"It’s noticeably more touristy and people are more tech-savvy. I remember when the red double decker tourist buses showed up, I feel like it was 2002 or so. I always felt odd being watched as one would pass by. Technology has made a mark, too. The digitization of everything, brightly lit cell phone screens, video advertisements on top of taxis, the ubiquitous white earphone cords. Don’t even get me started on the last one…I used to scoff (and this dates me), “What, you can’t leave your home without your Norah Jones?” Same is true of coffee shops, it’s a room full of people on laptops, all plugged into the same power outlet strip. I think of Bowery and Houston a lot, it’s really changed in 10 years. There was always the mystique of that building north of Houston on Bowery, McGurk’s Suicide Hall. You used to walk by a building and it would make you think about the past. I don’t feel like that happens so much anymore."