TheVillager.com – By Lucas Mann
A proliferation of clubs and restaurants, many with sidewalk cafes, like Pastis above, have made the Meat Market?s sidewalks inhospitable for transgender prostitutes.
The Meatpacking District is awash with new business. The windows in Diane von Furstenberg?s new shop and fashion studio at 14th and Washington Sts. morph through an array of colors at night, while young bargoers pour out of new watering holes like the Brass Monkey on Little W. 12th St. The Meat Market is bright and wealthy and, perhaps most important, open 24/7. It is a far cry from even just a few years ago when the district?s main nighttime business flourished in the dark, away from attention.
?You know, I remember when this was their neighborhood,? said Ivy Jeanne Brown, speaking about the transgender prostitutes who historically patrolled the streets of the Meat Market and upper Greenwich Village at night. Brown has lived at 14th and Hudson Sts. for 27 years, watching the neighborhood change around her. ?I?ve been wondering where all the girls have gone,? she said. She said she?d seen some driving around in cars, perhaps in an effort to be more discreet.