New York Penitentiary

City life is beginning to look an awful lot like prison life for many young New Yorkers. In less than three years, hundreds of NYU students will be residents of a spanking new, 26-story behemoth of a dormitory, whose characterless form will hold the dubious honor of the tallest building in the East Village. Standing at roughly 250 feet, it’s slated to be a rectangular monolith, made all the more sinister by engulfing the remaining façade of the dismantled St. Ann’s Church, which dates back to 1847. In addition to preservationists, local residents are peeved by the project and the impending influx of 700 fresh-faced undergraduates looking for excitement. 

One official trying to keep close tabs on any potential fun is City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn, who hopes to play Big Brother by outfitting the city’s 250 nightclubs with mandatory surveillance cameras. It’s ostensibly a reaction to a number of Manhattan club shootings and murders in recent months, which called the establishments’ security precautions into question. Many clubgoers oppose the measure, calling it an invasion of privacy. It’s particularly troublesome to some gays and lesbians, who prefer a level of secrecy with their late night recreation. Quinn would also like to install ID-checking machines to thwart potential underage drinkers. This will certainly put a damper on many NYU students’ weekend plans, forcing them to find other means of entertainment to escape their sterile living environment. With any luck, they’ll still be able to play board games in relative privacy.