Singing New York's Praises
I mention this because I've come across several people in the last few months who have lingering impressions of the Big Apple as being dangerous and scary. When was their last visit? "About twenty years ago," they said, "and I vowed then and there to never return."
I understand where they're coming from. I lived in NYC in the early '80s and vividly remember the bums shaking coffee cups in your face as you walked down the streets, the neighborhoods you didn't dare enter, and the constant awareness you needed to have of who was following you. In my years there, I witnessed pickpockets trying to open a woman's purse in broad daylight on Madison Avenue, prostitutes hiding behind cars on lower Park Avenue, drug dealers taking over the parks, and a guy waving a knife and threatening people on the Bowery. Times Square still had live-sex shows, Plato's Retreat (the one and only swinger's nightclub) was still open, and the action was raunchy in the gay and S & M bars in Chelsea.
Well, as far as I can tell, the Hellfire Club has been replaced by a Bed, Bath and Beyond, and the only problem at Washington Square Park, where I spent a pleasant afternoon people-watching, is that half of it is closed for renovation. A big Christmas tree was placed in the park's famous arch, and nobody furtively wandered over to me and offered to sell me so much as an aspirin. The pizza was cheap and plentiful, the stores were packed with shoppers and the streets were actually clean. When I had to catch a 5:18 a.m. train at Penn Station, a cop was waking the people sleeping on the floor and peacefully moving them along.
In fact, the only scary thing I saw in New York last week was "I Am Legend" at a Times Square theater. Now there's an image of the city that will keep tourists away, what with the zombies who only come out at night (and swarm Washington Square Park in one scene). Give the Big Apple another try, and tell us your impressions in the comment space, below.