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over by the brown brick Firehouse at 48th and 8th, the old Blarney Stone across the street (now The Social Bar), the old Ramada Inn (now a Hilton Garden Inn), lots of hookers, addicts, pushers, muggers, or was it more "borderline" because it was 6 blocks up from 42nd street?
I was a kid but I remember the whole area on the west side was a sh**ty going from the 30's on up to low 50's.
I was a kid but I remember the whole area on the west side was a sh**ty going from the 30's on up to low 50's.
Come to think of it you are right.
I remember looking at a stabilized apartment (with a bribe to the super) back a few decades ago. It was on 30th between Eighth and Ninth and I turned it down because of the noisy unsavory neighborhood, with a homeless shelter on the corner and bums outside. That could have been a BIG MISTAKE because in retrospect, the area has been nicely cleaned up.
But I just couldn't bear the thought of walking past that shelter every day to get to the subway at 34th.
I just CANNOT, for the life of me, remember the year.
i remember on my first job way back in '79-'80 my boss took me out to lunch to an italian restaurant on 266 W 47th street (where the Mean Fiddler and Carve are now). the restaurant owner spent most of the meal complaining about how he is losing business because of the location and having been harrassed and assaulted opening up his restaurant in the morning. I will never forget that lunch. and i thought 47th between Bway and 8th was the theater district, not "Times Square" proper.
if this restauranteur had been a block east say at 166 W 47th (6th and 7th) would he have had those problems? its not like he was situated at 42nd or 43rd street
Basically from about 34th Street until 57th Street going from Eighth Avenue to the Westside Highway was to varying degrees a hellhole. It was after all the Tenderloin area and despite various name changes (Clinton and so forth..) things didn't really begin to change until rather recently.
Once you passed Seventh going west hookers, pimps, Three-Card Monte, porn, etc... began appearing in earnest. Some enterprising hoes/hustlers would work closer to Seventh or even Sixth (especially after dark) to get at the tourist/Broadway theatre/businessman crowd but local and or building security would often fight back. In fact back in the day there were a good number of infamous trans and gay bars starting at Sixth Avenue and going west.
Up through and the white flight period that ran until the 1980's or so NYC mostly wrote off the Far West Side. Rudy G. (well actually Dinkins) began the process of cleaning up Times Square and pushing west.
fascinating. tho i never saw any on 7th/Broadway. over to Sixth? ill bet that was in the low 40's like 43-44-45th id bet they never came over to 6th by those huge skyscrapers in the upper 40's. or did they?
fascinating. tho i never saw any on 7th/Broadway. over to Sixth? ill bet that was in the low 40's like 43-44-45th id bet they never came over to 6th by those huge skyscrapers in the upper 40's. or did they?
Used to hit some clubs/parties in the West 40's back in the day. And either walking (trying to find a taxi) or in one you'd see streetwalkers or hustlers working near or around Sixth. Mind you the better ones weren't so obvious as by the 1980's Rudy G and his police commissioner were on a mission. But if you looked carefully you knew what someone was up to.
You have to remember from about Seventh going west in the 30's, 40's and even low 50's you had plenty of "seedy" tourist hotels including some that allowed "short stays". Either way they were great for persons looking to get their freak on. This could be with a hooker/hustler, a gay cruise "trick" or whatever. Think at some point in time these hotels were legit, but as the City took a nose dive, so did they.
When you look at the history of prossie strolls in Manhattan you'd be surprised at just how common it was even late as the 1970's or 1980's in some areas. Turtle Bay/Sutton Place area had a famous gay hustler stroll around 53rd and Second and Third Avenues well into the 1980's IIRC. Ditto the trannie stroll on West and Washington Streets in Meatpacking District/Highline Park.
If they weren't on the streets there was a good number of bars that *ahem* allowed hookers and hustlers to ply their trade. Again especially in Mid-Town as you had a supply of men (tourists, businessmen, married men looking for a quick pop and go, etc...). Smart bar owners paid a tax to NYPD police precinct/officer to look the other way so to speak.
In fact would have to look it up but there was a huge scandal about NYPD Mid-town vice and prossies back in the 1970's or maybe 1980's. An investigation found not only were officers and brass taking bribes from prossies/madams/pimps but often spent a good amount of their beat time holed up in such places.
Tax, protection, bribe, by whatever name it served the same function. This happened all over the United States with LE departments small or large. In Podunk small towns it might be a pie, but in large urban police forces such as Chicago, New York City, Boston and so forth the sky was the limit. Money, freebies from the hoes, first crack at a "new girl", cut of stolen goods/bootleg booze, drugs, etc...
Of course if you've seen the Sopranos you know all about LE and or DAs (or perhaps those that worked in those departments) being on the payroll of this or that criminal. Oh and there were judges and elected officials as well.
my sister in law who is from Georgia told me that when she was 23 (1983) she stayed at the Howard Johnson's Hotel (currently the Hampton Inn) on 8th Ave between 51st-52nd streets. safe area for a tourist back then? passable at night back then?
my sister in law who is from Georgia told me that when she was 23 (1983) she stayed at the Howard Johnson's Hotel (currently the Hampton Inn) on 8th Ave between 51st-52nd streets. safe area for a tourist back then? passable at night back then?
Remember that area from the 1980's. While it wasn't part of the "new" Hell's Kitchen/gay mecca of today it wasn't "as bad" say going deeper down into Clinton say between 57th and 42nd from 8th to 11th Avenues.
For one thing 57th was then and still is a major commercial street. The Hearst building is there along with some nice to decent apartment buildings going really west towards the River.
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