Midtown is Dead, Downtown's Not Cool

I spotted two different stories that basically take a giant shit on the Manhattan of 2014. First up, New York Magazine laments the “long, slow death of midtown glamour,” rightly asserting that once upon a time, one associated the neighborhood with more than just the drudgery of the workday. Hard to argue with that, I guess. They include a lovely, vintage shot of the Time Life building’s plaza for good measure.

Meanwhile, The Daily Beast beat the well-worn “downtown is no longer cool” drum, looping in a Greek chorus of likely suspects to confirm how hip life in Greenwich Village used to be. As a resident of same, I find that declaration pretty spot-on, but I don’t think anyone has really claimed otherwise for at least twenty years.

Beneath, meanwhile, is a shot of the Washington Square Park of 1980 by Jean Gaumy, which I found on the excellent FYI, The Blog of Stomp and Crush. Whether this scene typifies downtown’s lost cool or not is entirely up to you.