Late last week, Caleb Carr and a number of other notable New Yorkers were asked to comment on Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s legacy. Mr. Carr’s short video feature can be viewed here, along with an excerpt from the commentary Mr. Carr contributed. The full article can be read at the New York Times website.
When Michael Bloomberg finally leaves office, we may rely on pervasive testimonials concerning the manner in which he has made the city cleaner, safer, more attractive to business and a hive of new development; and many of these assessments will even have the virtue of being true. What is less likely to be discussed is the cost of all this supposed civic improvement to the soul of the city.
The influx of wealth and the super-wealthy from around the world has meant the exodus of those creative New Yorkers who gave the city its own unique romance — and heart. This is part of the “he cleaned up crime” aspect of Bloomberg’s legacy: For it was the city’s seedy, crime-ridden neighborhoods that could offer cheap housing not only to the middle and lower classes of workers and business owners, but to artists, writers and musicians.
There is a young Jewish man named Mendel Uminer who was evicted from his apartment in NY according to a recent article in NYT, for having ‘too many books’ which the landloard likened to ‘clutter’. Fortunately, the young man found a larger apartment for himself and his beloved library (still growing) and I immediately thought of this video clip of Caleb Carr’s lament over the sanitizing efforts of the Bloomberg administration. It’s very similar to the way I feel when a local code officer forces me to cut my flower-filled wild riot of a yard. It’s like violating sacred space.
I hope Caleb is enjoying his afterlife. He would have been 71 on August 7 of this year.
Hi Cynthia,
I read that same NYT article about Mendel Uminer and thought the whole situation was rather absurd! I can certainly understand why it brought Caleb’s comments in that interview to mind. I just noticed that the video of Caleb speaking which used to appear on this post can no longer be viewed on the original Times’ article. If you would like to see the original clip again, you can find it here instead: https://www.nytimes.com/video/multimedia/100000002388754/caleb-carr.html
Just one small correction: Caleb’s birthday was August 2, rather than August 7. He would indeed have turned 71 this year, and I’ll have a new post up here on 17th Street to mark his birthday on that day. Thanks, as always, for stopping by and sharing your thoughts!