Say anything you want about New York City. Good and bad, it is the capital of capital because anything is possible. Not Hollywood possible, but for real. I’m not saying that L.A. isn’t real, or Chicago for that matter, or anywhere, but New York City is the place where anything is possible twenty four hours a day.
Part of the reason some of you came to this site is for that slice of life that existed in this city from 1985-1995. I feel responsible as your tour guide for that period to give you a truthful and unapologetic account of how the city dealt with itself. Crack cocaine is typically the definition for the 1980’s but in my mind the freefall of the urban landscape is way bigger than a handful of freebase. There was a concerted effort to reduce the center city to so much as rubble. It was a glimpse of post-Katrina New Orleans twenty years prior to the hurricane.
Brooklyn has since transformed itself, rising from the ashes like a phoenix. It’s hard to imagine how desperate people had become when you see condominium apartments in Brooklyn selling for upwards of three millions dollars. This is still my city. There is still a debt to be repaid that I owe to the people of New York City. The Archives will contain their real life stories. It will be a salute to the spirit of the city that still gives me life and energy.
The first story will be a shout to one of my brothers unlike any other, the incomparable TIMOTHY STONE…
Tim Stone…that is a blast from the past. Waiting for the story DP.
CLASSIC LO SWEATER.
i beg to differ LA is real real…real enough to have withstood two race riots, real enough to create some of the best fictional works of our time, real enough to give birth to the likes of Tookie [RIP] and real enough that it attracts people from all walks of life who would give up a kidney just to call it home.
still love NYC but not The ‘Wood till you try it! Hollywood that is:-)
Did you cats used to bump heads with Ralphie’s Kids/Lo-Lifes a lot back in the day?
I’m definitely looking forward to more 80s / early 90s stories.
70’s babies unite. “To teach the truth to the young black youth”