NYPress.com – By Stephanie Sellars
In the late ?70s, New York was a crime-ridden sinkhole on the verge of financial collapse. But through the eyes of Michele Capozzi?urban explorer, filmmaker and self-proclaimed pornologist??New York was a magic place.? When Capozzi arrived in New York on April 14, 1978, he stepped into a boiling pot of cultural activity: ?Everything was happening ? politics, economics, sex ?? Especially sex. There was the opening of Studio 54, the infamous nightclub where glamorous nobodies rubbed pelvises with celebrities in a flurry of cocaine and debauchery. The porn industry was at its prime and sex clubs gave new meaning to the meatpacking district while 140 adult establishments flourished in Times Square. ?I arrived on time to become part of New York,? Capozzi says in his thick Italian accent. ?There was an extreme sense of possibility ? an explosion of New York City as the center of the world.? But in 1984 it all changed. ?In the eyes of America, New York became something to be saved.?