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You're not old enough to know anything about CBGB and Studio 54, are you? If you were you would not have made your comment. Hate to tell you but people from all economic levels were there. And BTW, those clubs were prominent in the 70's and not 80's.
Don't know about Studio 54, but CBGB was far from elitist. At least not in terms of socio/economic status.
Funny what a difference 30 years or so can make. Of course the world itself is vastly different now, and I'm sure 30 years from now today's NYC will seem just as bizarre and far removed from reality as 1980's New York seems to us today.
Don't know about Studio 54, but CBGB was far from elitist. At least not in terms of socio/economic status.
When it came to Studio 54, the Billy Joel song "Faces" comes to mind. Everyone dressed the part in order to fit in with that crowd. I preferred the Mudd Club. These clubs all peaked in the 70's and not the 80's. Really miss going to the Rocky Horror Picture Show and then to a club afterwards.
Funny what a difference 30 years or so can make. Of course the world itself is vastly different now, and I'm sure 30 years from now today's NYC will seem just as bizarre and far removed from reality as 1980's New York seems to us today.
A large part of the thread is closer to ~40 years and not 30 years.
When it came to Studio 54, the Billy Joel song "Faces" comes to mind. Everyone dressed the part in order to fit in with that crowd. I preferred the Mudd Club. These clubs all peaked in the 70's and not the 80's. Really miss going to the Rocky Horror Picture Show and then to a club afterwards.
For me it was Palladium (sob, it's been torn down), Lightlight, The Tunnel & this other club of which the name escapes me...oh, yeah Roseland and the Forum (although the last two were more concert venues).
Danceteria (though I've never been) was another club that was mentioned. Don't have a clue what club is in now. I'm old.
Actually lived in an apartment built in the early 1900's and it cost me a few hundred a month. It was clean and the super took care of issues pretty quickly. The only thing that required continuous maintenance was the elevators. Good thing we had two.
The old blue interior ones and the multi-color ones had AC (I doubt you're old enough to remember the ones with blade fans on the ceilings). Every once in awhile one of the cars didn't and usually during the summers it was shut down so the doors wouldn't open.
The center entrance on Macdougal Street was known for the dealers. Anyone common to the area knew to avoid that path if they didn't want to be approached by dealers. They were pretty mellow and not aggressive.
So what. It was great to have so many choices. It was the reality of the city that never sleeps.
Whatver
You have no clue to the amount of freedom we had then compared to now.
Washington Square Park itself was pretty bad, and some people couldn't avoid the area. What if you were a student, or employee at NYU? What if you went to check out the campus because you were considering applying?
As for those nightclubs, anyone who remembers nightclubs from that era is too old to go to a nightclub! It doesn't make sense to pretend era was so great, because if those nightclubs were standing you wouldn't be going to them due to being too old! No one wants to see granddaddy or grandma's naughty bits!
Stop living in the past and learn to live in the present. I'm not old, but I'm not that young either. The clubs I went to in the late 90s are gone, and many of the people I know moved on with their lives and aren't necessarily in NYC. But do I cry for a return to that time? No. I wish everyone the best, and realize many of my friends who left the city as that era was ending have moved on to lead full lives.
Washington Square Park itself was pretty bad, and some people couldn't avoid the area. What if you were a student, or employee at NYU? What if you went to check out the campus because you were considering applying?
I lived in the area for a short while on West 8th above the head shop and frequented the area mostly at night (daytime was for work and school). Walked through the park hundreds of times at night. The park was more vibrant and alive at night than during the day. The biggest problem I'd seen in the area were the groups of white kids that came down from the north and Gay Bashed. Street drug dealers were no different from street vendors. You may fear the boogeyman, but I never did and never do.
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As for those nightclubs, anyone who remembers nightclubs from that era is too old to go to a nightclub! It doesn't make sense to pretend era was so great, because if those nightclubs were standing you wouldn't be going to them due to being too old! No one wants to see granddaddy or grandma's naughty bits!
No I don't go to nightclubs anymore, yet I still go to concerts and music venues from musicians of that time. Some of those musicians are currently friends and see them nearly every year as they still tour the circuit here in the US and internationally. Then was then, now is now. Never said it was great, but on other hand never said it was all bad either. I'm a realist. I minimize the bad as the good always outweighs it. You are a pessimist, let the bad outweigh the good and aging into a grumpy old man before your time.
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Stop living in the past and learn to live in the present. I'm not old, but I'm not that young either. The clubs I went to in the late 90s are gone, and many of the people I know moved on with their lives and aren't necessarily in NYC. But do I cry for a return to that time? No. I wish everyone the best, and realize many of my friends who left the city as that era was ending have moved on to lead full lives.
As I've already stated, I live in the present and not the past. The past had memorable times where many are worth remembering and a few worth forgetting. Yesterdays club scene was something to do late at night as there wasn't much else to do after midnight as that is when clubs came alive. There was also Coney Island where one could go into a back alley to play poker or simply ride the bumper cars that were open all night. People hung out and the Police didn't interfere. No matter what you believe or imagine the past was like, we did have more freedoms than the current generation has now.
NYC in the 80s was a very different place than it is now. I can remember being mugged 3 times in the afternoon changing trains in downtown subway stations (once for a Burger King chicken sandwich). And then I just went about my business - it was a risk you ran when you were underground. I do remember the older subway cars having no AC - the GG (as it was called) had those fans blowing stale air. General rule was not to go west of 7th Avenue, 8th if you were feeling daring. But it was just a way of life, and for those that lived through it, significant changes for the better become more and more evident as the 90s turned into the turn of the century. It was still a great place to live.
I lived in the area for a short while on West 8th above the head shop and frequented the area mostly at night (daytime was for work and school). Walked through the park hundreds of times at night. The park was more vibrant and alive at night than during the day. The biggest problem I'd seen in the area were the groups of white kids that came down from the north and Gay Bashed. Street drug dealers were no different from street vendors. You may fear the boogeyman, but I never did and never do.
No I don't go to nightclubs anymore, yet I still go to concerts and music venues from musicians of that time. Some of those musicians are currently friends and see them nearly every year as they still tour the circuit here in the US and internationally. Then was then, now is now. Never said it was great, but on other hand never said it was all bad either. I'm a realist. I minimize the bad as the good always outweighs it. You are a pessimist, let the bad outweigh the good and aging into a grumpy old man before your time.
As I've already stated, I live in the present and not the past. The past had memorable times where many are worth remembering and a few worth forgetting. Yesterdays club scene was something to do late at night as there wasn't much else to do after midnight as that is when clubs came alive. There was also Coney Island where one could go into a back alley to play poker or simply ride the bumper cars that were open all night. People hung out and the Police didn't interfere. No matter what you believe or imagine the past was like, we did have more freedoms than the current generation has now.
No, you're living in the past. Back in the grand glorious days when you were still young enough to hang out and party and cute enough to do one night stands while high or drunk. Nothing that spectacular goes on in nightclub. You drink, maybe you do drugs, and you turn some tricks/do hookups and that's really all there is to it. Oh yeah, you can dance to some music too.
Back alleys? You live a criminal lifestyle, and you're upset you can't get away with it as an old person?
Here's the real reason the nightclubs and that era went away. It wasn't the most profitable use of valuable NYC real estate. Money talks, and BS walks.
Of course while young people may concentrate going out on weekends, anyone who has substantial time to be in a nightclub every night clearly isn't working. It's no coincidence the "golden" era of nightclubs was the era in which one could easily get welfare apartments below 96th Street. West Village, Hells Kitchen, Upper West Side, Chelsea, Lower East Side were ghettos. Once gentrification took off and the welfare people got evicted, you no longer had a huge base of people who weren't working or who only worked cash jobs while on welfare, and that's another factor in the end of the nightclub era. And of course developers bought those buildings and plots and built other things there (residential building, stores, etc). Goodbye and good riddance to those sleazy crackwhore houses!
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