Howdy folks,
In regards to this exchange:
Wow, Tribeca in the early seventies?? Does French Onion soup at
Magoo's, reggae on the juke box at Barnabus Rex, dancing at Prescott's
or a 4:am egg cream on Canal ring a bell?

Just curious.
Steve Coyle


Unless you didn't understand the sentence: "...what is NOW called Tribeca..."
maybe you should remain curious. Don't mind the added "c" which happened as I
typed without seeing my typo. I held the key too long.

The places I mentioned were on going around the time the Towers
were wrapping up. That was a great scene, second only to Liberty Lunch
before the roof went up and the Armadillo here in Austin. For
etymology nuts, it was originally spelled out as TriBeCa, for
'Triangle Below Canal'.
Tourist guides to NYC talk about Tribeca as a neighborhood formed
in the 'eighties' which I guess was when Robert DiNero and the big
wigs started moving in, which put it on the map. The neighborhood was
already in progress long before, ( and being called TriBeCa ) with a
lot of artists and musicians doing loft conversions.
I always thought since it was south of SoHo, ( South of Houston ) it
could have been called 'SoSoHo' but that never cought on.

Of course, the landlords in the seventies did the standard NYC
rip off of renting trashed out industrial spaces on five year leases
to struggling artist types, who would put a lot of sweat into fixing
the places up and then at the end of the lease the landlord would turn
around and sell it as a condo to the well to do . I was in a huge loft
with two other artists, and we had canvases, a stereo, mattresses and
a capuchino machine and virtually nothing else, it was a lot of fun.
I've enjoyed the irony of the Bickering New Yorkers having been
in the same neighborhood, long ago and far away.
I hope everyone who traveled got back from their July Fourth
weekend,safe and sound. ( and without nitrate fertilizers on their
shoes )

Steve Coyle
www.austingardencenter.com