Marlene Bailey, known to some by her nickname “Hot Dog,” has been an East Village fixture for years. She’s had a very tough life and it’s taken a physical toll on her, but in the photo above, taken in Tompkins Square Park back in 1988, she was in fine form. “I think it’s great to see her looking like that,” said photographer Clayton Patterson. “I think it’s a good example of the difficulties and hard life of living on the street. She’s a neighborhood icon to some — a reprobate to others. I think she’s one of the last of the real survivors out there on the street — one of the street warriors.” In the photo below, David Chang, left, and Marco Megira shared a laugh in front of Megira’s EarthMatters organic market on Ludlow St. Chang, a superintendent and lifelong Ludlow resident, is known as “The Mayor of Ludlow St.” Documentarian Patterson noted that along with other activists, like the late Marcia Lemmon, he himself had protested against EarthMatters before it opened in 2001, fearing it was a stealth bar, but they were pleasantly surprised to find the store really did cater to the neighborhood’s need for things like milk and food. Said Patterson, “He’s the first of the new businesses that did what they said they were going to do.” Patterson called these two photos his “Happy Page — a positive look at the neighborhood.”
