The drag queens who once paraded through the hallways are long gone. The rundown walk-up on the Lower East Side’s Rivington Street was a refuge that offered freedom and acceptance, though it was rife with burglaries and drugs — and no shortage of mischief, when Pierson Tyler-Leonard moved in some 35 years ago. Then the Lower East Side changed, snuffing out the spirit of the gritty tenement. He found himself surrounded by button-down professionals who marched off to day jobs in sales, marketing and tech. To him, they represented the erasure of a neighborhood.

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Persons: —, Pierson Tyler, Leonard, snuffing Locations: East Side’s