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The old neighb
Apr. 2nd, 2010 09:26 pmThirty years ago, Broadway north of 96th Street was a vibrant but shabby area, its Hispanic groceries and Chinese restaurants mixed with declining Edwardian apartment houses and S.R.O. hotels.
That's it!! That was my neighborhood, exactly, when I lived in "the Gargoyle Building" on W. 110th St. and wrote Swordspoint! Nobody believes me now, as it's gone all Gentry - we live near 96th St., and it's safe as houses (which have all been renovated). The Chinese food here is ghastly. I miss the old Szechuan dives so - and all the Cuban-Chinese restau's, as well. In fact, last week I walked through Spanish Harlem (is that right? east across E. 116th St. - it sure was wall-to-wall Latino cafes & stores), and realized how much it felt like my old neighb. I wasn't always comfortable with it back then - the guys on the corner making kissie noises and hissing, "Chica! Chica!" as I walked by (which did not happen on E. 116th in 2010!) . . . and NYC being a generally more crime-ridden city where you always took note of who was standing near you on the street . . . But it made me remember much more vividly what I had left.
(The quote's from a NYTimes article of 4/16/10: "STREETSCAPES | NORTH OF WEST 96TH STREET; Upper Broadway as a Young Boulevard" - not all that thrilling, unless you live here. But those opening lines just nailed it.)
That's it!! That was my neighborhood, exactly, when I lived in "the Gargoyle Building" on W. 110th St. and wrote Swordspoint! Nobody believes me now, as it's gone all Gentry - we live near 96th St., and it's safe as houses (which have all been renovated). The Chinese food here is ghastly. I miss the old Szechuan dives so - and all the Cuban-Chinese restau's, as well. In fact, last week I walked through Spanish Harlem (is that right? east across E. 116th St. - it sure was wall-to-wall Latino cafes & stores), and realized how much it felt like my old neighb. I wasn't always comfortable with it back then - the guys on the corner making kissie noises and hissing, "Chica! Chica!" as I walked by (which did not happen on E. 116th in 2010!) . . . and NYC being a generally more crime-ridden city where you always took note of who was standing near you on the street . . . But it made me remember much more vividly what I had left.
(The quote's from a NYTimes article of 4/16/10: "STREETSCAPES | NORTH OF WEST 96TH STREET; Upper Broadway as a Young Boulevard" - not all that thrilling, unless you live here. But those opening lines just nailed it.)