point taken. i should clarify. my liberal use of the word "porn" is an oversimplification that is going to haunt me, so i'm going to try to explain it here. pornography, in of itself is fine. peep shows, fine too, strip bars, legitimate businesses. i think the best word to characterize really time square before the time square intitiative, is not "row of porn shops" but rather, "red light district" which has a different meaning in the US than in the rest of the world. in the US, it seems to include porn shops, etc. in the rest of the world however, red light district basically means prostitution, and such shady business.
that's just a clarification, also in regard to prostitution, it wouldn't be so shady if not coupled with the rampant drug use, the crack epidemic, and the explosion of STD's during the 80's. i believe it is a combination of all these things that tarnishes the reputation of time-square. during the 80's, we didn't exactly have unionized prostitutes, nor systematic testing for STD's, nor do we have now, which is what makes it a problem.
i think the problem with time square before the intitiative was the fact that it was a red light district of the worst variety. coupled with all those bad things. and in reality, cleaning up time square was like driving the snakes out of ireland.
i hope that clarifies, firstly that i misused the word "porn" second, i'm talking about new york's days where there was a problem when the red light district was coupled with other bad things.
thirdly, you have to realize that time square, at that time was a terrible neighborhood, i mean there wasn't just a crack epidemic or STD transmission problem localized to that area, it was afflicting the whole nation, yet neighborhoods without porn shops seemed to have been far better off in those times than neighborhoods WITH porn shops. and that says to me that the red light district in new york was definately drawing unsavory crowds. in a world where everything is bad, it just so happened that the neighborhood with the porn shops were far worse. i think that's proof enough. i'm sure that in germany if you had a cluster of sex shops, 10 blocks in a row, there would also be attracting many unsavory types.
also the national monument thing, if people were walking around the lincoln memorial, or the holocaust museum, asking if anyone wanted to buy some CRACK, i'm sure that's a poor reflection of the spirit of hte nation, i don't think you can deny it, i mean do you think that any nation would want to come out and say, "yeah, come to our country, you can get lots of crack!" also along those lines, consider this, the areas around time square are tourist attractions, tourists come out in groups and families. how can a red light district be good for tourism? for attracting business and talent and the image of new york? a lot of income in new york is from tourism, why would a family want to bring their kids to new york to walk through a 10 block area where they are offered cocaine, heroin and casual sex? all those things are associated with New York and time square in teh 80's.
i think people are getting into the semantics of what i'm saying instead of focusing on the time square initiative itself. it was not only a program to get rid of sex shops but to overall clean up time squre, getting rid of hte crack, the hookers, the pimps the gangsters, and making it more tourist friendly, and improving the new york image. i'm FOR that program. regardless of your feelings towards porn, can you really say that the initiative itself was BAD for new york city? i don't think so. i've seen enough positive changes for me to vote for Rudy as mayor for life. because i knew how it was before, and i've seen it now, and it's better than ever.
that's prevelant through much of society... just an unbridled hate of eveything it is and stands for.... including its employe's. So here he is at a 21st...badgering a couple who happened to meet each other while working for McDs, calling them "drones" and whining about them feeding "the machine" ( completely oblivious to the alchohol he just purchased, the clothes on his back... etc )
