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I remember the days when new york had soul.
It was dirty but it was great. Now its just one big gentrified place full of yuppies from ohio,california,colorado etc.
I hate looking at those ugly ass cookie cutter condos put all over my neighborhood and the rest of new york.
the last place where there is the "real" new york is the Bronx which only has maybe 10 years left.
I remember growing up here and I had the best of times.
I just wish they would leave NYC alone.
I wouldnt have a problem if yuppies wouldn't zap the culture everywhere they go with starbucks and all that other crap.
I kind of understand what you're saying, but whenever people say they miss the "good old days", WHO were they good for?
I miss the old NYC too. I also agree that when yuppies move into an area they kill whatever the place was known for and becomes boring. It's rather unfortunate, but... change is inevitable as time moves on.
NYC has always been on some revitalization tip. It was only for Manhattan at first and now it's hitting neighborhoods in the outerboroughs that are closest to Manhattan. Minorities have to move further and further out or leave the city altogether (which the powers that be probably wouldn't mind anyway) to live a decent existence (not talking about the chronically poor either).
What I miss about the "good old days" is FREEDOM and not having to worry about being arrested or sued for the things that will get you locked or in civil court today. America in general has changed and not for the better. Our rights are slowly being taking away from us and privacy invaded.
I'm really surprised the Supreme Court has allowed citizens the right to bear arms. I really am. I was stunned when I heard it, but I'm glad too.
no more real ethnic neighborhoods. I grew up in the suburbs in the 60s but had a childhood friend who lived in the east 80s in Manhattan (Yorkville I believe) until the 5th grade. we used to go back there to visit his grandparents when we were in our teens. Great German delis on 86th street. The area had a large Hungarian population also. Now it's nothing but condos filled with kids from the midwest. But then again there aren't any old German and Hungarians left anywhere, it's all been blended ....
I love where NY is now due to gentrification. It has made it a much CLEANER and SAFER place to live. Back in the so-called "good old days" as th OP mentions, NY was a more liberal city, chaos everywhere, pretty much a zoo, hence the dirty, undesirable look and feel. I love that the NY way of life or vibe of NY has moved closer to the conservative tip. The 60's, 70's, 80's and early 90's where the worst decades for NY. Why? Because NY was a much more LIBERAL city back then with it's policies. It was like the wild wild west where anything goes. There were less restrictions so people did as they pleased, hence the undesirablity.
Caino...I think you are romanticizing what you think NYC used to be. I also grew up in the "old school" NYC that you are longing for. I was in the Bronx..south Bronx to be exact...so I was surrounded by burned down building, drug addicts, rampant crime, gangs, and complete isolation..and large swaths of other communities in Manhattan, Brooklyn etc suffered similarly. You could not walk through any parks in manhattan or otherwise because they were littered with needles, and were the exlcusive domain of pimps/prostitutes/homeless. 42nd street was strictly primps and prostitutes with the pervs to go along with it. Trains were filthy/disgusting/bommbed out with graffitti, schools were ridiculous and out of control, and racial tensions were consistently high.
You call that a soul? The city was SOUL-LESS....it's only today that communities that were once completely abandoned and off-limits are now thriving...same goes for all those nice parks all NYers enjoy...as well as the influx of new groups of people/immigrants that are changing/improving the landscape of NYC as many communities were stale/stagnant/segregated for far too long.
I don't know what NYC you grew up in..but I am very happy at the changes happening across the city. Is it perfect? Nope..but what exactly is wrong with having an influx of red-blooded Americans from the midwest moving in? This is their country as much as anyone else's..so not sure why they "don't belong" here....it's that attitude that sunk NYC for decades by the way. There is room in NYC for the pakistani immigrant, the european shipping magnate, the corn-fed Nebraskan, the actor from Texas, and banker from Boston, and old-school 3rd generation Italian...and everyone in between. Not sure why you believe there isn't enough room.
Furthermore....what's wrong with having a Starbucks....do I like the fact that it is on every corner in some places? NOPE...but I enjoy having the OPTION of having Starbucks...same goes for Target/Best Buy etc...I want options and diversity..which included mainstream American options as well as the local shops..and I have those now and my NY experience is better for it.
To the OP. As to comparing the old school NY with today's gentrified NY, I prefer to have a starbucks on every corner than a liquor store or porn shop on every corner like your old school NY which you miss. It's good riddens to that old school NY and I hope it never goes back that way.
It's been happening all around America, not just NYC
This is true. Chicago has gone down the same path. You basically have neighborhoods that are yuppie, ghetto, or immigrant; with the old-school flavor fading. At least this is the case in the city's core neighborhoods. I actually think Chicago may be more extreme than NYC in this regard. I think this is better than the alternative though, which is having a depressed city with nobody taking the place off those who have fled to the suburbs.
There are rustbelt cites like Cleveland, Buffalo, or Pittsburgh that still retain more of an old school vibe. Really this is just a product of going through an economic hit and having few recent transplants. Not to say these places are dumps (I think they are very under rated actually), but frankly they could use some new blood.
I can only speak for my neighborhood here when I say it has gained in "soul" and "culture", not gone the other way around since the 70s, 80s, etc. My neighborhood's Chinatown (8th avenue) is really alive and shows no sign of stopping down anytime soon... chinese restaurants, the fish markets, etc... I was reading in the NYTimes about an article back in 1988 that is just mentioning the 8th avenue area as the new possible Chinatown and look now it's well established and probably more authentic than Manhattan's.
Now my neighborhood's 5th Avenue (basically Little Mexico) has an abundance of Mexican restaurants as well as Salvadorian, Dominican, Hondurian, Ecuadorian, Colombian, Nicaraguan as well as the all night Taco stands that come to the neighborhood... back in the 70s and 80s my mom tells me of how 5th avenue was dead and how much has changed for the better since the days that they would be afraid to walk near the park or 5th avenue for fear of being robbed by the Puerto Ricans (in that time the dominant group)
Btw this new neighborhood revitalization wasn't thanks to yuppies, hipsters etc... it was all IMMIGRANTS... the Chinese immigrants, the Mexican immigrants helped changed what our neighborhood looks like and for the better... so basically, speak for yourself when you say your neighborhood has lost it's culture, because mine is more alive than ever.
Cainanomar, what you're doing is generalizing. Yeah, yuppies (and their descendents, hipsters) can sometimes be a blight on the city. But to say they've taken over and transformed NYC...that's just ridiculous!
You should also keep in mind that what you call the "good old days" is kind of subjective. It depends a lot on how old you are. For instance, I don't consider the 80s to be "old days." You should also know a little about the history of this town, since it goes back a few years before your time. Like to 1624. In all those years, the one thing that has been constant about New York is change. No neighborhoods stay the same for more than a couple of generations. I'm Jewish, and I was born in Brownsville. Does it surprise you to know that Brownsville used to be one of the most heavily Jewish districts in the whole city?
Don't expect anything other than more change now...or in the years to come.
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