Distributed Presses

What are some things you discovered about the city from reading your contributors' essays?
Well, in most cases, my relationship with the writers was very proactive—probably because my assignments were rather open-ended and people would ask me what the hell they should do on Crime, Drugs, Sex, Jazz, Civil Rights, Literature, Growing up NYC, etc.—so I didn't often had that "eureka" moment of discovery. Joseph Anastasio's graffiti essay was an exception to this, as it clarified for me many things I'd started to piece together myself in a less cogent way. For the most part however, what I most learned were the feelings people associated with places and times. . . .

Robert Atkins' essay was also revealing, as he was in the front lines of the gay rights movement and the AIDS crisis. Likewise Steve Maluk's Staten Island piece, which is a subtle tribute to those lost on 9/11 as well. On the other end of things, the book's only reprint, Richard Meltzer's sardonic "At Least It's Not New York" from 1987, had never before been republished and will be a discovery to most; Philip Dray, who's best known as a rather serious historian, told the story ("I Am A Renter") of his late '80s exile to Williamsburg in his own darkly comic way and Kate Schmitz's recounting of her manic dreadlocked punk youth gave real insight into the expressive freedom Manhattan not only once encouraged but almost seemed to require.

I should also add that talking at length to a brilliant photographer like Margaret Morton, who wrote and shot the homeless essay, inspired me to take my own lens game more seriously. I don't rely on photography alone but, especially in a period of rapid change like we're in, there are numerous people and places that should be recognized as they exist at this exact time and place. . . .

New York Calling looks at how the city has evolved over the past few decades. What do you think is the biggest problem/issue the city faces in the next twenty years?
Real estate shills can lie endlessly in person, in print and online but there's nothing good about the recent hyper-gentrification of certain parts of the city except for the ownership—and perhaps the advertising, and construction worker—class. While not precisely Jane Jacobs in a flannel jacket, I do have serious concerns about the effects of high-rise residential, period, and I defy anyone to walk the UWS, UES, new Hell's Kitchen, Chelsea, Kent Ave in Williamsburg and tell me that the street life and commerce has the liveliness or diversity of other, less vaunted and expensive neighborhoods. Of course, the mere scale of, say, Brooklyn Heights hasn't kept it from becoming nearly barren of any but historic interest either (alas).

Although the ongoing establishment and expansion of ethnic neighborhoods throughout the city is wonderful, the homogenization of other areas (by wealth, by chain store, by the most unctuous middlebrow white bread stroller mafia posting imaginable on popular neighborhood blogs) is a real goddamn drag.

I'm deeply concerned about city's abuse of Eminent Domain and the maltreatment of working industry in favor of shifty real estate schemes. Also, while neither averse to change nor a nostalgic, the prevarication and governmental abuses marking the so-called Atlantic Yards project ought to be an insult to every sentient New Yorker. . . .

Please share your strangest "only in New York" story.
Two things: back when Cooper Square was an open air bazaar, I bought the first Unrest album (hand drawn covers) & Sonic Boom's (of Spacemen 3) UK-only Spectrum for $2 each; there was no such thing as 'indie rock' then (summer 1990) but I imagine some music writer had recently been robbed. Last year on Pitkin Ave in Brownsville I came across an exceptionally skilled shell game practitioner; he had at least a couple shills hiding in the crowd and a very slick con man's rap about how "I'm from Mississippi, man." For anyone who remembers the great street hustles of midtown Manhattan, it was a real throwback moment. Day-to-day, the surf scene out in Rockaway Beach remains startlingly unique.

Read the full Gothamist interview

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