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I'd have liked to experience NYC during the 70s, 80s and 90s.
oh, it was fun. I started working in the city in 78, oh yes yes yes....and going to all the places your mother warned you about....all the clubs off the west side highway, in the meat packing dist when it was so desolate around there at night.... yes yes yes..................
shopping for discounts down Delancy and Orchard......
now it is like a glorified family wonderland...........................vomit......
You forgot Taxi Driver and (although actually from the late '60s) Midnight Cowboy.
I was a kid in the '70's. So I do remember it, but did not partake fully in the shenanigans. It may have been more fun in an anything goes kind of way, and it was also much cheaper to live in. But it was also vastly more dirty, dangerous, and dysfunctional. In any kind of objective, measurable way, the city now is a much better place to live. The fact that it's gotten so expensive, even accounting for overall national inflation, is a measure of this. More people are willing to pay more money to live here.
But I will say, it's lost it's gritty edginess. A lot of people equate edginess to interestingness, so by that measure it may be less interesting.
Quote:
Originally Posted by senecaman
2 great movies that showed how NYC looked in the 70s-The French Connection and the 7 UPs
Ford to City: Drop Dead - President Ford denies the city federal assistance to avoid going broke ,October 1975
I think that its hard for people to objectively evaluate what time period is more or less interesting than another. Nostalgia gets in the way, as well as the tendency of people to feel that a time when they were younger was more interesting. It was when they were connected to other young people, everything seemed possible and they had their whole life in front of them.
I guarantee that 40 or 50 years from now people will be nostalgic about the times we live in currently.
You forgot Taxi Driver and (although actually from the late '60s) Midnight Cowboy.
I was a kid in the '70's. So I do remember it, but did not partake fully in the shenanigans. It may have been more fun in an anything goes kind of way, and it was also much cheaper to live in. But it was also vastly more dirty, dangerous, and dysfunctional. In any kind of objective, measurable way, the city now is a much better place to live. The fact that it's gotten so expensive, even accounting for overall national inflation, is a measure of this. More people are willing to pay more money to live here.
But I will say, it's lost it's gritty edginess. A lot of people equate edginess to interestingness, so by that measure it may be less interesting.
Thanks-Taxi Driver, a classic 70s NY movie! Add more to that list. I will think of other things too.I was in the same boat as you, just a kid in the 70s and after we moved to SC in 1974 I didn't get to the city that much during the rest of the 70s. I more or less lived it vicariously through my brother who was going to college here in SC but would work back in the city during the summers in the late 70s while staying with our family in Queens. During that time I was able to visit with my parents in 1975 and 1978.I didn't really start getting back up there much till the early 80s when I started high school.
There are things I miss from the 80s too. Simple things like all those "Crazy Eddie" commercials you saw back then or this pizza place that I would go to on 63rd Drive in Rego Park that my mom would take me to for lunch after school in the early 70s that was still open in the mid 80s. I was there in the summer of 81 and I remember those cheesy "Shafer City" beer commercials. lol So some things don't change and a lot of memories come back just by doing something like getting a bag of white castles on Queens Blvd( I remember Wetsons-really dating myself there!).I can still remember the Queens Center Mall opening in 1973. Just curious but does anyone remember the library branch on 63rd Drive in Rego Park burning down in 1971? I vaguely remember that.
Last edited by senecaman; 03-18-2014 at 12:00 PM..
oh, it was fun. I started working in the city in 78, oh yes yes yes....and going to all the places your mother warned you about....all the clubs off the west side highway, in the meat packing dist when it was so desolate around there at night.... yes yes yes..................
shopping for discounts down Delancy and Orchard......
now it is like a glorified family wonderland...........................vomit......
try this, NYC really looked like this, go thru all the pages
Reminds me a little of when I would visit the city back in the early and mid 80s when I was in high school. I would stay with my family in Queens but I would head for 42nd St and 8th Ave . For some time after that whenever I was back in the city one of my cousins would bust my chops a little "Did you go to 42nd and 8th?What did I tell you?! Stay outta there !) lol
I went through the link too. Thanks for that.The city was definitely more dangerous then .When I was working there in 2002 I appreciated the fact that the city was safer , especially if you were out late at night, which I had to be from time to time.
Last edited by senecaman; 03-18-2014 at 01:04 PM..
Nothing pleases more than beating a dead horse when it's already been sent to the morgue.
YES YES and YES. The 70's were WAY MORE INTERESTING.
Studio 54
African American Culture was way cooler
Easy to buy weed in small quantities
MUSIC....WAY BETTER MUSIC
FREEDOMS
SEX
Easy Going Mentality
TAXI Rides Were Fun
Subways had art to look at.
You could get laid for under $100. Try doing that now
Transplants were scared to come here
Being original wasn't frowned upon.
Nothing pleases more than beating a dead horse when it's already been sent to the morgue.
YES YES and YES. The 70's were WAY MORE INTERESTING.
Studio 54
African American Culture was way cooler
Easy to buy weed in small quantities
MUSIC....WAY BETTER MUSIC
FREEDOMS
SEX
Easy Going Mentality
TAXI Rides Were Fun
Subways had art to look at.
You could get laid for under $100. Try doing that now
Transplants were scared to come here
Being original wasn't frowned upon.
The Good Ol Days
A little scary to think about is that anyone who remembers even a little about how NYC looked and felt then is over the age of 40.To everyone else its ancient history and just something they have seen in a movie. Despite the down side to the 70s I have always thought that growing up then , before all the social media online, made you more of an aware person regardless of where you lived. The news media back then was more informative with less fluff and treated you like an adult .It was the best time for gritty but realistic movies with guys like Pacino, De Niro, Hackman and Keitel.
On top of that NYC was at the center of an entertainment and the sports media explosion in the late 70s.The Yankees were the biggest team in sports and Saturday Night Live created cultural trends that everyone followed. Even in SC some kids would go around saying "Jane you ignorant ****!"
To a certain extent if you couldn't make it to NYC the media brought it too you. Not a bad thing unless you wanted pizza .For that you still had to travel to get the real thing!
Last edited by senecaman; 03-18-2014 at 02:07 PM..
There was a lot of human suffering back then...astronomical poverty, drugs, unemployment, less opportunities for those struggling...truly an environment conductive for creating criminals..in retrospect it was probably more interesting but at the time it was a miserable place to be.
Safer but in no shape or form more interesting. We gave up character as a city in exchange for more stability and safety. Not lamenting that but it is what it is.
That's exactly what it is.
Im sure someone can make the comparison to the G word that is popular in this forum lol.
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