Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and Brooklyn Heights Promenade

1) 70 Washington Square and York St, before the construction of the BQE highway, 1926 (New York Public Library). 2) A ground view of the BQE expressway, which illustrates its over looming presence, 2009 (Clare Delaney).

Location of the Brooklyn Heights Promenade: The promenade or esplanade runs along Columbia Heights Street from Middiagh Street to Montague St.

Transit: Take the A or C train to High Street. Turn right on Cadman Plaza West, turn left onto Middagh Street, which will leave you to the Promenade.

The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway is part of Interstate 278 and runs from southern Brooklyn in Red Hook, where it connects with the Gowanus Expressway to Grand Central Parkway in Queens. In 1940 Robert Moses, the supposed “master builder,” proposed an expressway linking Brooklyn and Queens to lessen traffic. Moses valued the erection of highways over the advancement of public transportation, and while he oversaw the construction of every major high way in New York (except for the FDR Drive) over many decades, no new extensions or lines were added to mass transit although a few were proposed. In 1944 Congress allocated twenty-five percent of federal highway funds for the construction of new roads in cities, enabling the construction of the BQE (Short). Beginning construction in 1951, the BQE now runs close to the industrial waterfront from its southernmost point until it intersects with Kent Avenue in Williamsburg (National Research Council). The construction of the roadway literally razed large physical areas of neighborhoods (in some cases totally demolishing entire neighborhoods) and furthermore served to divide other neighborhoods, destroying their character and displacing residents (Short).

Only Brooklyn Heights was saved from the fate of destruction or division served to most neighborhoods by Moses’ Expressway. In the original plan, the Expressway ran along Hicks Street, the trajectory it follows southward into Red Hook. The Brooklyn Heights Association, founded in 1910, lobbied Moses and the City to move the highway west at Atlantic Avenue, nearer to the East River thereby preventing the bisection of their community. The collective organization of many neighborhood residents, in coalition with the Association, persuaded Moses to move construction of the BQE westward and created a promenade, overlooking the river, with majestic views of lower Manhattan. The promenade runs along Columbia Heights Street from Middiagh Street to Montague St, almost the entire length of Brooklyn Heights. The power of the Brooklyn Heights Association came from residents’ affluence and the historical influence of many residents of the neighborhood, which has been described as “New York’s first suburb.” The neighborhood contains blocks filled with charming and historic row houses and mansions built in a variety of styles (Lancaster and Gillon). Brooklyn Heights was saved from ruination because of the political and economic power of their active and long organized community association and the picturesque quality of the neighborhood these qualities are all markers of the neighborhoods white privilege. Unfortunately Red Hook, Fort Greene, Williamsburg and Greenpoint did not have these recourses available.

In these less affluent and more racially and ethnically diverse neighborhoods, despite protest large sections were demolished and replaced by the loud, ugly, pollution-producing Expressway. It is especially glaring in the case of Red Hook where the Promenade could somewhat easily have been continued, or replicated, along Van Brunt Street, but instead at Atlantic Avenue it was moved back to its originally intended route along Hicks Street causing massive destruction and dislocation. Putting an elevated or open-cut expressway through a neighborhood ensures that the surrounding property is unlikely to ever accrue exchange value. The lands’ use value is also severely limited by the Expressway as it uproots many residents and creates an unnatural border. The border changes the existing culture of the neighborhood and “exerts [its own] active influence…[which is] the blight-proneness of zones along the [borders]” (Jacobs). Highways, and other unwanted land uses, are continuously placed in low-income, predominantly minority neighborhoods causing the destruction of these spaces/communities and leaving the population with the documented additional health risks of pollution (Lee). Furthermore it signals the devaluation of the community as a place to be driven though to get somewhere else.

- Clare Delaney and Upahar Rana

Sources

Jacobs, Jane. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Random House Inc., 1989.

Lancaster, Clay and Edmund Vincent Gillon. Old Brooklyn Heights New York’s First Suburb. Toronto: Dover Publications, Inc., 1979.

Lee, Robert E. “The Size of Suspended Patriculate Matter in Air.” Science Vol. 178 No. 4061 (1972): 567-575.

The National Research Council Committee on Urban Waterfront Lands. Urban Waterfront Lands. Washington: Office of Publication National Academy of Sciences, 1980.

Short, John R. Alabaster Cities: Urban U.S. Since 1950. New York: Syracuse University Press, 2006.

Union Square

1) Union Square in December with tents of Holiday Market, 2009. 2) Union Square Archival Image: Illustration of Union Square Park in mid-1800s.(Columbia University Park Story Project).

Location: From East 14^th Street to East 17^th Street between Union Square West and Union Square East. Union Square E becomes Broadway north of the park and is University Place to the south. Similarly Union Square E becomes Park Ave North of the park and is Broadway to the south.

Transit: Accessible by the L, N, Q, R, W, 4, 5, and 6 trains.

For well over a hundred years Union Square Park has been a site for people to lounge, congregate, protest, rest, and more. Our current perception of the park often overlooks the important historical events that have taken place there. The park was built in the 1830s after the Common Council purchased private property to establish an open space (Shapiro). Before the space was made into a public park, it had been co-opted by the wealthy and regarded as separate private space kept “beautiful” by normative standards and by the exclusion of common people. At this time, the park was demarcated by fences positioned against a densely populated city. In 1872, Frederick Law Olmsted redesigned the park to be more accessible to all people by taking down the fencing and creating more open space for mass public gatherings. This led to diverse ethnic groups and lower income citizens to mingling among other classes and allowed Union Square to become a site of political agitation.

In fact, Union Square has a long history as a center for political protest, activism and strikes. The first official Labor Day occurred in Union Square in 1882. At this time the holiday was not a celebration, as it is today, but a protest of twenty-five thousand people demanding an end to the use of child labor, an eight-hour workday, and many also advocating an end to rent obligations (Kayton). In 1886 on International Workers Day thirty thousand gathered in the square. Numerous other protests also attracted tens of thousand of people to protest injustices such as depression era conditions, workers' deaths in strikes, state executions, war, and unfair elections (Kayton). Using Daniel Opler’s definition of a strike as a “cultural act” used by workers to impart and spread their message to other workers, it is clear how important a public protest space is to further proletariat political movements and also clear why the space was now dangerous to those in power. The use of Union Square as a communal gathering space of “radical people” who pose a threat to both the governmental and economic status quo was ended by the 1980s.

During the 80s the city spent $3.6 million in renovations on the Park (Kayton). The renovations both caused and coincided with the surrounding areas transformation from one characterized by “low-rent office buildings, inexpensive stores, and single-room occupancy hotels” (Deutsche) into the Union Square area of today inundated with chain stores and luxury commercial and residential spaces. Coinciding with the renovations to the Park, New York lost over 100,000 blue-collar jobs and “gained over twice that many in the finance, insurance, and other business industries” (Deutsche). At the same time the city was trying to attract an increasingly wealthy population, it was displacing the people who inhabit Union Square, (the homeless) and the surrounding community, by out pricing them through the active encouragement of gentrification. The renovations to the park created a sanitized version of the formerly revolutionary space and paved the way for upscale commercialization. The erasure of Union Squares’ history of social spirit, movements, and protest highlights the connection between architecture, politics and economics.

- Clare Delaney and Upahar Rana

Sources

Deutsche, Rosalyn. “Krzysztof Wodiczko’s ‘Homeless Projection’ and the Site of Urban ‘Revitalization.’” October Vol 38 (Autumn, 1986) 63-98.

Kayton, Bruce. Radical Walking Tours of New York City. New York: Seven Stories Press, 2003.

Opler, Daniel. “Money Business in Union Square: A Cultural Analysis of the Klein’s-Ohrbach’s Strikes of 1934-5.” Journal of Social History Vol. 36 No. 1 (Autumn, 2002) 149-164.

Seneca Village (Central Park)

1) Picture of where Seneca Village existed in the Park, 2009. 2) A plaque that provides a brief history of Seneca Village's existence, 2009. 3) An Interpreted illustration of Seneca Village, 1856. (Columbia University Seneca Village Project).

Between 81^st and 89^th St between 7^th and 8^th Ave,

Central Park West, New York, NY

Location of the Plaque: 85 St and Central Park West

Directions: From Midtown New York, Head northeast on Central Park Driveway toward East Dr, Continue onto East Dr, Turn left at 72nd St Transverse/East Dr, Continue to follow 72nd St Transverse, Turn right at Central Park Driveway,Turn left at W 77th St, Take the 1st right onto Central Park West. (Google Map)

Central Park is a major attraction for city dwellers, tourists, and the affluent communities in Upper Manhattan as a recreational site. However, majority of the population are unaware of history of Central Park, which contradicts and juxtaposes its position chronically. The creation and subsistence of Central Park marks a history of injustice by institutions with racialization of property and ownership rights. Before the much-publicized landscaped park was created, Seneca Village existed as settlement of African Americans, Irish, and German immigrants from 1825 to 1857 (Rosenzweig, and Blackmar, 67). The community was initially established in the 1820s by African Americans, who purchased land for their homes. There are different theories to how the African Americans gained access to land ownership. Nonetheless, their presence in the village is regarded as one of the first significant accounts of self-determination through landownership. The dominant premises for land accumulation are that property ownership was required for African Americans in order to qualify for the right to suffrage and vote after the New York State Constitution Act of 1821(Chambers, and Shackel,102). The other factors were that the land bordered out of the city was inexpensive and sustainable as a “free black settlement,” where the African Americans were less likely to be discriminated in the housing market. The other waves of residents could also have had right of entry through the African Union Church or other churches, who purchased land in Central Park (Rosenzweig, and Blackmar, 70).

In the 1840’s Irish and German immigrants integrated the village and ethnic mix lived harmoniously for a short period. The mixed community was regarded as a “little settlement” of vagabonds that lived with hogs and goats, despite its occupants of over 260 of which was two-third African American and one-third European (Shackel, and Chambers). The press at the time created a common sense ideology that racialized Seneca Village and its people by criminalizing and diminishing their presence (Germic, 35). They were generalized by hegemonic consensus to be useless criminals living in filthy huts as lower class citizens. The creation of “lower class” citizen also leads to concept of wealth gap to be constructed as a racial difference (Germic, 35).

Contrary to the popular misconceptions, Seneca Village’s residents co-existed as a resourceful and diverse community in relation to the other ethnic enclaves of the time (AG). The village had their own institutions that included three churches, its own burial ground, and schools. Most of the residents either owned or rented the property as opposed to the common sense of being “squatters.” Nonetheless, after many political disputes the city chose the village and the surrounding land as a site for Central Park. Soon after over 1500 residents on the land were evicted on the basis of eminent domain, which also signified that the occupants were treated as lower class citizens that could not contest to their removal (Chambers, and Shackel, 103). Although the property owners were compensated, it did not hinder the fact that they were displaced. Seneca Village is prime example of how the narrative of racial ideologies construct and wipe away historical imprints of institutional discrimination based on race, class, and status.

- Clare Delaney and Upahar Rana

Sources

Chambers, Erve, and Paul Shackler. Places in mind: Public Archaeology as Applied

Anthropology. Critical Perspectives in Identity, Memory & the Built Environment. New York: Routledge, 2004. Print.

Germic, A Stephen. American green: Class, Crisis, and the Deployment of Nature in Central

Park, Yosemite, and Yellowstone. Boston: Lexington, 2001. Print.

Rosenzweig, Roy, and Elizabeth Blackmar. The Park and the People: A History of Central Park.

New York: Cornell, 1992. Print.

Apollo Theater

1) Archival Image of Apollo Theater. Posted February 11, 1996. From Correspondent Brian Jenkins. 2) Tribute to Michael Jackson outside Apollo Theater, June 29, 2009. 3) IApollo Theater, present day (Sienna Lee).

Address: 253 West 125th Street, New York, NY 10027

Directions: Take the 2, 3 Trains Uptown/Harlem to 125th Street. Walk West 2 Blocks.

A rich Mecca for urban fashion and street culture, 125^th street in Harlem is lined with sneaker stores, athletic apparel, boutiques, hair stores, and fast food chains. It is home to the famous Apollo Theatre and has been and urban center for decades. Constructed in 1914 in the heart of Harlem’s 125^th street, the Apollo theatre, initially named the Hurtig and Seamon’s New Burlesque Theatre, did not allow African Americans to sit in its audience. However through the Harlem Renaissance and a shift in ownership, the theater underwent a transformation in reputation re-opened as the 125 Street Apollo in 1934. The new owners Frank Schiffman and Leo Brecher partnered with Morris Sussman of the Harlem Opera House Realizing that they could give more affordable shows for lesser booking fee’s by hiring African American Performers, Schiffman and Brecher’s theater was one of the only places hosting black acts for years in the 30’s. After showcasing the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, James Brown, and the Jackson 5, the Apollo theater soon began branding itself as a place “where stars are born, and legends are made.”

The Theater began to experience a decline in popularity in the 60’s and 70’s and in 1975 it was converted into a movie theater. However, thanks to the Percy E. Sutton, owner of Inner City Broadcasting, the theater was purchased and revived in 1983. Later, in 1975, the Theater received local city, state, and federal recognition for its Landmark Status.

The entire site of 125th Street is one of great importance to African Americans in New York City. It is noted as an epicenter of black community formation--based upon common cultural practices and social struggle--within the city. It is also a symbol of the revival and display of the vibrant African American culture, which ranges from the hip-hop you hear blasting from the stereo systems of cars driving through the streets, to the performances that numerous famous African Americans artists have put on at the Apollo Theater. Race plays a huge role in the popularity of 125th Street, due to the fact that "the racial demography of the places where people live, work, play, shop, and travel exposes them to a socially shared system of exclusion and inclusion" (Lipsitz 12). This Harlem historical site, and specifically the Apollo, relate to the "black spatial imaginary", which describes how people of color, who have been oppressed and relegated to undesirable spaces, have been able to "turn segregation into congregation," and therefore carve out a place for themselves in society (Lipstiz 14). Discourses of space have been ingrained into African American culture, and 125th Street is a prime example of "the celebration of the city street in the imagery and iconography of hip-hop", where the "street" is representative of the overall urban space which the black community has been forced to occupy, and where it now flourishes.

- Stephanie Hurley and Sienna Lee

Sources:

Horton, James Oliver. Landmarks of African American History. New York. Oxford University Press, 2005. Paperback.

Freeman, Lance Ph.D. There goes the ‘hood: views of gentrification from the ground up. Philadelphia, PA. Temple University Press, 2006. Paperback.

Lipsitz, George. The Racialization of Space and the Spatialization of Race; Theorizing the Hidden Architecture of Landscape. Landscape Journal. 26(1): 10-23 (2007).

Dry Dock Playground & Pool [Szold Pool]

1) Archival Image of Avenue D and East 10th Street, Manhattan (March 23, 1937) 2) Image of 10th Street and Avenue D. 3) Dry-Dock Pool, present day (Sienna Lee)

Address: North side of E. 10th Street between Ave. C & Ave. D, at Szold Place

Directions:

· Take the M14D to 10th Street between Avenue C and D.
· Take the L train to the 1st Ave Street Station.
· Take the L, N, Q, R, W, 4, 5 to Union Square, Take the M14D to 10th Street and Avenue D.

An important site in the landscape of the Lower East Side, the Dry Dock Playground and Pool—also known as Szold pool—sits at a dynamic crossroads amidst changing forces in this Manhattan neighborhood. Positioned with the Con Edison East River generating station to its North, and Louisaida Avenue C to its West, the sprawling Lilian Wald and Jacob Riis Housing Projects flank it East to South. This recreational area serves as a dynamic meeting-place for schoolchildren, teens, families, and longtime neighborhood residences of varying races and national origins.

Located in an area once known as the Dry Dock District—a name given in the mid 19th-century after its booming iron works industry—the City of New York acquired the land in 1964 as part of the Thompsons Square Urban Renewal Area Project. The Pool and Park were opened in 1975 as a part of a neighborhood wide effort to clean up the local tenement buildings, warehouses, and abandoned facilities. Because of the pool’s proximity to the Wald and Riis Houses, and its shared servicing of the ever-gentrifying Louisida Avenue C, the space around the pool has arisen as new epicenter in the divide of class and racial polarization.

In 1990 the city invested $500,000 in renovating the pool and park; putting up new fences, benches, play equipment, new basketball backboards, repaving the cement, and re-building curbs. Again, similar to the conditions surrounding its inception, this was part of a larger effort to clean up the neighborhood. Since the Lower East Side exists as one of the last ‘urban ethnic enclaves’ in Manhattan, a highly controversial emerging power struggle can be observed in the blocks surrounding the Dry-Dock Pool. It is suspected by neighborhood residence and business owners that developers have been eyeing the prime stretch of waterfront real estate that runs along Avenue D for a while now, however there remains one epic hurdle preventing them from transforming the space into luxury condos or office space; nearly 9,000 people reside in the Lilian Wald and Jacob Riis houses. Although these plans of redevelopment are not official, residents fear that one day they will be forced out, with no affordable alternative. This worry is not contained to only Wald and Riis housing residents, it comes as part of a larger epidemic, and a New York City affordable housing shortage. “Citywide, there is an eight year waiting list for public housing,” Arlene Davila reveals in Barrio Dreams, “more than 224,000 households are waiting to receive Section 8 vouchers to subsidize their rents, while one quarter of New Yorkers spend more than half of their income on rent.” With a deep-rooted culture woven in this early immigrant neighborhood, huge concerns remain for residence, housing officials, and neighborhood prospects. This 'final frontier' of Lower Manhattan has created an explosive power dynamic, and perched amidst the debates, the Szold's pool remains a staple of the neighborhood and a forced meeting-place for new and old residents alike.

- Stephanie Hurley and Sienna Lee

Sources:

Daivila, Arlene. Barrio Dreams: Puerto Rican, Latinos, and the Neoliberal City. Page 29. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California. University of California Press, 2004. Paperback.

Gates, Jennifer A. Strangers in New York: Ethnic tourism as commodity, spectacle, and urban leisure in three Manhattan neighborhoods.

Martinez, Miranda J. The struggle for gardens: Puerto Ricans, redevelopment, and the negotiation of difference in a changing community.

Fordham Road, Bronx

1) Archival Image of Alexander's located at <http://www.nostalgictimewarp.com/bronx.html> 2) “Burned Out in the Bronx” photo by Sylvia Plachy, used within the article “Arson For Hire” by Joe Conason & Jack Newfield, June 2, 1980. <http://www.villagevoice.com/2005-10-18/specials/arson-for-hire/> 3) Fordham Road, present day (Stephanie Hurley)

Address: Fordham Road, Bronx, New York 10458

Directions: Take the uptown 4, B or D trains to the Fordham Road station.

Fordham Road, located in the Bronx, stretches from the east to the west, spanning from the Harlem River to Bronx Park. It is also the site of the largest retail strip mall in the borough, boasting vast numbers of inexpensive shops, stores and eateries. The street is crowded, always bustling with vibrant life, shoppers anxious for clothing and other cheap hip-hop oriented apparel.

Today, Fordham Road is a beacon of cheap street culture, available for purchase to anyone willing to deal with the noisy crowd. But from the late 1960s to mid 1980s, it was a location that was known more for its theaters, shops and entertainment. Amongst “the tiny triangular oases along Fordham Road, old men and women sat and chatted. Kids played in the dirt and scraggly grass. Conversations and chance encounters were the norm, not the coldly efficient consumer rituals of suburbanized city spaces” (Gonzales). The locale has since shifted from a place of community bonding to a symbol of community decline, marked by the low-quality merchandise and dirty, crowded surroundings.

Perhaps most interestingly--and the main reason this site was chosen--is the fact that it was here, along Fordham Road, where a line of demarcation was drawn, a line which activists vowed would not be traversed by the arson incidents that ravaged the South Bronx during this tumultuous historical moment—“the line where [they] vowed the blight would stop” (Gonzales). Arson specifically "refers to the intentional destruction of property by fire" (Brady 2). During the mid-1960s, “the number of structural fires began to rise rapidly in New York City, primarily in neighborhoods of overcrowded and under-maintained tenement housing” (Wallace 434). Arson fires in New York City were "heavily concentrated in the heavily black and Hispanic South Bronx district, which was gutted by more than 30,000 arson fires from 1970 to 1979" alone (Brady 4).

These intentional arson incidents were reactions to various different social stressors, including failing urban planning and government programs; the major causes of unrest within the South Bronx were reactionary. Such problems included the disorganized welfare system, which aided in the destruction and softening of the housing market as tenants were forced into rent delinquency for defaulting on inaccurate welfare rent grants, as well as the increase of the population of racial minorities such as Blacks and Latinos, which forced whites to leave for fear of property values declining (Glazer 273). The production of more low-income housing and the rise of crime left landlords and tenants angry and desperate. Thus, the "arson-for-profit schemes" began as a result of racial, housing and governmental programming issues, and hundreds of people were displaced as buildings were set ablaze in order to benefit the landlords and corrupt government officials who would then collect the insurance payments. The poverty-stricken tenants of the lower-income housing in general simply could not provide enough profit.

Yet, Fordham Road is where the cry for help was answered. The arsons never spread past the snaking strip of shops, preventing further fire damage to the buildings--and residents--of the area of the Bronx above it. The road stands as a testament to the destruction and flawed policy of the South Bronx, and a barrier between it and the Northern, more privileged Bronx space.

- Stephanie Hurley and Sienna Lee

Sources:

Brady, James. Arson, Urban Economy, and Organized Crime: The Case of Boston. Social Problems, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Oct., 1983), pp. 1-27. University of California Press.

Glazer, Nathan, The South-Bronx Story: An Extreme Case of Neighborhood Decline , Policy Studies Journal, 16:2 (1987:Winter)

Wallace, Rodrick. Fire Service Productivity and the New York City Fire Crisis: 1968-1979, Human Ecology, Vol. 9, No. 4 (Dec. 1981), pp. 433-464

Gonzales, David. "Fordham Road, Where the Blight Stopped". NY Times City Room Blog. September 21, 2009. <http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/21/fordham-road-where-the-blight-stopped>

Times Square

1) A view of Times Square in the 1920s (Thevillager.com). 2) 1970 saw Times Square as one of the centers of the gay and sex cultures in NYC surpassing its predecessor, Union Square. Sex shops, peep shows, sex theater houses, drug deals and gay and straight prostitution canvassed the landscape of Times Square make the area one of the most “dangerous” neighborhoods of NYC (The Villager.com). 3) Tourists seen taking a picture with the Naked Cowboy. Today, tourists can enjoy the sights, thriving street culture as well as the theater cultures of NYC (Grayson Maldonado and Dalue Song).

Times Square is one of the iconic sites of New York City, as it is home to the unforgettable theaters and upscale hotels. However, Times Square was not always the neon-flashing epicenter that it is known today – its sordid past lays in the underground yet mainstream culture of the commodification of sex, drugs, and prostitution. Urban renewal in this grandiose yet crucial space throughout the decades has been significant. “In order to bring about this redevelopment, the city has instituted not only a violent reconfiguration of its own landscape but also a legal and moral revamping of its own discursive structures, changing laws about sex, health and zoning, in the course of which it has been willing, and even anxious, to exploit everything from homophobia and AIDS to family values and fear of drugs.”[1]

At the turn of the century and during the Roaring 20s, Times Square was part of the “Tenderloin” districts of NYC – one of the most desirable lands of the city. Yet, during this time, corruption, gambling and prostitution were rampant and specific blocks became known for erotic and criminal activities.[2] During the 1920s, Times Square, already known as the market for female prostitution, became also known as the city’s center for male prostitution. This aspect of gay culture catered to customers in two ways – 1) transgendered-looking “fairy prostitutes” attracted tourists and members of the German and Italian communities and 2) more sophisticated prostitutes solicited middle-class gay businessmen.[3] Thus, city class elites secretly came into the promiscuous space to take part in the counternormative culture – a practice known as slumming. In this way, many elites were able to successfully live with double standards.

By the 1970s and 1980s, gay culture was still thriving during this era. However, more “static” establishments, such as sex shops, porn stores, and massage parlors, proliferated during this period. However, this licentious space faced almost no legal opposition from the government. As a result, this environment of hypersexuality and rampant drug abuse significantly devalued the surrounding real estates.

Present: “Disneyland NYC”

The Forty-second Street Development Project, which included the Walt Disney Company, started an aggressive campaign to revamp the neighborhood’s image by getting rid of the city’s undesirables (gays, drug addicts, homeless).[4] Police were stationed everywhere to surveillance immoral, indecent and vagrant activities. Furthermore, an immediate crackdown of gay sexual outlets and drug users was initiated due to the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s.

Today, the results of the Forty-second Street Development Project are evident as the entire district has been transformed: gone are the sex shops and drug parlors, in are the fancy restaurants and family-friendly entertainment arenas. The “city-culture” appeal has seemingly turned Times Square into a theme park. Meanwhile, the few adult stores and 25cent peep shows that still linger have been relegated to outside of the Times Square area and are thus away from modernity and decency.

- Grayson Maldonado and Dalue (Roy) Song

---

[1] Delany, Samuel. Times Square Red, Times Square Blue. New York: NYU Press, 1999. xiv.

[2] Gilfoyle, Timothy J. City of Eros: New York City, Prostitution and the Commercialization of Sex. W.W. Norton & Co., 1994.

[3] Chauncey, George. Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940. Basic Books, 1995.

[4] Gilfoyle, Timothy J. City of Eros: New York City, Prostitution and the Commercialization of Sex. W.W. Norton & Co., 1994.