Wednesday, November 21
When you look back on the New York you knew in the seventies, how does it make you feel looking at what New York is like today? — It’s shocking, I still can’t believe it. Tom Verlaine and I lived in the East Village, we had a place that cost maybe a hundred dollars a month – six floor walk up with no bathroom – and now that same apartment is like a thousand dollars. Not only did it change aesthetically because they destroyed a lot of places, but the beauty of New York City for me was that people could come from all over – young people, people of any age – with ideas, with no money, but had creative instincts, or a plan, a design, could come and get some cheap apartment, get a job at a book store as I did, and build their life. You can’t do that anymore; it’s a completely different economic structure.
— Patti Smith
