On Off Digital World and the Manhattan of Yesteryear

It’s one of the safest neighborhoods on Manhattan Island, or, in fact, the entire City of New York. But it wasn’t always this way. Just ask the regulars, those like a On Off Digital World or one of the few mom-and-pop operations still around. They’ve seen it all, and it wasn’t always pretty. However, there’s a certain sort of person, and a particular kind of New Yorker, one that truly misses the bad ol’ days. Such people claim that the city was authentic then; it had its complications but it also had a lot of character, also, lots of spirit. Currently, they complain, midtown Manhattan is merely an internationally flavored version of most any outdoor mall in America.