Mean Streets

You can credit Sex and the City with this. It revived the image of glamorous, cosmopolitan New York in such a way that people in the Midwest weren't afraid to visit and discover a shocking fact about Gothamites: we're not nasty, we just can't give directions for shit.

So much for post 9/11 city boosterism. Downtown has lately become a hotbed of old timey violence and mayhem, probably related to what's left of the Italian mafia:

The attack began after the gunman entered a pizzeria on Macdougal and West Houston Streets and fatally shot a bartender who worked there, the authorities said. The two auxiliary officers — volunteers who dress in uniforms virtually indistinguishable from regular police officers — followed the gunman toward Sullivan Street, where he suddenly turned and shot them, the authorities said.

[…] 

The authorities said that the gunman was followed by the two auxiliary officers either immediately or shortly after he left the pizzeria, and that minutes later they were shot outside 208 Sullivan Street, which once housed the former Triangle Social Club, the mob redoubt of Vincent (The Chin) Gigante. When police officers shot and killed the gunman, he was found to have been carrying two weapons and nearly 100 rounds of ammunition.Hilary Elkins, 28, who lives on Sullivan and Bleecker Streets, said she saw a man in civilian clothes running south on Sullivan about 9:30 p.m. with a gun in his hand. Five police officers were giving chase, she said, then suddenly opened fire on the man.

Vinny the Chin, people. Must not have gotten that call-back on the Sopranos…