Theater district sidestreets decades ago (Hilton, Milford: crime, hotels, home)

[rlrl]

We all know some of the more trouble prone spots in the Manhattan theater district(42 street bet 7th-8th; 8th Ave between 40th-50th) and how unsafe they were decades ago up until the late 90's (seemed by about 1997 or 1998 everything was sanitized more or less)

I have always been curious about what life was like for tourists staying at hotels on certain sidestreets in the theater area and whether they felt safe or not and how late they would stay out or would they take cabs back or walk it back to the hotel late at night. Seems these days everyone walks it and feels safe on those streets more or less even at night

I knew certain streets like 43rd street that had the Times Square Hotel was very bad but i was curious about the other, more middle- brow hotels in the mid to upper 40's between Broadway and 8th Avenues such as:

The Milford Plaza (8th Avenue 44th-45th opened in 1980-I'm guessing this got safer into the 90's)
The Marriot Marquis (45th/46th between B'way and 8th opened in 1988)
The Hotel Edison (46th/47th between Broadway and 8th)
The President Hotel (48th between Broadway and 8th)
The Belvedere (48th between 8th-9th)
The Ramada Inn (8th between 48th-49th, also a Days Hotel, now a Hilton Garden Inn)

Except for a few adult related clubs on these sidestreets, it seemed these sidestreets themselves were pretty much commercial, theater and tourist related. But since i rarely went there at night I always wondered what life was like at night for tourists on these streets after the theaters closed, and being perilously close to 8th Ave. Did the prostitutes, junkies and transients linger on these side streets to bother tourists and hotel goers or did they stay away?

One owner of an old italian restaurant on 47th street across from the biltmore theater said he was robbed several times by street people on an otherwise fairly decent street; one poster from another board said he stayed at the Ramada Inn back in 1978 and other than seeing a police car waiting all night at the corner, he felt safe and enjoyed his stay

So I wonder what it was like back in those days. I myself wouldn't have felt safe there at night so maybe there's my answer right there!?

[ontheGtrain]

My grandfather lived on 47 between 8 and 9th. When I would visit him in the summer I was never allowed outside without him. He carried a cane that was really a huge knife. In 1981 we were walking home from a market on 9th and three guys tried to rob him. He pulled apart his cane and started swinging it at them. Lucky none of them pulled a gun. He hit one of them in the shoulder with the sword. The guy let out a scream like the kind a dog does when you step on its toes. We went back to his place and locked the five locks on his door and that was that. Just another day on the west side. It was a scary place. It was like going to the zoo except all of the animals were out of their cages. Present day NY is NOTHING like ny of the 70s and 80s. NOTHING. People who have recently moved here in the last ten to 15 years have no idea what this place was like and go back to if crime is not controlled.

[rlrl]

I was just on that block this Saturday and it seems nice. they built a Comfort Inn near 8th which I think replaced a Sherman hotel which for decades was a big trouble place.

I remember back in 1979 as a teen walking really quickly off 8th Avenue at 47th because the atmosphere was really awful

Seems the opening of WorldWide plaza really helped the area

[rlrl]

G train--was 47th street between 8th-9th a really bad block back in that day or were just about all the 40's bad?

that block by the firehouse on 8th was really bad, very run down, lots of characters

[Carbro]

Gosh, I used to go to the theater and walk home along 8th Ave. up beyond Lincoln Center, and I never felt unsafe. Maybe I was stupid and naive and lucky, but the aura of danger just eluded me. I simply refused to believe that the crime stories on the evening news were reflective of the general condition of the city.

[rlrl]

it was sketchy, sometimes you would never see trouble, other times it was so bad you had to run. it's the site of Taxi Driver where Travis met Jody Foster on 8th between 46th-47th. the sro's and transient hotels near the avenue were a big source of trouble

[Dennis Brown]

I remember in the 80's "Forty-Duece" as it was called was one of the main spots to be at on a Friday and Saturday night. Taking flicks in front of the makeshift graffiti art designs, going to the movies, talking to the young ladies it used to be alot of fun! Make no mistake if you were a square your chances of getting robbed or jumped was very high. Even back then the 'red light district' aspect of Time Square was already getting cleaned up but it was still pretty gritty especially once the sun went down. New Years Eve was madness back, people getting shot, beat over the head, drunk out there mind with police just having a passive presence just to make sure it didnt turn into any looting while Dick Clark did his thing for the TV lol. Port Authority was the worst, the endless mix of homeless people and low lifes coming off the greyhound buses was not nice. Overall I would say back then Times Square during the day time was pretty cool but late night you better had watch your back. Now its generic Disneyland

[rlrl]

I will never forget in the late spring of 1978 a vagrant in the Port Authority grabbed a police man's gun and just started spraying random bullets into a crowd. I don't remember if he shot the officer but I do remember him or another police officer shooting the vagrant and someone in the crowd yelled "I hope he dies". I always remembered that because i was 16 at the time and had just been in the terminal the day before

The following year a gang rampaged through the underground passageway at 42nd and 8th and started beating and robbing innocent people. I remember the newscaster reporting that "such incidents don't shock people around here because the simple fact of the matter is that 42nd street and 8th Avenue is a frightening place day or night".

I think the area was at it's worst in the 70's

[newtoli]

Around '94 I took a bus to OH and back to Port Authority. Got in at around 2AM and started walking back to Grand Central down one of the side streets. It was way desolate and tons of shady people around. Some garbage men saw me, stopped me, and put me in a cab! I had no $$$ at the time and they paid my way rather than have a young woman walk down that area late at night.

14 years later the place is totally safe.

[rlrl]

even in 1994 it was still better than it was 15 years prior to that because the cleanup and Times Square BID had just started