(ol was down in the States’ twice ‘during the last: year. “New York and Boston, later Chicago. . It was winter in New York. By turning off the lighits after . dusk,’ I. could look. down from my hotel room at:the ants moving about under the streetlights around _ Grand Central Station. Iv happened . é to be there! the day an... astronaut tised a ‘jet-pack for | ~ * the first time to glide around without ‘a ‘tether in outer . Space. a It was unreal, sitting in'‘my y-learned to memorize the positions of all the. various people: on the” Sidewalk, to avoid surprise. Oh, and eye contact was O-U-T! - ’ suite.above New York;-wat- .. . ching in full: “color on televi- , sion. .as- aviman fuflilled without Iearus's dream, melting, while: below, in the streets, . bag ¢ ‘ladies - were spreading. their: : bits: of card- board out beside. street level - ventilators. - + “At Times Square, the cops gathered in a tight five-inan phalanx on the corner, like invading Romans, while all » around them, dope was being *_ offered, sex, gambling; porn; . numbers, hot.;stereos and _- Watches and knives: : »Down'in ’ ways roared: . Worms, the Shadows: moved.” * On the street itself one quick- : ssteel and: tile. . catacombs where’ the™ sub-" like, Sand by Bob Hunter parked cars. The result is it takes you an hour and a half, maybe two hours, to find a parking spot. An iron boot in the middle .“For the most part, modern Germany’s cities are like bad science fiction. Glass and steel and cubes and utility. Give me florid rococo idiocy any day.’’ Boston was of ‘course -.mellower. Yet there was a battle on between the city planners and “the . private calitomobile. : Too many cars