ABSTRACT
In the late 1970s I had the good fortune to work at LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City (L.I.C.), an industrial neighborhood just at the base of the Queens side of the 59th Street Bridge (the Queensborough Bridge). At the time, the area was a mixture of New York’s manufacturing past and its future as a center for technology, design, and the arts. In many ways, LaGuardia Community College represented the city’s transition from a major manufacturing locus into a new urban identity yet to be fully determined. It was a place of dynamic commercial and creative energy; it was also a place I knew well.
