The Killing of New York's Soul, Cont'd

In a review of the new NBC show "Lipstick Jungle" (check your local listings), Sun critic Brendan Bernard fires off a dizzying three-paragraph lede summing up New York's evolution from grit to glitz. It begins: "As recently as the early 1990s, New York City was still considered a relatively dangerous place to live. Drug dealers abounded on every downtown corner, muttering, 'Smo, smo, smo' ('Smoke'), from the shadows. There were, of course, a lot of vagabonds around, and squeegee men, and people who talked to themselves loudly on the street without the excuse that they were holding a cell phone. Even thugs who were apt to put a gun to your head when asking for money. Some of them went on to pull the trigger after you'd given it to them." [Sun]