than I would feel the need not to move 780 kilometers to the mythical punk wonderland of Canada, but rather 25 Miles south of my suburban home to the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
I walk down Avenue A and I cant imagine that only 25 years ago, the whole neighborhood was so radically different. Imagine the A7 Club (with a 17 year old Jimmy Gestapo running the door), the 8BC Space, ABC No Rio in its infancy, and blocks that were inhabited by Artists who didn't live off of trust funds, imagine rubbing shoulders with the likes of Raybeez and Pete Missing. Tompkins Square was still a scary place, yet a place we could call our own, and who needed lifelines to the petty bourgeois world like rent, when every other building from Avenue A to Avenue D between Houston and 10th Streets was ripe for squatting.
yes, I admit I romanticize Old New York way too much, yes the Reagan era and the Crack Epidemic were awful, but it did create fertile ground for Punk and a vibrant arts scene, and you cant deny that New York City was exponentially more "real" (if you know what I mean) back than than it is now, and one can still daydream...
