PB, did Vince ever have run ins with some hyper pro-gay group or people where he had to prove to them that this is what is going to happen in my area? Or did the word just get out to everyone, this is who runs this area and this is what goes on right here? Today being so PC everywhere wonder if this would be able to go down without some group making a hate crime complaint or something.
The Village has always had its share of weirdos, artsy-fartsy types, and queers. But even having said that, it's changed so much since '97 (the year that Vince went inside never to return), that if he was alive and was released today, the neighborhood would be as foreign to him as Libya.
Real estate is my life today, and you follow my posts like a gentleman, so you've probably seen me post that I pay close attention to demographics. And I am COMPLETELY convinced that, even with the combination of Italian American assimilation, gentrification, and the sissy hipster invasion, that if Gotti and Gigante didn't go inside to die, that parts of lower Manhattan would still be somewhat unchanged.
I also believe that the FBI's assault on those downtown areas had as much to do with them being in bed with the real estate lobby as it did with putting gangsters away. But I can be pretty cynical at times, so maybe I'm going crazy in addition to being a cynic.
