New York in the 90s
When I was but a callow youth, I was lucky enough to have a job that sent me to New York for the first time. This would’ve been around 1995 or 1996….a time when international travel was (at least for people in my age group) transitioning from a luxury and glamorous expense to more of a regular occurrence, but even still New York seemed impossibly cosmopolitan to me – even coming from London. My perspective had been coloured by the steady diet of Scorsese / De Niro films I enjoyed in my early twenties, and I’d been pre-warned by an American colleague, with vivid descriptions, to avoid the side streets around Times Square. So it was with no small amount of trepidation that I arrived at JFK; alone, wide-eyed, jetlagged, and apprehensive but still eager to see what the Apple had to offer.
Well, it blew me away. I stayed at the Marriott under the World Trade Center, and when I stepped out and looked up, this was pretty much my exact view:
London had its fair share of tall buildings of course, but nothing like this. It set the scene for a day of surprises, as I ventured out on foot leaving my valuables in the hotel as suggested. I traipsed up through Tribeca and Soho to Greenwich Village, and then across to the East Village. After a lifetime of seeing the streets of New York on my tiny TV back home, it felt like I’d been transported into the movies. Just watching and listening to the locals bought with it a palpable sense of hitting the big time. Their confidence and positively was both intimidating and infectious, and I’ve never felt anything like it before or since.
The East Village was something else entirely. My route took me along St.Marks Place, and then around the Avenue A and B areas (again, having been warned that the higher the letter, the greater the danger!), wandering into whichever dive bars took my fancy. I immediately developed a powerful sense of belonging that, again, evokes strong emotions nearly 25 years later. Here was a place where every bar had it’s own character, curated with love and dedication by a string of colourful characters and their devoted, equally colourful patrons. Every bar had a great jukebox loaded with The Very Best Music, a toilet with the most inventive graffiti, and lighting (or lack thereof) which made the pubs back home seem like an operating theatre. Back then, an English accent away from the tourist hotspots was still enough to trigger a conversation, and I spent the next three nights or so immersed in my very own movie. The contrast to my sheltered upbringing couldn’t have been greater.
And yes, inevitably, I checked out Times Square. Touristy of course, but less so than today. I was awestruck – like many spots in NYC, photos can’t do it justice. And I did make a brief foray along 42nd Street to see if the seediness adjacent to Times Square matched the billing – I think I made it half a block before scurrying back to safety! Broken windows a-plenty, Mean Streets indeed…
And so began my love affair with New York. I went back several times with work in the years that followed, and when I started dating my (now) wife we spent several happy holidays back there. Then, in June 2001, when I booked an October trip with my buddy, I couldn’t have imagined what was about to happen. As I watched the towers fall, I felt a gut-punch for the people of New York. I knew many people who worked there, as did many of my Londoner friends….London really felt connected to New York far more than any other American city, more than even most European cities.
I still went in October 2001, on the grounds that a drop in tourist revenue was the last thing they needed, and it was heartbreaking. The place was deflated, all the confidence gone. A few blocks from ground zero was a car park full of row upon row of cars still caked with masonry dust. I was surprised the owners hadn’t been allowed to pick them up, before realising that they might not have owners any more. It took the air out of me.
I wouldn’t visit again until 2007, and then again with the family in 2018. New York was and still is majestic, still arguably the best City in the world, and if you haven’t been then I urge you to do so. But the combination of ridiculous hotel prices and Disneyfication have taken the edge off – and the edge is what made New York special for me. I’ll never forget how it made me feel.
