In 1996, “Rent” was a snapshot of a downtown neighborhood in the papers for all the wrong reasons. Now the East Village is right there again.
Alejandro Piedra was arrested on charges related to the weekend's stabbings and murder in front of an East Village Trader Joe's.That famous Broadway musical by Jonathan Larson, which premiered in 1996, depicted an East Village beset by crime, squatters, drug use and homelessness during the 1990s.
That’s partly because the area experienced a stunning turnaround over those 12 years. The East Village was suddenly posh. Mary-Kate Olsen and Helen Mirren bought luxe apartments there. No longer worrying about being murdered, residents were more concerned with getting into Momofuku.The world of “Rent” was in the rearview, and New York was the safest big city in America.
Nobody seems to care, even though children and dogs are everywhere. And if they do, they’re afraid to speak up for fear of progressive castigation.This week I watched two cops staring at piles of someone’s abandoned hoard of trash on 12th Street, next to a public school attended by kids ages 3 to 11.
Another older woman, always reeking of urine, wanders into bars and restaurants begging for money, as everybody pinches their noses. I was once chased by a crazed man in a bodega who wrongly thought I gave him a funny look. A popular juice bar on East 6th Street and Avenue A is mulling relocating because the situation has become so dire.
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