Aaah Tim. You make a small contribution onto the list into a moving experience. Thanks, she said with no hint of sarcasm, irony or anything but utter reverence for your continued kindness. LP > ---------- > From: Tim O'Connor[SMTP:tim@roughdraft.org] > Sent: Thursday, 19 March 1998 12:27 > To: bananafish@lists.nyu.edu > Subject: RE: Soho: Snobbism, exemplified > > > On Thu, 19 Mar 1998, PODESTA,Lesley wrote: > > > > > Umm Andrew. I think Brendan was being ironic when he asked the > > > question.LP > > > > You sure you mean ironic? I think you may have meant to say sardonic > or > > sarcastic. This may very well be the case, and even if it was, I > still > > loved going off on SoHo like that. It's always nice to slam > fake'ness. > > SoHo is ghastly (sociologically) but aside from the aforementioned > galleries, it's also the world's largest collection of cast-iron > buildings. > Some of them are exquisite. When I was a kid it was a deserted zone > at > night, and so it was lovely to walk around there in the desolation. > (If > you've seen the movie "Basquiat," or know the artist's work, he used > to > write graffiti there under the name SAMO; I used to love to spot his > work, > though by now it seems all gone, either eradicated or painted over.) > > The neighborhood has another strictly New York distinction: it's the > only > place that has experienced the theft of a building! An owner of a > cast-iron building dismantled it -- either to move it or to do > renovation > -- and left the pieces in an empty lot. He came along one morning and > found the empty lot -- empty. They never found the pieces, and the > chances > are that they were simply melted down for the scrap-metal value. > > Most of the neighborhood (because of the cast-iron architecture and > the > bluestone sidewalks) is designated a historical zone. It's wretched > on the > weekends, but tolerable during the week, especially early in the day. > I > still like it at night, though -- it's cleaner than it used to be, but > that's the price of success. At least the old buildings and sidewalks > remain. > > --tim > >