Walking Tour Through the Village

Naturally, the 1.5 hour downtown tour of Greenwich village brought to mind a piece we ready earlier in the semester: “Lost Land,” by Bob Dylan in his Chronicles. There, he outlines his life in Greenwich village in the 1960s: his friends, his apartments, his art, his daily wanderings. He describes his time as a wanderer, jumping from apartment to apartment, and friend to friend, all barely getting by. He navigates us through his life with the music of the time, what he remembers and was inspired by. In this chapter, Dylan takes us through his time as a folk singer at places like the Gaslight, or hanging out at Kettle of Fish. He rubs elbows with notable names, and finds himself in apartment parties by Washington Square park. He tells us of characters like Mike Seeger, Mae West, and Hank Williams. Many people he knows live in poverty, though others are wealthy. He writes of a Village that seems poor, but whose people are full of life, unaware of the future of the area.

The places of the tour highlighted these issues of past vs. present. What was once a residential, musical, artistic neighborhood, what was preserved as such, has transformed. Where once there were young people, now there are yuppies and their families. What was once authentic has become tourist attractions, restaurants, and places for crowds to gather. Moses was not able to crash his highway through the neighborhood, but of course it could never stay as it was 50 years ago. The area’s history, and its preservation, was eventually what made it attractive, and largely unavailable as living space for struggling artists, or even middle class families.

I have to wonder if Jane Jacob’s vision was really realized here. It hard to imagine “eyes on the neighborhood,” when it seems that most people strolling around on a Sunday are tourists and there are whole blocks of restaurants to appeal to them. I do not know if another Bob Dylan could come out of this neighborhood.

-Rachel Smalle