Some weeks back, our friend Jeremiah Moss from Vanishing New York shared a photo on his Facebook feed originally snapped by one Michael Hirsch, that being the one above. If you're not a resident of downtown Manhattan, such a sentiment might not resonate so much with you, but suffice to say, in 2017, NYU is not widely perceived as a benevolent presence.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but the NYU of this era seems less content to coexist with large swathes of Greenwich Village and downtown Manhattan so much as treat it like its manifest destiny. NYU is ultimately an occupying force with brazenly expansionist ideals. The by-product of that is their student body, who march around like they own the place ... which they essentially do.
To borrow a line from a friend, NYU was an excellent university. Now it's a real estate conglomerate with a university on the premises.
Over the weekend, I happened to walk by the exact spot of Hirsch's original photo -- East 6th Street & First Avenue -- to find it .... updated.
Recent Comments