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This nine-minute clip is a candid glimpse into the warzone of Alphabet City, circa 1992. It shows a leisurely stroll across East 8th Street between Avenues C and D. Back when those letters stood for “C, you’re crazy,” and “D, you’re dead.”

Michael Perhaes describes his life growing up around these parts in the 1960s with his friend Eric Beckman. He regales us with stories about witnessing his first “gunshot wound victim” and how his window was completely “bricked in” with cinderblocks. The tour, as it were, continues into his childhood tenement home; the then-current tenant let him in.

Highlights – the urban etiquette note directed to junkies shooting up on the roof (5:51), and the mail parcels returned to sender due to illegal contraband (6:10).

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Description of the video from Perhaes: