We're all a little Irish Pt. 2 of 4

Today’s tour started outside of Charlie O’s. A formula Irish-American Bar and Restaurant on 45th and 8th. The sliver between Times Sq. and Hell’s Kitchen that still hints at a time when both districts meant something else entirely. We were serving coffee and scones in Styrofoam cups on a card table to two and a half busloads of old Irish assimilates from ------ Pennsylvania. Of course we had a little “Irish” to put in the coffee. Most of them requested a little more Irish with each cup. Eventually, a couple of them dropped the ruse and just asked for the “Irish” straight. There were threee of us there. One to pour the coffee, one to pour the nip, and one to watch out for cops. I figured, “When in Dublin” and had a nip or four myself.

I hate “used to be” tours. So much of Manhattan’s history is apparent and visible: the Trinity church from the days of Washington, the Dakota Hotel from when the Upper West was a big patch of farmland. Then there are the parts that are always chaging, never the same. Like talking about the “Taxi Driver” days of The Deuce while standing under the Lion King marquee.
Scorcese’s grand cinematic opera situated in the mythical Five Points district set expectations pretty high for a walk through the old Paradise Square. Standing between the monkey bars and the jungle gym down at Columbus Park, I began: “Here’s a good example of how much New York City has changed in the past hundred and forty-odd years. What used to be the deadliest slum in all of New York, many would say in all of the Northern states of the U.S. is now a children’s playground.”
Nestled on the border between Chinatown and the Civic Center, Worth st. on the south side of the Park recalls scenes from Law & Order long before it would evoke memories of a Gangland Gomorrah.
The irony is not lost on me.