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Culture War Roundup for the week of February 19, 2024

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I would not say Greenwich Village is meaningfully better than the rest of lower Manhattan on this issue. The crowded parts closer to Washington Square Park are full of psychos. The park itself has a corner that is essentially Hamsterdam and the only place that’s worse in lower Manhattan is the area around the Bowery and Grand Street station in Chinatown

I don’t think the village is meaningfully better than the rest of Manhattan on this issue, I just think it’s the best place to live in lower Manhattan and that’s broadly reflected in eg property prices and neighborhood cachet anyway. There are psychotic hobos around but it’s probably the busiest or one of the busiest parts of lower Manhattan at all hours, certainly in the warmer months there are always students and other residents around at night, it’s rare to feel unsafe in my experience (having lived there my entire life between 1995 and 2017 when I moved to England, and having returned very frequently since). Which corner of the park is like Hamsterdam? You’re more likely to encounter students drinking and smoking weed than to be accosted by psychotic hobos.

The northwest corner is full of groups of junkies and psychotic people screaming at each other.

Here’s a NYPOST link, obviously they are a bit of a tabloid but what they report is true. https://nypost.com/2021/05/29/washington-square-park-drug-den-horrifies-greenwich-village/

Try walking through there on your next visit and compare to the rest of the park, there’s a very distinct vibe shift and I’ve seen a lot of wild shit there.