New York Now, New York Then

I'm reading Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann.  It's a book about people who saw Philippe Petit walk across the Twin Towers in 1974.  Currently I am reading the part that is about a young Irish immigrant and his brother Corrigan.  He never tells of the main characters name, only of his brother's.  They live in the Bronx at this time, it's an entirely different world than where I live and when I'm living.

The New York City they depict in the book is vastly different than the New York City I live in now.  In their New York City, it's absolutely insane.  At that time and in that place, as evidenced in this book, is a terrible world.  In their world they have hookers roaming all over the place.  In the story the brother, Corrigan, lets all the hookers use his bathroom, he won't turn away a soul.  There are pimps everywhere, Corrigan says, "Guy calls himself Birdhouse.  Only got one good eye.  Go figure.  In he came, knocked on the door, said hello, called me brother this, brother that, real nice and polite, even hung his hat on the doorknob... He'd been sitting there all that time, just letting my bathroom flood"  He talks many times about getting beat up by the pimps.  People use drugs all over the place there, they talk about really serious drugs like heroin a lot.  Almost every character uses drugs.  Also, there is a huge lack of steady employment.  Even just the way they describe the atmosphere is dark and mean, at one point Corrigan's brother says, "Find somewhere with a bit of sunshine.  You and me together."  He honestly thinks New York City is dark and mean and cruel all over.  Can you imagine living like that?

The New York City I see now is so different.  (Keep in mind that I know that I live in a nice neighborhood with a lot of safety and protection, and I remember that when I read this book.)  The New York City I see is bright and sunny with plenty of air, green grass, and trees.  I see a New York City with no hookers roaming the streets, no pimps, no huge robberies.  I see a world with at the most a minor theft at a subway station.  I see a world that has kids and parents all over the place.  Everywhere I look there is a Nanny and stroller.  Kids play in playgrounds every day, people have steady jobs and the world is really nice for the most part.  I'm not saying my world is perfect, but it's nowhere near close to their world.  I only live in Brooklyn and it's very different.

Over a few decades and a tiny shift in location a the entire atmosphere is so radically different.  From 1974 to this present day, from the Bronx to Brooklyn, a world changes.  While my world is practically pristine, their world is so scary and dangerous.  The small changes between me now and them then, amount to huge lifestyle changes in the end.  Imagine trying to go from Park Slope to their life in a second.  How would that feel?