ABSTRACT
Ninth Avenue from 33rd Street to 49th Street belongs to the men and women who work the streets. Recently Mayor Koch and real estate developers like Manhattan Plaza have started "cleaning up" Times Square. This process includes pushing the prostitutes, drag queens, and transsexual hustlers out of the neighborhood. The victims of the police assault contacted Arthur Bell, gay columnist for Village Voice and front page stories appeared in both Voice and the New York Native, New York's weekly gay paper. According to Oliver, the police are attempting to drive Blues out of business by scaring away customers. On the day of this interview a policeman had been standing outside the bar for three hours intimidating customers. In a general climate of more anti-gay, racist and antisemitic street violence, these tactics occur with frightening frequency. The pressure may also be coming from City Hall and its efforts to build suburban-like shopping malls and luxury housing in the Times Square area.
