Historical Times Square area questions (hotels, movies, dangerous)

[rlrl]

decades ago, the 2 main places people were advised to avoid in Times Square area were "The Deuce"(42 street between 7-8th Ave) and "the Minnesota Strip"(8th Ave between 40th and 50th)

My question is what was worse in terms of street crime, the Deuce or The Minnesota? Both streets were packed with the same type of commercial things like porn, cheap bars, hotels, etc but which street had more dangerous types of people hanging out?


Also, I remembered that the new Times Square BID 1992 cleanup of 42 street eventually forced the porno shops to migrate northward on 8th Avenue while the same shops closed on 42 street(last remaining shop closed in 1996), so 8th Avenue between 40th and 48th in the mid 90's looked much like the former Deuce did decades ago

In the mid 90's i would recall that on 8th Ave all the way up to 50th street there were mounted police on every corner

While 8th Avenue was always a place people tried to avoid, to me it never seemed THAT bad that a mounted policeman was needed on every block

Why did they have a mounted cop on every block? Was it that bad in the mid 90's?

[baylovers]

It is kinda difficult to compare because they are so spread apart.

I guess 42 st was worse (at least during the 80's) because you had everything squeezed into one block. As the crap was pushed onto 8th Ave it was more spread out. I also think that as the movies & the shops closed down alot of the outer borough mopes who travelled to the Deuce to hang out began to hang out around 14 st & West 4 St... Also 125 St. Eighth ave had its problems but I don't think it was on scale with 40-43 Streets. The arcade & the bus terminal were just constant draws to the bad guys.

[Green Irish Eyes]

I don't remember venturing west past 8th Avenue much but, as a young actress, I was on 42nd Street quite often because a lot of photography companies were located in the area. A trip down there to pick up my headshots was always, ummmmmmm, "interesting" as there were numerous XXX places and pushers offering me drugs every few feet.

But, I gotta admit, the area definitely had "personality" .....

[plainoldt]

I'd say "the strip" was worse, but you're covering more area. it just seemed seedier. still does to me today.

I worked at 3 XSQ for a while and its such a different place to be today its amazing. I am not a Guiliani fan at all, but he really did clean up NYC