Downtown New York’s creative surge collapsed by the late aughts

Evidence

By the late aughts, downtown New York’s post-9/11 creative surge had dissipated. The Strokes, once heralded as the saviors of rock, went on hiatus after the lukewarm reception of their third album, 2005’s First Impressions of Earth. Their reputation, critics noted, plunged to “Mariana Trench–like depths.” Veteran art critic Calvin Tomkins, surveying the downtown scene in 2007, observed that despite plenty of “high-decibel energy,” no one seemed poised “for stardom on a larger stage.” — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 243