before gentrification drove the meat business up to hunts point in the bronx, a portion the far west side of Manhattan was a meatpacking district where freshly slaughtered animals were brought in and a cluster of processing businesses would butcher them up and sell to restaurants and markets (I imagine similar to London's Smithfield, but not fenced off). their work day started before dawn in order to get the meat out to customers early in the day, we'd sometimes take the day off and go ride our bicycles over there in the morning and you'd see huge half-carcasses hanging on meat hook along the sidewalk before there were wheeled in for processes. decades later, the sidewalks still have a stench of blood.
that neighborhood was also a section for trans prostitutes, you'd see them going behind the meat delivery trucks with johns.
and now, of course, it's the home of pricy condos, the high line, the standard hotel and Whitney museum. and still called the meatpacking district, to give it some "gritty" character.