Really enjoyed this Matt. It’s very evocative of the era and locale. My first trip to New York wasn’t till the mid-90s and even that was a world away from Manhattan today. Would love to read more of this stuff.
I really enjoyed this, Matt! Feels like a different world to the one I’ve grown up in and I experienced it as an apt reminder that when the world feels chaotic one only needs to glance back into history to realise it’s nearly always been that way. Good luck exploring more of this, I think it’s a good idea. Best, Jake x
Fantastic cameo piece. I am so impressed with the width of variety in your writing. I read all your current affairs pieces and feel heartened by this proof that you can write like this about your past as well as belabour Brexit and the strange death of Conservative and Labour England, although i waited in vain for insights more directly related to your rock n roll heritage!
1981-2 I was also in New York although around 110 and 4th Harlem, already showing signs of gentrification. It was more edgy than dangerous but it was dirty and rat- infested. I wrote poetry feverishly about New York. Civil violence was more commonplace in midtown and i particularly remember a nightmare midnight walk around 42nd and Broadway thinking that the area was as dangerous as it gets, withessing two fights and a stabbing in half an hour. The subsequent gentrification of Manhattan is a modern miracle. Made from money, of course, but also from buckets of determination and faith.
That's very kind of you Lionel. Another extract coming next week. Your memories resonate strongly with me. It really was a wild city in those years, not helped by Reagan's 'care in the community' quotas for the mentally-ill (no care, no community). I lived in Spanish Harlem for a while, which was marginally less violent than the Lower East Side. I've often heard about the transformation of Manhattan - will have to see it with my own eyes before I believe it!
That's terrific. Very evocative. Would love to read more.
Spent a short time in an unheated flat with a steel door and many bolts in Avenue B during winter '70/'71 God was it cold!
Thanks Alfreda. More next week. It was cold enough in the 80s. Can’t imagine what it must have been like in the early 70s!
Really enjoyed this Matt. It’s very evocative of the era and locale. My first trip to New York wasn’t till the mid-90s and even that was a world away from Manhattan today. Would love to read more of this stuff.
Thanks Hugh. Much appreciated. More coming next week.
I really enjoyed this, Matt! Feels like a different world to the one I’ve grown up in and I experienced it as an apt reminder that when the world feels chaotic one only needs to glance back into history to realise it’s nearly always been that way. Good luck exploring more of this, I think it’s a good idea. Best, Jake x
Thanks a lot Jake! That's very kind of you and much appreciated. And yes...it's always been that way.
Fantastic cameo piece. I am so impressed with the width of variety in your writing. I read all your current affairs pieces and feel heartened by this proof that you can write like this about your past as well as belabour Brexit and the strange death of Conservative and Labour England, although i waited in vain for insights more directly related to your rock n roll heritage!
1981-2 I was also in New York although around 110 and 4th Harlem, already showing signs of gentrification. It was more edgy than dangerous but it was dirty and rat- infested. I wrote poetry feverishly about New York. Civil violence was more commonplace in midtown and i particularly remember a nightmare midnight walk around 42nd and Broadway thinking that the area was as dangerous as it gets, withessing two fights and a stabbing in half an hour. The subsequent gentrification of Manhattan is a modern miracle. Made from money, of course, but also from buckets of determination and faith.
I would love to read more..
That's very kind of you Lionel. Another extract coming next week. Your memories resonate strongly with me. It really was a wild city in those years, not helped by Reagan's 'care in the community' quotas for the mentally-ill (no care, no community). I lived in Spanish Harlem for a while, which was marginally less violent than the Lower East Side. I've often heard about the transformation of Manhattan - will have to see it with my own eyes before I believe it!