What does it even mean?
hi post - (adj) 1) a position at which to set up for a play in basketball, 2) better than, 3) the superlative in these streets, 4) NY slang for hot-to-trot [see saditty], 5) a little shop in LES that made big memories.
Once upon a time in the early 90s was born a little shop called Hi Post. It was an answer to what when and how. There you could get a good hair cut, a cool shirt or hat and some music for the night or weekend. it seemed the smart combination of needful things. The first barber in LES with his chair in the window for passers by to be visually magnetized for potential sales inside. The Lower East Side of Manhattan (LES), more accurately known as Alphabet City, because 11th Street between Avenues A and B was where we were located. Some would marvel in the many different types of individuals that would visit me in the shop: rich, homeless, slick, broke, talented, maladjusted, felons and angels and all were my friends. The neighborhood was filled with Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Blacks, Chinese, Jews, and 16 other nationalities. After all, it is the melting pot that is New York and the Lower East Side which is home to the ports of New York. Needless to say, all walks has passed through that area over decades and generations.
When Hi Post opened in October of 1993, Alphabet City was beginning to see a slow change in the neighborhood. It has taken years and years to become the Disneyland of drinking and gentrification it is now the epitome of. Then, the change was seen in the cracking down on crack and dope dealers while the lines for business became less and less obvious and more subdued. What was in your face was now becoming a little more low-key. Picture the scene in GoodFellas where Henry Hill is selling cigarettes out in the open illegally; same thing used to go on in the Lower.
Those there at the time were not unaware of the dangers, violence, hustles or the kids, mothers, elders and community at large. If you didn't feel welcome there, there was a reason. If you did--same thing. The vibe in the streets at the time was quiet, wild. Uptown was its own vibe, as was the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island, but LES will always endearingly be known as the 6th borough for its quiet yet large contribution to the New York City fabric and 5 borough separate but together unspoken feeling. There are many stories unique to the 6th borough called LES; most you will not hear. With the help of those still around to tell the stories, we will bring a few to you because its only right. Warning--names will be changed to protect the innocent and the guilty as hell.