Melt Down

I took the C train downtown the other day. I wanted to see if the doom and gloom dominating the news was playing out on Wall Street. I wanted to see if I could make the despair somehow more "real." Took me about 35 minutes. Not a depairing figure in sight. Lots of tourists (many of whom I obligingly photographed). No one pronouncing the end of time, not even the end of America. Just me and the tourists.

I understand that an upright New York Stock Exchange does'nt mean the economic melt down is a fantasy. I also understand that many people's savings have surged south. But I don't know anyone who's lifestyle has taken a radical change for the worse. Maybe Im just lucky. It's just that the "crisis" seems contained to CNN. What is real is the sense of impending disaster. I wait for the worst that is yet to come and am told it will be awful.

My greatest fear is that New York will again become the place I left 25 years ago. I won't list the urban ills that characterized the City of the 1980s, but I've already decided I won't leave. It's New York!! Where else can you find a McDonald's with a Chrystal Room and a pianist serenading guests. Or a free-wheeling dog fair, replete with dog mazes and contests and tons of dogs. I guess Im here to stay and, fortunately, Im not alone.