Manhattan’s Transformation

Now that I have visited Manhattan, I feel a twinge of regret at not having seen how it was twenty to thirty years ago. I know that crime was much more rampant there and that there was an almost omnipresent adult industry, especially in the Times Square area. But, if I am to believe the story about how Rudy Giuliani rode into town and as mayor cleaned it all up in the late 1990s, this area has undergone a very dramatically quick and sweeping transformation.

In all of the miles of walking down street after street, I saw nothing remotely resembling a porn shop or an adult cinema; neither did I see anyone resembling a prostitute. Not that I was personally interested in doing business with them; I just knew of the reputation for these places that the area had built up over the years. Still, I wonder which of the many “wholesome” businesses I passed by (or entered) had earlier been the sites of adult-oriented establishments. Because, you see, I am a big stickler for historical comparisons.

And now I wonder: what will the area be like twenty years from now? My gut instincts tell me that it will be pretty similar to the way it currently is. What happened in the late sixties and the seventies may end up being viewed in history not as a cyclic period, but rather as a kind of disruptive discontinuity. And that includes the promotion of explicit sexuality that was part of that era. I don’t see it making a comeback anytime soon.

But then again, a big transformation could take place along lines that no one can as yet fathom. Will such a transformation affect how visitors can travel through Manhattan? Probably. After all, the World Trade Center attack on 9/11/2001 caused a drastic stepping up of security. And we may not have seen the end of such terrible things.

But things being what they are, I was quite content with my Manhattan experience in 2010. After all, it might have been a bit embarrassing to walk past adult business after adult business alongside my wife and teenage daughter!