My one brush with Sven's world: I personally gave John Lennon and Yoko Ono pinko commie literature, passing out invitations to a lecture at the International Workman's Circle IIRC - standing at the famous intersection of 4th Street and 4th Street, no less! - back in the 70s.
There were definite problems with the East Village with poverty, crime, drugs, crumbling buildings, corrupt city government & all the rest of it.
The West Village, even during my time, was slowly shading into being intellectually dead.
