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The South Bronx now could be considered "Fifth Avenue" (joking of course) compared to what it looked like in the 70s....but it is a lot better then it was back in the day, when I was growing up in the 70s man, you couldn't even drive through the South Bronx at 1 in the afternoon. The only people who did were either junkies or FDNY. It looked like it was bombed by war planes, it was a disgusting place. It still has a long, long way to go, but it is better then the 70s and 80s as it should be, back then it wasn't even a neighborhood, it wasn't even LIVABLE. I know they built up the areas around Melrose it looks nicer at least, they put townhouses and stuff up, back when I was partoling Melrose and the 150s ya' know what it was? Burned down tenements for miles and miles. It was sad actually, seeing people in extreme poverty like that, now I didn't grow up rich or anything, I grew up in a large lower middle class Italian-American family on Mulberry street downtown, before it was all gentrified, that was a pretty rough area as well. But NO WHERE in the city or the COUNTRY was like the South Bronx, I remember when then President Carter visited the South Bronx in '77, walking on ruins. The South Bronx so impoverished and ghetto, that other COUNTRIES donated money to help the South Bronx recover. And other parts of the city were atrocious then too, Harlem was a nightmare, Times Square/Hells Kitchen was infested with the "The most savage organization in the long history of New York street gangs,” as Rudy Giuliani said about the brutal Irish-American gang "The Westies" they killed more people then anybody else in their time did, including all of the Harlem druglords, Frank Lucas and Nicky Barnes, Brooklyn was a hellhole, Queens had its spots, Staten Island was....Staten Island, but the 1970s were definitely the worst of the worst for New York, and I think 1970s NYC were the worst you'll ever see in America, you won't see anything like that again......"I hope".
The South Bronx now could be considered "Fifth Avenue" (joking of course) compared to what it looked like in the 70s....but it is a lot better then it was back in the day, when I was growing up in the 70s man, you couldn't even drive through the South Bronx at 1 in the afternoon. The only people who did were either junkies or FDNY. It looked like it was bombed by war planes, it was a disgusting place. It still has a long, long way to go, but it is better then the 70s and 80s as it should be, back then it wasn't even a neighborhood, it wasn't even LIVABLE. I know they built up the areas around Melrose it looks nicer at least, they put townhouses and stuff up, back when I was partoling Melrose and the 150s ya' know what it was? Burned down tenements for miles and miles. It was sad actually, seeing people in extreme poverty like that, now I didn't grow up rich or anything, I grew up in a large lower middle class Italian-American family on Mulberry street downtown, before it was all gentrified, that was a pretty rough area as well. But NO WHERE in the city or the COUNTRY was like the South Bronx, I remember when then President Carter visited the South Bronx in '77, walking on ruins. The South Bronx so impoverished and ghetto, that other COUNTRIES donated money to help the South Bronx recover. And other parts of the city were atrocious then too, Harlem was a nightmare, Times Square/Hells Kitchen was infested with the "The most savage organization in the long history of New York street gangs,” as Rudy Giuliani said about the brutal Irish-American gang "The Westies" they killed more people then anybody else in their time did, including all of the Harlem druglords, Frank Lucas and Nicky Barnes, Brooklyn was a hellhole, Queens had its spots, Staten Island was....Staten Island, but the 1970s were definitely the worst of the worst for New York, and I think 1970s NYC were the worst you'll ever see in America, you won't see anything like that again......"I hope".
I agree. Most of NY looks and is much better then it was back then.
i lived in NYC in the 70's. I lived in boro park in brooklyn, and attended stuyvesant HS. After school I sometimes visited the NYPL, the UN, greenwich village, museums, etc. I had friends who lived all over brooklyn, queens, SI and Manhattan. I rode the SI ferry for fun, went to fraunces tavern, went to off off bway plays, walked the brooklyn bridge,...
I wish that was the worst urban experience anyone has ever had in America. I fear though, that that is not so.
So true..and if you walk these area now, especially the Southern Bronx areas..it is like night and day. So much new housing, much of the empty lots are now new working class buildings, and a substantial percentage of the tenements have been fully rehabbed. New faces, new amenities, upgraded parks, bike lanes, trees, restaurants...it is livable now! I cannot understand how anyone stayed in the Southern Bronx during the 70s though...it boggles my mind that my parents didn't leave and actually had kids there. What were they thinking!!!!
Not to mention that was when the "5 Families" were at their strongest and the NYPD was the most corrupt police force in the country.
The five families made no difference to my life in NYC, other than my parents making jokes about how you knew a good italian restaurant cause there had been a mob hit there.
So true..and if you walk these area now, especially the Southern Bronx areas..it is like night and day. So much new housing, much of the empty lots are now new working class buildings, and a substantial percentage of the tenements have been fully rehabbed. New faces, new amenities, upgraded parks, bike lanes, trees, restaurants...it is livable now! I cannot understand how anyone stayed in the Southern Bronx during the 70s though...it boggles my mind that my parents didn't leave and actually had kids there. What were they thinking!!!!
It was definitely the worst time to live in the South Bronx. Most of NY was not the South Bronx, though.
So true..and if you walk these area now, especially the Southern Bronx areas..it is like night and day. So much new housing, much of the empty lots are now new working class buildings, and a substantial percentage of the tenements have been fully rehabbed. New faces, new amenities, upgraded parks, bike lanes, trees, restaurants...it is livable now! I cannot understand how anyone stayed in the Southern Bronx during the 70s though...it boggles my mind that my parents didn't leave and actually had kids there. What were they thinking!!!!
I doubt the South Bronx is that good. It has improved but its still hood IMO.
It was definitely the worst time to live in the South Bronx. Most of NY was not the South Bronx, though.
The Lower East Side was horrible, Hells Kitchen, Downtown was all meat markets and it was not a NICE place at all, downtown became nice in the late 80s when they built it up. Battery Park wasnt even there in the 70s, nor was Soho or Tribeca, plus Harlem, Washington Heights, Inwood, most of the Bronx, parts of Brooklyn, parts of Queens, were all HORRIBLE. I grew up on Mulberry btw...
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