For those of you that don’t know, when I was a young 21 I lived in NYC in Chelsea on Manhattan for a short period. I enjoyed my time immensely but had to depart to London for Visa and young love reasons. This has been my first return to NCY since then.
Well… 42nd street and Times Square is definately a different place, all ‘family friendly’ and ‘disney store’ not the seedy hooker hangout I recall. Areas like Bleeker Street, St marks place, Mulberry Street, Greenwich, Chelsea and Central Park are however exactly as I remember. In fact 17 years later I have walked into the exact same stores that I had souvenired????? cards from in the eighties. They haven’t changed at all. In fact the same cards and I would even believe they have the same clothes on the racks!
I suppose in NYC the people age but the city remains much the same, it has been there a long time now. I even visited the building where I used to live, and… exactly the same, the panel repair sign next door is still identical.
The one consistent thing that I love about new york is the architecture, specifically the iron work. No crappy aluminium castings for cost reason here, even the restorations are properly forged. See the New York Iron gallery.
I still like this city, and believe that given the opportuntiy I could enjoy living in NY again. Given the preference I think I would habitate near bleeker and 7th or perhaps north Mulberry. The thing with NY though is that its personality can change so much within one street. I was fortunate enough that my weary old grey matter could still recall some of the street sections to visit and… well as mentioned… it hasn’t changed.
There is only one reason why I would hesitate to live in NY – coffee. It is just NOT possible to get decent coffee in the US, why, I don’t know! They have the machinery, they have the coffee they just don’t kow how to make it. It is a realy shame when the best coffee you can get in the city is not in a small italian cafe but… at f*cking starbucks! What’s the deal here! Anne – if I ever i decide to go to NY, you have to also come and set up a coffee training centre near where I live!
On the weekend before I departed in the 80’s I grabbed a pushbike of my friend Jerome – an illegal irishman who rented bikes to backpackers for cash transactions. I rode all aover Manhattan taking pictures. I actually only processed these about six months ago – it was definately a buzz to see them. I have put a NY in the 80’s gallery on the site for you to see and compare with my New York in 2005 gallery.
