Support Your Local Refuge

[Hard Times Café on Riverside Avenue, open until midnight.]

Since the dire presidential election, I’ve made a new habit of stopping into the Hard Times Café in the mornings whenever I have time. It’s close to my office on the West Bank and it’s a spot that means a lot to me, one of the few remaining pillars of the West Bank counter-culture. 

Of course the crusty punk co-op café has radical politics, which are needed now more than ever, but it’s also the fact that I’ve been going there for twenty years. I remember hanging out there (for example) in 2004 during the Iraq War protest and George W. Bush re-election years. The days after the election, walking into the place, ordering a $1 cup of strong coffee in a brown mug, and singing into the country or metal music is the only real balm I’ve found.

It’s too easy post-COVID to retreat into our domesticity, to focus on our families and turtle up in our homes. With a three-year-old, I find that especially appealing. But we also need to get out and keep our community centers thriving, whatever they might be. Seek out the places in the city that mean a lot to you, and keep them alive.