New York Was Better Then [First Half]

Native New Yorker Alex Brook Lynn comes on the show to talk about the city in the 90’s—and what’s lost when only the rich can afford to live and work in NYC. We discuss the demise of rent controlled apartments, marking art when the stakes aren’t high, and how close to life Larry Clark’s Kids was (pretty close).Also discussed: middle class drug dealers, how the out-of-towners are the city’s own migratory bird population, “graft for the people,” we forget that Eric Adams was the Curtis Silwa candidate of 2020, when heroin addicts were good old-fashioned heroin addicts, the days when you could pee in Central Park, white kids using the n word, having a beeper, children buying hard drugs at bodegas, the moral stain of Riker’s Island, “the 90’s were cheap enough that you could be free,” and how a rent controlled apartment is it’s own kind of trust fund.The first half of every episode of CBT is free wherever you get your podcasts. If you'd like to become a subscriber and hear the second half, please go to www.patreon.com/criticalbabetheory. Thank you for your support xoArticles referenced: Jerry Saltz’s photos of 90’s New York:https://www.vulture.com/article/jerry-saltz-new-york-art-world-1990s-slideshow.htmlRealPage NYC Landlord price fixing:https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/technology/realpage-doj-settlement.html