Classroom for Depravity

So says an article in the NY Times from June 25, 1984, titled 'Growing Up in Hell: The Children of Times Square", about children from homeless families housed by the city in "welfare hotels" in the area.

The sour stench of garbage and alcohol rose from the sidewalk in hot waves. In front of the Carter Hotel on West 43d Street, there were children everywhere, hanging off the door of the Rose Saigon restaurant, swinging on fire hydrants, wrestling in piles of beer cans in paper bags.

Angel, 4 years old, played with an empty Bacardi rum bottle. Ann, 6, mimicked a common sight on the street, pursing her lips and sucking in, as though dragging on a marijuana cigarette. Michael, 9, held on to his baby sister's carriage and watched wide-eyed as police officers led away a handcuffed woman, in a purple jumpsuit, screaming obscenities.

They are the children of Times Square. They grow up quickly in the neighborhood of drifters and derelicts, where sex and drugs are bought and sold on every grimy corner and violence and pornography and exploitation are the traditional values. They see things every day that other children only see through the glossy filter of television.

''It's got to be one of the rottenest places in the world to grow up,'' said the Rev. Bruce Ritter, president of Covenant House, an organization in Times Square that cares for homeless and runaway children. ''It's a street right out of hell. Every vice in the world is extant in Times Square. It's the largest classroom in the world for the teaching of depravity.''

I suppose the suburbanization of New York City has a bit of an upside. At least all the depravity kept the rents lower, though.