Good Lord, I hope I never set foot in that hell-hole again.
In the 70's we cut HS in NJ once in a while to roam around Manhattan. At 16, we would look for the dirtiest bars, march right up to the bar and sit down and drink. Then observe the interesting people on the streets as in a zoo.
You are a vet. Those anti-war marches there were not about what you think. We checked out a few; the same bunch of us. 75% of those people were s-faced wasted. OD's and acid freak-outs in Central Park were many. Not us.
The only thing that ties me in any way to the east coast is we went to the highest floor the WTC was up to yet. The 86th floor. We didn't bother any of the workers as told by their supervisor. Just looked around.
I will always have a reflexive anger about what happened there and at precisely who.