New York Taxi Driving Tales Ch. 02

Streetwalkers were readily visible in New York during the 1970s; that was accurately depicted in Taxi Driver. I often saw them when I was driving a cab myself in 1978-79.

The Internet and police pressure seems to have moved the business on-line in recent decades, just like porn theaters and peep shows have been mostly been replaced by their digital equivalents. I think the most recent time I've heard New York streetwalkers mentioned - not actually sighted by me - was in the early 2000s. It's possible that the streetwalking phenomenon still exists in other cities, but I have no idea what is going on in Los Angeles or Chicago. I suspect that any New York prostitute who ventured into public nowadays would quickly be arrested.

The places where I saw them were mostly in Manhattan west of Times Square - but not in the square itself - and in another location in the East Village. On the West Side there was a particularly bold and flamboyant (and extensive) group that clustered around the entrances and exits of the Lincoln Tunnel.

The East Side contingent was in an area south of 14th Street. That was the location Martin Scorsese picked for some of the settings for his movie. There were other places in the city that had streetwalkers but I mostly didn't take notice of them. I think through the 1980s they were around in places like Queens Plaza, Roosevelt Avenue, Harlem, Hunts Point and Coney Island but by then I mostly knew that from news stories. People have told me that hookers sometimes appeared in the North Bronx as far up as Gun Hill Road.

Of course they mostly operated at night but on summer weekends they often stayed out long into the daylight hours. They would cruise around Eighth Avenue across from the Port Authority bus station while the cab drivers lined up on the other side of the street in front of the terminal. There seemed to be some superficial resemblance between the two occupations - the constant search for customers was an issue in common - but I understood even then that the actual differences were profound.

*****

Before World War I johns would ride the Sixth Avenue elevated trains to spot prostitutes lounging in brothel windows. In that era the neighborhood was called the Tenderloin, a nickname created by the police and referring to the juicy opportunities for graft. Nowadays the area is part of the extremely hip Flatiron District. But when I look at old buildings surviving along the avenue I sometimes think of the long-gone bordellos that once operated inside their walls.

In my era johns sometimes used taxis to cruise for hookers. It only happened to me once, but I was only driving for a year in total. Like a number of events on that job I remember it in more detail than almost anything that occurred later in offices.

I was on the night shift so it must have been the spring of 1979. I picked up a youngish-looking white guy around Greenwich or Hudson Streets. Sometimes I got an immediate vibe or clue from a passenger. Usually I didn't initiate conversations but sometimes they were in the mood for one. The first thing he said after giving his destination was, "There sure are an amazing number of gays in the West Village." (He actually didn't say "gays;" he used another word.) I thought, what kind of dialogue - or perhaps monologue - am I going to endure with this person?

He went on to other topics and a few minutes later we were going north on Third Avenue passing 11th or 12 Street. We were almost at the intersection were Travis Bickle, Iris and Sport enacted their cinematic pimp and whore opera. He looked out the side and then the back window and said, "Whoa, that girl, stop for her." She had been standing, I think, just beyond the curb by a parked car. Momentum had already carried my car up the block, so I had to back up.

The young hooker he picked up was nothing like the crew by the Lincoln Tunnel. I remember her looking like a receptionist for a small real estate office. The interactions between my passenger and this girl were quite low-key and polite, on the order of "How are you doing today?" It wasn't even like a bar pick-up - it seemed closer to a casual meeting at a convention.

Anyway, he seemed satisfied with his choice and in a few minutes they got out at his apartment building.

*******

My own encounter with a streetwalker happened by accident. This was on the day shift in the early summer of 1978. At that time, especially on weekends, I sometimes went out as early as 2:00 AM to catch the patrons leaving bars and clubs.

I think this happened on a Sunday morning. It was full daylight by this point and I had parked on Broadway on the Upper West Side in order to update my trip sheet. I looked through the windshield and saw a young black woman on the sidewalk walking in the opposite direction. There was nothing remarkable about her appearance: I remember her wearing a sleeveless top, shorts and sandals.

She gave some gesture that I thought indicated that she wanted a ride. I nodded and she came over and opened the front passenger-side door. That wasn't too unusual because sometimes people wanted to ride in the front and I let them do it.

When she got in she said, "How much do you have to spend?" I replied with something like, "Oops, I thought you were a passenger." She didn't show any sign of either amusement or annoyance and she quickly got out.

The brief impression I got from her was that she was very tired, which makes sense because she was probably trying to make up for slow business on her own overnight shift. I got a hint of other symptoms of her unhappiness, likely caused by stress and boredom.

However the incident was not titillating or erotic in any way. The idea of giving her money and then touching her or having her touch me was completely unappealing. The bald transactional nature of it left me cold.

I have occasionally had fantasies about prostitutes, although it is not near the top of my favorites list. I have also had some fantasies involving taxi driving but not too many. Taxi driving may be used as a porn trope but actually it didn't have much sexual zing.

Even if I had wanted to, the low status of the job didn't inspire any confidence to flirt with or approach my female passengers. (I wonder if that is still true for anybody who imagines romantic opportunities driving for Uber and Lyft.) In turn, I suppose I was invisible to them. The brief attraction that Betsy has for Travis Bickle in the movie seems pretty unlikely.

I can say for sure that the Upper West Side incident of forty-one years ago never was the inspiration for an erotic reverie.

*****

[I have used prostitution as a plot device in Role Playing with Michelle Ch. 04 and taxi driving in the upcoming "One Night in The Bronx." But both of these are about role-plays and don't necessarily show the realities of either trade.]