John Devaney

John Devaney
y.ohta
Tue, 10/23/2018 - 12:15
When did you live in SoHo?

1968 - 1984

Where did you live in SoHo?

NoHO my parents lived on the corner of Bleecker and LaGuardia. They still do and I visit often.

What was your occupation when you lived in SoHo?

Student, attended elementary (PS3) Intermediate (IS-70) and High School (Xavier HS on 16th Street)

What do you miss most about SoHo in the 1970s?

Bleecker Street Cinema, the lack of chain stores, the feeling that this was real NYC, the Greek Restaurant on Bleecker, the fact that is was really a small town in a big city

What do you miss least about SoHo in the 1970s?

The pending changes, the visitors who looked at the area with a sense of comic awareness and judgement. Grand Union was a mainstay but I don't miss shopping there.

If you no longer live in SoHo, why did you leave?

Went to college and moved to DC

What is your most vivid SoHo memory?

The snowstorms, how they shut down entire blocks. The playgrounds in what is now the Coles center and how the ballfield on Houston and Mercer was really a lot of stones and dirt, there was nothing green about it

Is there anything else you would like to add to your profile?

There isn't a day that goes by where I don't think about waiting for the school bus on West Broadway, opposite Grand Union and looking south towards the WTC