The Flowering Of Manhattan's Bowery

"True anarchy ruled the street before, during and for some time after the years that I lived on the Bowery from the mid-1970s to late 80s, less than a half-block from where the New Museum of Contemporary Art's new headquarters will rise at No. 235 between Rivington and Stanton streets. When I arrived in 1976, two flophouses and three wino bars (not to be confused with wine bars) were all closer to my home at No. 221 than the museum site. And though the flophouse-Bowery Bum era was already well in decline, although the population of hopeless and homeless was still in the thousands up and down the street."