My first visit to Manhattan was in November, 1989 on business trip for a convention held at the Javits Center.

I had to "tip" every trade at the Javits ($10-$20 each) to get our electric, carpet, booth delivered, etc. This was already paid for but nothing happened without going to each trade and paying the "tip".

We walked over to Times Square to see it. It was a cold evening, probably in the 40-50 degrees F, and there were girls in their underwear, some without bras, standing outside these places trying to solicit customers. Times Square disgusted me. The place was dirty and smelled. Trash every where, beggars who were aggressive, and nothing but titty bars and pimps.

We went down to Greenwich Village to see some jazz (Maynard Fergueson was playing). As we got out the cab, I saw a guy shooting heroin into his arm while he talked with a mounted cop. I was stunned. I had never seen someone injecting heroin, let alone while that person chatted with a cop.

I came away from the trip thinking the Big Apple was a dump. An expensive dump with really good restaurants. In my opinion, the city has been saved by people like Giuliani who cleaned it up and got rid the place of the crime and graft.