New York City: the dark light of this nothing

Portrait of Hugo Picciani.

ugo owns a building in Park Slope where he operates his custom machinery shop, making parts for old radios. Forty years ago he paid $20,000 for the building, and now, he'd sell for $1.5 million if he could stay on as a tenant. In an interview with the New York Times last year, Hugo said “Let’s be honest, I’m 80, I’m too old to hang on, “so the thing to do is to divest myself. I want to divest myself of everything.”