brooklyn in the 80s/early 90s (Ridge, Carroll: amusement park, crime, home)
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Brooklyn was just as bad and sometimes even worse then the Bronx. I remember my talking about how bad east new york was and new lots avenue. I was over there in that part of Brooklyn the other day and the area still looks gritty compared to the south bronx. I remember as a child visiting my Aunt in Starret City and looking out her window towards the North west of Brooklyn and seeing the blight and Urban decay of its borough. Dumbo was dark and gritty, famous for movie scenes being shot in that area because of its grittiness. Williamsburg and Bushwick where known for a vicious gang in the 80s called the Devils Rebels. Also in Williamsburg was a major hub for the Crack Epidemic. I have a book called the American Drug scene were Crack Cocaine and Heroin sales in Williamsburg was more then anywhere else in the city even more then the South Bronx. Puerto Ricans replaced the Italians in Williamsburg and they controlled the drug destribution until the arrival of the Dominicans in the 90s in Williamsburg and Bushwick. Brooklyn also had a severe problem of Redlining of niegborhoods and was heavily segragated by ethnic districts. It is true that The South Bronx gets publizid and rediculed to much during the 80s and 90s by the NYT, but Brooklyn as well has its fair share of Problems sometimes even much more then the South Bronx. Im not sure why Bronx got so much negative media attention. I think what saved Brooklyn was the Media promoting Brooklyn as a safe place to raise a family and be succesfull example the Cosby Show. But hey Brooklyn aint no Saint!
Last edited by Bronxguyanese; 06-16-2010 at 07:27 PM..
These are great YouTube videos!!! Man, I miss boom boxes, lol.
Seriously, NYC today is literally like another world compared to before the gentrification... parts of NYC truly looked like a Eastern Bloc warzone back then.
And though this doesn't focus on Brooklyn, another good NYC film from the 70's is Taxi Driver or Mean Streets.
Too bad most rap artists don't try and tell you to STAY in school anymore in their music. Yep... it's a whole other world now...
The South Bronx and Central Harlem had the highest crime rates in the city. So no Brooklyn was not worse. The only neighborhood comparable to the top two was Bushwick. This including vacant lots and grittyness.
Bushwick from all accounts was a hellhole. Especially Knickerbocker ave which they nicknamed "the well" for its seemingly endless supply of drugs.
Brooklyn was in really bad shape but worse than the south Bronx?
Nothing.
And yes I was too young at the time and my earliest memories are from 1993 in University Heights (shudders) but I've done enough research and seen enough pictures to form a pretty accurate view of it.
To finish it...Brooklyn was not a place you wanted to be. There is a reason it gives so much "street cred" to people from it.
I read an excerpt from a chapter from a book called The American Drug Scene. The whole chapter was dedicated to williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Willamsburg was responsible for the drugs and violence spilling over into bushwick. Williamsburg Brooklyn used to be a major drug hub for crack cocaine and heroin. Abdoned beer breeries became drug labs and shooting gallieries. Drug dealers knew who was a cop and who was not just by the way a person spoke. Bridge and tunnel crowd used to frequent williamsburg just for drugs. Puertoricans and italians fought over control of the drug trade in williamsburg. Puertoricans dominated until the 1990s when the dominicans took over the drug trade in williamsburg. I never knew williamsburg was so rough and edgy back in the day. I read that book american drug scene while attending john jay college.
no she is correct. those parts of brooklyn werent desirable back then. even as late as 2000, smith street was nothing more than a strip of bodegas and 99 cent stores.
a good movie to watch is strapped starring bokeem woodbine. that really depicts brownsville brooklyn in the early 1990s. certain parts of brooklyn still look like the did in the 1980s however. one particular strip that comes to mind is rockaway avenue north of fulton street. real gritty.
back in the days, my aunt lived in prospect park south (sitll lives there) and they used to steal the front doors of her building periodically to sell for scrap metal. dont ask me how they made off with those heavy doors. and crack was everywhere. kids used to sit on people's cars, music used to blast all night long. brooklyn was a really crazy place back then. projects used to be all graffitied up, inside and outside. i remember my cousin lived in the projects (it was only 1 building) on chauncey street. on her floor, the wall was covered in graffiti to the point to where you coulndt tell what color the wall was originally painted it. downright scary-looking.
squeegee men would come outa nowhere and try to wash your car's windshield with a dirty rag, the trains were awful, the lights would often go out on them and you would have to keep your wallet/purse real close. back in the 80s in far rockaway i actually witnessed somebody get mugged in front of my house, and my mother told me to duck down for fear somebody started shooting.
im just glad i made it.
that part of rockaway is still crazy , this week or last week on the news their was 2 triple shootings their each one day apart, and i know 1 man died in of the sets of shootings not sure about the other.
but this year north of rockaway have been hot , especially on the stone ave side.
no she is correct. those parts of brooklyn werent desirable back then. even as late as 2000, smith street was nothing more than a strip of bodegas and 99 cent stores.
a good movie to watch is strapped starring bokeem woodbine. that really depicts brownsville brooklyn in the early 1990s. certain parts of brooklyn still look like the did in the 1980s however. one particular strip that comes to mind is rockaway avenue north of fulton street. real gritty.
back in the days, my aunt lived in prospect park south (sitll lives there) and they used to steal the front doors of her building periodically to sell for scrap metal. dont ask me how they made off with those heavy doors. and crack was everywhere. kids used to sit on people's cars, music used to blast all night long. brooklyn was a really crazy place back then. projects used to be all graffitied up, inside and outside. i remember my cousin lived in the projects (it was only 1 building) on chauncey street. on her floor, the wall was covered in graffiti to the point to where you coulndt tell what color the wall was originally painted it. downright scary-looking.
squeegee men would come outa nowhere and try to wash your car's windshield with a dirty rag, the trains were awful, the lights would often go out on them and you would have to keep your wallet/purse real close. back in the 80s in far rockaway i actually witnessed somebody get mugged in front of my house, and my mother told me to duck down for fear somebody started shooting.
im just glad i made it.
my father who is from haiti actually wanted to go back to haiti after living in new york in the 80,s lol.
funny story is as third world as haiti is my father refused to beleive that he was in the america that he dreamed about lol.
i also remember my choir director who has his brothers come from haiti to visit lol. they used to live in east flatbush(winthrop and rockaway pkwy).
that exact day they came my choir director was mugged in broad day light on rutland road by the 3 train and he thought his brothers were going to die since they did not speak and enlgish , and could not follow on the muggers orders, and they were scared to death on top of that lol.
btw thnks for the movie cause im bored i actually needed something to watch lol(strapped)
The South Bronx and Central Harlem had the highest crime rates in the city. So no Brooklyn was not worse. The only neighborhood comparable to the top two was Bushwick. This including vacant lots and grittyness.
Bushwick from all accounts was a hellhole. Especially Knickerbocker ave which they nicknamed "the well" for its seemingly endless supply of drugs.
Brooklyn was in really bad shape but worse than the south Bronx?
Nothing.
And yes I was too young at the time and my earliest memories are from 1993 in University Heights (shudders) but I've done enough research and seen enough pictures to form a pretty accurate view of it.
To finish it...Brooklyn was not a place you wanted to be. There is a reason it gives so much "street cred" to people from it.
ENY was up there man....ghoul pool 1000 sutter ave i know u know what that is
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