Newcastle’s analogue to Wall Street, Hoyt & Cross, named for the intersection where almost all of the city’s banks have their headquarters, is a mecca for those who have
money and want to turn it into more. Banks, investment firms, venture capital companies and finance analysts all have their offices here, in the penthouse offices far above the homeless lunatics and junkies on the street. It’s a curious collision of the financially blessed and the utterly down and out, where bums panhandle for spare change out front of $20-a-plate-lunch restaurants, where the air smells like avocado oil, roasted garlic and inescapable body odor.
Background
The city passed an ordinance 12 years ago that prevents panhandling, a particular problem in the neighborhood, but rare is the police officer who bothers to enforce it. Aside
from that, Hoyt & Cross is about as orderly a district as one would hope to see, especially after several banks threatened to close their Newcastle headquarters if the riffraff on the street weren’t cleaned up. That was 15 years ago, and Hoyt & Cross is a prestigious neighborhood to work in. Five years ago, residential developers attempted to convert a lot of the old downtown space into hip lofts and condominiums, but the results were decidedly bourgeois, all expense with little actual value. Rare is the individual who actually lives and works in Hoyt & Cross.
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