essence of the Funkytown era -- the era that the Bloomberg years have so definitively vanquished
Now our city moves into a new era.
Sadly, these four great New Yorkers won't be there to see it. But they
made NYC an interesting place in the last decades of the 20th century,
they gave the city its unique energy, and for that we thank them.
Now,
firmly in the second decade of the 21st century, and the dangerous
energy of that time has been replaced by a safe apathy. We may not be
going back to Funkytown anytime soon, but we need to shed the apathy and
re-find its energy. That's the way we'll honor their legacies in the new era that's about to begin.
When we think of the Twin Towers, we can't help but think of tragedy. But once upon a time, it was a place for magic. And on this sad day, I thought it might be nice to remember this as well.
On August 7, 1974, America was in another kind of funk. The Watergate scandal was crippling America and, two days later, Richard Nixon would resign as president. Yet on this very day, an eccentric Frenchman named Phillipe Petit walked on a tightrope between the World Trade Center towers. He didn't just walk -- he danced. He also lay down on the rope and rocked back and forth, as stunned New Yorkers watched from below. It was a surreal, unbelievable moment, something that could only happen here. Petite never repeated this feat and, looking back, it's hard to believe that anyone was ever able to do this.
So it helps to remember that, in the midst of all of the madness in the world, there can also be magic.
In six days we New Yorkers will be going to the polls to elect a new mayor and a whole slew of new public officials. We will be deciding how our city is governed for the next four years -- and, like all politicians, they are promising a great transformation of the city's economy, schools, and transportation, housing, etc. -- while all the while being "fiscally responsible."
But the transformation is already taking place on a literal level. In the next four years, things both noticeable and unnoticeable will literally be changing the shape of this town.
New subway cars are coming that will look like big accordions without doors separating the cars.
New water tunnels are being constructed that will change the delivery of water to our taps, with sewers and tunnels creating a whole new subterranean city.
Just today, the city approved the construction a new mall on Staten Island that will be centered around a gigantic ferris wheel.
And One World Trade Center is nearing completion as the tallest building in NYC. Recently the elusive graffiti artist Banksy published an editorial calling it "vanilla" and something that would be built in Canada. However you feel about it, this building will be dominating the NYC skyline for decades to come.
So the face and innards of our city is changing. We are constantly being reincarnated.
Recently took the family to Legoland, a theme park up in Westchester that opened in 2021. We had a great time -- lots of rides, lots lego stuff to do, and it had a chill, nerdy vibe that we all enjoyed.
My favorite thing, as you might imagine, were the big outdoor Lego builds of American cities -- Philadelphia, Washington DC, Chicago, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles were featured amongst others. But the really big one, the really major one, was of New York City (no suprise there). Here I will provide you a short photographic tour of Legoland NYC -- it's really amazing to see and something that I encourage all city buffs to check out:
We start out to the north in ...
Da' Bronx
We zoom down into Lego Yankee's Stadium and then visit the Lego Bronx Zoo and the Lego New York Botanical Garden ...
Then we traverse into Manhattan and breeze by ...
The Upper East Side & Upper West Side
Here we see the Lego Guggenheim, the Lego Dakota and Lego Sam Remo as well as the Lego Central Park.
Now let's hop on ...
The Subway
And go to ...
Queens
And go through Lego Long Island City and Lego Flushing Meadows Park to a Lego Mets game at Lego Citi Field.
Let's go back into Manhattan and hit ...
Midtown
We pass by the Lego AT&T Building, the Lego St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Lego Times Square, the Lego United Nations, the Lego Empire State Building, the Lego Madison Square Garden and Lego Pennsylvania Hotel, and the Lego Flatiron Building.
Now we go ...
Downtown
We head south from the Lego Washington Square Arch and Lego City Hall to the Lego Castle Clinton and Lego 9/11 Memorial to the Lego One World Trade Center, Lego Lower Manhattan and, in the midst of the Lego New York Harbor pool, the Lego Statue of Liberty.
But what, dere's more! Let's dip into ...
Brooklyn
And we finish up our visit passing by the Lego Brooklyn Museum, the Lego Grand Army Plaza Arch, and Lego Coney Island.
As for ...
Staten Island
It's not there (yet).
So that's my little tour of Legoland NYC -- but I highly, highly suggest that you go check it out, along with the whole park, yourself.
