Walking Tour-Ben

I enjoyed the walking tour, especially since I was able to look at the same area that I went to high school in during a different time period. It’s cliche, but the walking tour was a time machine without displacing me. I was still Ben in 2017 while observing Greenwich Village in the 1960s. We discussed NYU becoming a prominent figure in establishing a “culture”  in that subsection of Manhattan, of NYC. It’s the one take away from this class, that no matter what time period is examined, New York City will be broken up into parts that are micro-sized only to be cut up by imaginary boundaries we know as blocks and avenues. NYU affected the Greenwich Village, but so did the pop culture movement, Bob Dylan’s influence, and the gay rights movement. The 60s shaped culture just as much as the culture made the 60s what we remember it as today.

I wish we went to Washington Square park as well. I enjoyed walking passed Bob Dylan’s first home, 161 west 4th Street. I didn’t cover sports in my autobiography but I would have mentioned the famous West 4th street caged basketball courts that many famous basketball players played at, as well as Rucker Park in Harlem.