New York, New York

Article from the Guardian.

Everyone has her own New York City. Mine is a series of snapshots. I lived in New Jersey  in 1969-71, near the end of that exciting period that started after WW II , which  built  on  the creative energy of the young of those days and their works, that energy that NYC built its contemporary reputation on.  We spent a lot of weekends exploring this place, which then was full of offbeat adventures. Only a few activities were overpriced, and we did not bother with them. Cheap, good restaurants were everywhere. Like everyone at that time, we were  "street smart," just part of the scene, and no one ever hassled us. And we took our kid with us, too, most places we went.

Our daughter got the worst case of food poisoning I have ever seen anyone have at Nathan's at Coney Island from eating one french fry. That was the worst thing that happened to us, as we shared the city with people from everywhere and, I might add, in every condition.

And entertainment! We were entertained to a fare-thee-well.I'll never forget the aggressive crowds at Fillmore East yelling "Moah! Moah!" every time the musicians tried to get off the stage. We would stagger out of those shows blind and deaf! And I've already mentioned the audience standing on the seats and cheering at an Alvin Ailey dance recital when Judith Jamison started wading in the water. Ah, those actually WERE the days, my friends!

Vice did not interest us much, nor at that time did drunks and druggies in the street upset us, so I guess we were somewhat naive, if not really innocent. But it was so thrilling, and now it is just plain not!

We loved New York then, but we decided to go live in Europe, mostly for economic reasons but also because the Vietnam war and the "kill the hippies" reactionary social atmosphere were starting to wear us down.

When I went back in the 80's the NY scene was already socially and artistically mostly retrospective. The highlight of that trip was a performance of Arthur Miller's "View From the Bridge." It was wonderful and did not cost a fortune. But even then NYC was getting way too expensive.

One poignant memory from that visit. At that time New Yorkers were working on the "image' of their city. Service people were striving mightily to be friendly to us rubes. It was kind of funny. But sadly I remember a woman doing this friendly act at the WTC in the gift shop.

The WTC was so huge! So strange. Ugly yet charismatic. That gift shop full of trashy souvenirs is no more, gone with the "see forever" views. It was such a strange place to meet the end it did. The people who died there were just a cross-section of ordinary people who worked in New York.

On my last trip back, two years ago, we met some friends who knew about the good things there.We went to a service with them at the Riverside Church and heard a sermon by Dr. Forbes. The Riverside Church is a bastion, as it were, of Christian liberalism, and, I might add, I have never been to such an entertaining service. Then we did a little tour around Grant's Tomb and marvelled at big buildings across the way, set right on top of steep outcroppings or slopes. Don't try this in the West! But apparently the underpinnings of much of Manhattan are sturdy enough to allow these feats. I loved Central Park, because the weather was wonderful if cool (this was in May), and the cruise around Manhattan remains a bargain. It was so much fun to see all this and be with good friends, and to have some deeper understanding of the culture, history and geography of the city. But mostly, we spent lots of money. Lots. As I walked by the Dakota and saw the limousines of the rich coming and going, I really understood  that this was their city now.

Comments

[Rhea]

Nice piece. I was too young for some of this (Fillmore East) but I have heard about some of this. I grew up in NJ in the 1960s and 1970s and my older brother liked to spend time in NYC, so I had vicarious experiences. For instance, we both got into Laura Nyro when we were kids. She was sooooo New York.

[David]

Thanks for this tribute to lost New York. My wife and I lived in New York City for 8 years; both of my sons were born in Manhattan. As our family grew, we moved across the East River to Brooklyn and discovered a new world of incredible diversity. Manhattan has become a playground for the rich and out-of-town tourists, but Brooklyn is still a wonderful place for raising a family - a giant conglomeration of many villages.

[Brandon]

As I've said, I've never been to New York, but I've heard how it's become a haven for the rich. As David says, Brooklyn is (still) where it's at. Below is a link to a New York Magazine article on the neighborhood of Red Hook, which has been gentrified and degentrified.

http://nymag.com/news/features/40648/

An excerpt:
"It used to be that if you were from Okefenokee," he tells me, "and you were the best dancer in the world, the idea was that you could come to this city to make it. You’d live three in a room if you had to. But now the three-in-a-room places are disappearing. And you need that balance or you choke the life from the city." He worries that New York will eventually price out the people who started this cycle in the first place. "If I were a young man with a lot of money," he says, "you know where I’d go? Buffalo." He’s not kidding. He’d buy up a lot of underused waterfront property on the cheap, then sit down with the local politicians and community groups to draft a plan for attracting the creative types who reinvigorate neighborhoods, block by block.

--
Downtown Hilo is not super-gentrified by any means. There's still a mixture of grit and gloss, where tattoo parlors and bars share buildings with fancy restaurants and galleries.

[Paul]

I find your comments about life in the States back in the 50's and 60's very interesting. I'm 56 and grew up in Connecticut and was in and out of the City all the time back then.

I missed out on Berkeley entirely.... You lucky woman.

Or not so lucky?

[Hattie]

Mostly, I've been an observer, not an activist. That's my nature.
I missed out on a lot of what Berkeley became known for, because I got married and left in 1964. I did see some of the runup to what happened later, in the 50's: some minor leftist disruption of classes and attempts to take over the student government. I noted the ludicrous overreaction of terrified professors and administrators. But mostly I was busy catching up on my social life and flunking out of Cal.
My sister experienced the free speech movement and all that, and it turned her away from the Left, because, like a lot of women, she got dumped on. Her major memory is of washing Mario Savio's underwear! And my poor mother got tear gassed by Reagan's helicopters during the People's Park excitement, when she was out and about, just minding her own business. But I did live in Madison in the 60's,which had its own thing going and which was closer to the east, which meant seeing a little action in Chicago and Washington. By that time we were starting a family, so we were very cautious. At the Chicago Democratic Convention, on the Monday before the Wednesday when all hell broke loose, we noted the police everywhere with their new billy clubs, itching to use them, and we got out of there.
Going back here, timewise: My mother was a bit player in the Communist party, and she knew Oppenheimer and Phil Morrison. She said Phil Morrison could read a book, flipping the pages as fast as he could, while carrying on a conversation. For years he was the sole book reviewer for the Scientific American.
In Berkeley and for many years afterwards,it was the era of the Scientific Genius.
And the German influence on me was very strong. Our family doctor was a Jew who had fled Vienna. Erik Erickson was the director of the pre-school I went to.
No wonder I married a scientist, am politically progressive, and am fascinated by all things German.
In retrospect I'm glad I had the good sense to marry and have a family and a life. And I even finished my education, achieving an M.A. at Reed College in 1991.
I could even go on and on about the stuff before my time: the Kroebers and Jack London,etc. But I'd best stop.
A lot to put into a comment!

[Paul]

In some ways the leftist movement back then had aspects that were fascist, and, as your sister experienced, misogynist.

But there was certainly something refreshing in the air and necessary, too, after all that gray conformity and unquestioning obedience to questionable authority.

I remember skipping school in the late 60's to take the train from dreary Bridgeport to Grand Central. Stepping out into that splendid hall under its canopy of stars, having a coffee in the former Horn & Hardart, and then taking the subway to the East Village to catch a glimpse of the nascent counterculture. Though it later proved to be a will-ö'-of-the-wisp, at the time it was new and free and vibrant.

Oppenheimer, Erickson, Kroeber. Yes, you were a lucky woman.

In Bridgeport I came into contact with several Jews who had fled from the Nazis. They were lovely people; one family took me in for a few weeks after a dispute I had had with my father (about the Vietnam war, among other issues). Ironically, they contributed to my growing interest in Germany and the Germans, leading to my current self-imposed exile--I'm only half-joking--in the Rhineland.

[Hattie]

I still AM lucky!