It was very late one night in 1993, a few months after I arrived in Manhattan, and I had just come out of a gay bar called The Works on the Upper West Side. I was a bit inebriated – ok, drunk. I had about 15 blocks to walk to the tiny one bedroom that I shared with a roommate, and I was cutting through Columbus Circle, which was dilapidated and desolate – nothing like it is today.

(SOURCE) https://www.advocate.com/television/last-call-new-york-gay