San Juan Hill

On the Barrio's streets they talk still
of the place once called San Juan Hill,
how it was bulldozed and torn down.
"Urban renewel" they call it in this town.

They built the new Lincoln Center tall
but old San Juan had stood above all.
From West End to Amsterdam Street
the Hill's life was in steel and concrete.

The aged tenements were felled long ago.
Their replacements no longer beauty bestow
upon the busy, teaming Manhatten street
where bums now beg for something to eat.

When will it too be torn from this fair city
leaving but a gaping hole and memory?
If indeed we continually destroy the past
what are we leaving the children that will last?

http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/san_juan_hill_the_gut/