I was walking through Time Square with some friends one evening not too long ago when one of them commented, “New York is too clean now, too safe.” He had been living in New York since the days of Tunnel and Limelight, when the Lower East Side was a place you didn’t journey to after 7:00pm, and Time Square was filled with Porn Joints, Strip Clubs, and lots o’hookers. “I miss the seediness, and the danger,” he said as we walked the Chamber’s hotel for a drink and a seat by their fireplace.
Make no mistake; while New York is statistically safer after Giuliani’s late 90’s scrub down, it’s still a place to watch your back and to pay attention to your surroundings. That reminder was never clearer to me then what happened to my former boss this past Friday.
Like most industries, the one I work in (music industry) requires constant bank wires, your typical commerce transactions in order to expedite the tours, pay the artist salaries, and additional transportation costs. This time, my former boss had to actually withdrawal a large amount to pay the orchestra directly. He was mugged, pistol wiped (the gun apparently went off) and he was robbed…of $149,000 in broad daylight on 56th and Broadway. Witnesses watched it happened and did nothing (a few said they thought it looked like a film was being shot).
http://gothamist.com/2008/02/23/police_search_f_5.php
When you’re coming home drunk from a nightclub don’t walk home by yourself (you shouldn’t do that anyway). Ladies look out for your girlfriends when they are trying to get home, make sure you look after getting them into a cab, and if you can, go with them and make sure they are get home safely. Of course most of you know not to get into hail a livery cab (e.g. those cars that look like mini limos), only accredited yellow cabs are allowed to be hailed in the city.
So ladies and gentlemen be safe out there. Maya
