Seems like no matter where you look in New York City these days, you can't find a hooker being carted off by the NYPD's Pimp Squad. Heck, is there even a Pimp Squad arm of the Finest anymore? The AP reports that New York City's edge-factor is disappearing, noting the deaths of CBGBs, Coney Island's Shoot the Freak, and Off-Track Betting as some of the big losses. Are we doomed to become a metropolis filled with Starbucks and big box stores? The once seedy Times Square has now literally become Disney-fied, and the AP notes: "the weird, unexpected, edgy, grimy New York—the town that so many looked to for so long as a relief from cookie-cutter America—has evolved into something else entirely: tamed, prepackaged, even predictable."
The director of the Gotham Center says, "What draws people to New York is its uniqueness. So when something goes, people feel sad about it. I think that's also part of the New York character, that 'Things were better when...'" Indeed, not long ago we looked back at a video from 16 years ago documenting the changing landscape of the city, where many of the same fears were expressed (though one man welcome a Wal-Mart take over).
What some see as progress, many see as lost uniqueness—but as one tourist says, "what I've always liked about New York is the New Yorker, and that's always pretty much going to be the same."
