A4 - Friday, September 21, 1984 - North Shore News a Strictly personal by Bob Hunter Cleaning up in Piccadilly HAVE SEEN two separate stories in the last month--one from London and one from New York, naturally--talking about plans to ‘‘clean -up’’ both Piccadilly Circus and Times Square. Well, of course, what can J, as a decent order-loving citizen, say, but: right on, ci- ty hall! Certainly those are both bad places. National disgraces, if you like. But the artistic part of me, which ts to say, the intuitive bad actor, just about throws up. I love Times Square and Piccadilly Circus--just the way they are. Which is to say: dangerous, scary, criminal, and lonely. They are urban hellholes, no doubt about it, both of them. You would let your daughter wander there at mortal peril. Your son, too. Heck, Grandpa would be in trouble! Me? Well, one advantage of being a maturish male rot- ter with an icy look in your eye is that you hardly get bothered, except to be pro- positioned. And if you bare your fangs, you can always say no. So. Setting aside the sheer barbarism of these two cen- tres of modern Western ‘‘civilization,”’ we have to keep in mind their peculiar beauty. They will be extinct soon enough, liberals. Be patient! Let me give you a time- frame picture of what these two famous places are like. Back in the Second World War, I'm told Piccadilly Cir- cus was a sort of a pre- cleanup Davie Street where hormone-crazed soldiers and sailors and airmen could deal with their exustential horror by a reasonable roll in the hay (after combat, anything would have seemed absolute- ly fabvious, I'm sure). By the time wartime baby boomers lke myself were able to go over to England to visit, Piccadilly Circus had become a hangout tor longhaired dope smoking hippies, af) you can imagine such a thing In fact, my first) actual Jonghatred types there in the carly Sax tics \ disgusted | saw was. oof course, Uhere were all these sproin Ingo Neon signs AS negotiated your what regardless of us bad press. the heart of Lon don, you discovered that vou had oa you Way ACT OSS was. hundred different colored shadows abound you from the COMIN factastyc swith, whirling neon halidescopes on the buthdings FUND RAISING For Sport & School groups NO CHOCOLATE! NO CANVASSING 921-8245 all around the central con- crete pond, with its statue of Eros. On New Year’s Eve in the Sixties, the weirdo’s would ““One advantage of being a maturish male rotter with an icy look in your eye ts that you hardly get bothered....’’ all get wrecked and swim, sometimes naked, in the pond. If nothing else, at dawn, after a hard night on the town, you could be sure to find a bare spot of cobble of which to curl up, if you were young enough or old enough to have missed the Tube the night before after too much good fun. Times Square was where America used to collide, and maybe sull collides, with Plexible Certificates of Deposit designed for Western Canadians Your get the best of both worlds anda highly Competitive rate of return Choose terms Upto So years and mnterest payment that Ine tudes monthly on prepard options itself. A few months ago, when | was last there, the traffic in drugs and whores was so heavy that if you ven- tured more than ten steps away from the _ nearest phalanx of cops clustered back to back like Romans at a corner, you were already being offered every drug and sexual possibility under the neon suns. ] know these are bad places. They do need urban renewal, or at least something thore than the Sal- ly Ann. But, darn it all, they also have a certain wild charm about them without which the world would be (a) for sure, more homogenous and (b) just a helluva lot less interesting. Don’t mind me. I’m a humble (although truculent) romantic. I would be inclined to say, leave Piccadilly Circus and Times Square alone! Think of the alternatives of well-intentioned interven- uon... like Granville Mall... fle xatole Options ZZ o the North Shore On September 29, the doors will open at the North Shore's largest and best equipped boxing facility. e 3000 sq. ft. e Fast Bags e Showers e Heavy Bags e Rings e Lockers e Weights © Speedbags e Saunas Regulation Size Ring Professional Instruction by Roberto Sacchetti, Five-time Italian Kick Boxing Champion and 1969 Golden Gloves Champion ALL AGES PROFESSIONAL/AMATEUR OPEN SEVEN DAYS A WEEK! North Shore Boxing Club 150 Lonsdale 984-7633 North Vancouver Invest on our own 1 oyetaat fecrrr Kaatis Mirretervacems § CNM sacdyet to Wanye without notice Visit the Bank of British Columbia and ask for all the details [nvestin our Certitic ates of Deposit on your own terms choose the options that work in your best interest) With your money working this 1 ard you can afford more time to enjoy hte on Your own terms & Bank of British Columbia Canada’s Western Bank