What was New York City like in the 1980s?

It was heaven on earth.

AIDS & Trumps

[quote]That said there is no denying the 80s brought fresh challenges, including the AIDS epidemic and the accompanying backlash against the gay community. And NYC was one of the worst hit areas in the country.

I don't remember a backlash.

New Yorkers were not nasty to us because of AIDS.

There was a backlash.

Gay men went from being seen as fun to being seen as dangerous.

Are you trying to create a legend, OP?

“Of course in from NY. Let me tell you what it was like in 1970s & 1980s. Was very colorful place, yes.

Moved there in ‘87. The next 8 years were fucking magical.

Big hair and shoulder pads. And that was the men.

R4, I read the Gia Carangi biography "Thing of Beauty" by Stephen Fried a couple of years ago and I remember it mentioning how gay make-up artists went from boasting about the previous night's sexual exploits to swearing abstinence while working. "Did you hear who's sick" replaced "Did you hear who's going away(to rehab)". There was even a model who point blank refused to work with any make-up artist who was gay.

The last reply in this thread was 9 hours ago. I'm shocked. I would've thought a "New York in the '80s" thread would fill up in a mere matter of hours!

Some great photos- even Meryl makes an appearance!

Like Portland in the 2020s, OP.

Bump

[R8] That is a great read. It paints a picture of NYC in that time period too. Deserves its own thread. I was amazed to read a few weeks ago in an article about the Halston Netflix series that Sandy Linter is still alive and well! She was a makeup artist that worked with and dated Gia.

It was gritty and there was the terrible specter of AIDS but undeniably glamorous in the rich crowd. Big parties, excess. I was young and working in the art world and I would go to openings just for the free wine and cheese and spectacle. At times I would feel great longing and melancholy looking at all of this wealth flaunting, because I was so poor. But it gave me ambition. And it was fun. I’ve always felt “bonfire of the vanities” captured it all perfectly. The book, god knows not the movie.

Good point that it hadn’t lost its edge - which is probably the main redeeming quality. It became a little bit more poseur and money focused - but not overwhelmingly so like the 2000s. The dark cloud of AIDS really makes me remember it as all dark and ugly. While NYC continued to be gay accepting, there was a fear of gay men as AIDS carriers. The fact that the US government was going through cultural backlash also put a cloud over things. I much preferred the 90s to the 80s. I honestly hate the 80s.

[quote] I honestly hate the 80s.

Me too.

I think the East Village become the hip mecca in the 80s - if you were young. It was dirty and edgy and hip.

NYC was pretty cheap - only rent was high - otherwise you could do all sorts of things and eat in all sorts of places for very little money. And in spite of AIDS the beat went on. Lots of trendy clubs and bars and tons of fashionable bustling restaurants.

I spent the 80s in Manhattan. It was a gritty, glamorous, and authentic.

It morphed into a heterosexual Disneyland.

Crime was really bad but it was the place where people looking for a different kind of life went.

Then it suddenly became about fashion and shallowness. I blame that horse Sarah Jessica Parker.

You're really lucky to have experienced it, R14!

(italics)NYC was pretty cheap - only rent was high - otherwise you could do all sorts of things and eat in all sorts of places for very little money

I always assumed rent was low as well, but I guess it's still saying something if restaurants were cheap.

(italics)It morphed into a heterosexual Disneyland

You could probably say that about a lot of places, R17.

[quote]I always assumed rent was low as well,

No. Finding a place with a reasonable rent was like winning the lottery.

I paid $830 for a small rent controlled one bed in the West Village in 1987, apparently $2,100 today.

I was on the job market at the end of the 80s. Rent was definitely an issue compared to anywhere else. Other costs were not bad. You could get a round it somewhat if you worked for a large institutional employer that housing available at below market rents, like the various universities. I had a colleague who lived in Memorial-Sloan Kettering housing---she was a chronic complainer but paid something like $800/mo for a place that would be difficult to touch for that price in a comparable part of DC or Boston. She was a chronic complainer about all kinds of stuff which undermined her career. Last I heard she was at a fairly second string place in Philly.

Slaves of New York captures New York real estate at the time. Janowitz stated something that we all experienced.

There were people who had cheap apartments. They either inherited them from relatives, had lived there long enough, or had a landlord who did not know the game of how to drive up rents. (I will not explain rent stabilization but....you know.)

These people would take in roommates and then either charge them market rate so that they covered the whole (or almost whole) rent. (I knew a few people who did not have to work or worked part time because the roommates covered rent and other expenses) And/or charge them a cheap rate that the roommates were afraid to get on the lease-holder's bad side. They became slaves to the lease holder. Even a live in lover could be a slave.

It really was like that.

Yes, Tama Janowitz captured it well. So did Jay McInerney and Tom Wolfe.

Yes it was magical. I'm blessed I lived in NYC that decade, in the East Village no less.

Thish illushtratesh what it wash like!

R24 Me too. I actually wanted to be in the West Village because it was upscale and charming, but unaffordable to me. I used to tell out-of-towners who didn’t know any better that I lived in “the village,” which was essentially a lie. Today “East Village in the 80s” sounds cool I guess.

It was fun...much less sterile than it is now

[quote] I always assumed rent was low as well,

No, by the 80s it was pretty high.

That's the point of the title story in Tama Janowitz's famous collection Slaves of New York: by the 80s rent had become so high that you could only afford to live in Manhattan if you agreed to live with someone rich enough to afford an apartment, or lucky enough to have a rent-controlled apartment still. So you were in effect that person's sex slave.

I bought a big studio in the West Village in 88 for $99.. Sold in 2015 for $750.

The East Village nightlife scene was fun. I liked the non-Chelsea boy scene there. Gay men who were interested in culture and conversation more than steroids.

Homeless EVERYWHERE, they would hold the door open for you to get a tip, those windshield wiper guys at intersections that cabbies detested. I recall staying with a friend near Columbia where they were going to school and a friend wanted to go to tribeca for a place to eat and we all laughed, “go there? No way, what a cesspool”. This was in 1987

True about Tribeca, and even Soho. It was like No Man's Land. I could be wrong, but when JFK Jr. moved to Tribeca in the late 80s that started the tide turning - it was big news that he was living down there. Suddenly rich people and celebrities started moving there.

[quote] I bought a big studio in the West Village in 88 for $99.. Sold in 2015 for $750.

Wow, that's dirt cheap!

And here I thought studios in the West Village went in that era for prices in the thousands!

It didn't feel as bad as it is now

The word that comes to mind first is quieter. Yes there was the hustle but is was a lower current than it then became in the 90s.

[quote]True about Tribeca, and even Soho.

Seriously? Soho was terrific in the '70s, long before it became the outdoor shopping mall it is today.

It was dirty and scary, but a lot of fun. Now it’s so homogenized, just like most other cities.

R32, Soho was over by the 80s.

And maybe JFK Jr. popularized Tribeca for the bridge and tunnel crowd , but there was a lot going on there in the 80s. It was a hip (but expensive) neighborhood for NYers.

Soho was just getting started in the 80s. And rich people/celebrities weren't really moving into that area until JFK Jr. did it. Back in the 80s celebrities tended to live on the UWS and UES. That became passé when the young hip celebs all started living downtown.

In the 80s Soho became much more commercial. Lofts started being sold to the rich and to "celebrities" in the 80s, which is usually the end. All the artists who made the neighborhood were moving out from 1980 on throughout that decade.

Tribeca was always a bit wealthier, but the low density of residential units kept it feeling more front edge. By the time, JFK Jr. moved in, you saw an influx of celebrities flaunting that they lived in Tribeca. More housing was developed. And again, that was the end.

You seem to think the wealthy and celebrities moving in makes a neighborhood. Back in the 20th century at least, it was the opposite.

r40 even "regular" people didn't have much to do with Tribeca. As the above poster describes, it wasn't much of a destination for anyone.

Tribeca still isn’t really a destination. I am always surprised when it pops up on wealthiest zip code lists - otherwise I never even think about it. It’s an oddly boring “downtown” area that just happens to be filled with large loft spaces.

R41, there were some good concerts and a few performance spaces there. You had Home, Collective for Living Cinema, Roulette (I think), as well as some clubs.

But truthfully, the life there was a little bit of "Soho South." But at least they hung on while Soho became a playground for the rich. The retailers who took over Soho did not venture further south till much later.

I've never been all that thrilled with Tribeca, there still isn't much down there in the way of amenities and the things you need for day-to-day life. Nice apartments, though.

I moved here in 1981 after visiting the year before. The 80s still had a lot of "Old New York" things that I think about with wonder. The old 70s Times Square was full of hookers, people eating in cafeterias for lunch, SROs, inexpensive tickets to Broadway shows, cheap drinks at bars and restaurants, Mafia run businesses that barely tried to hide it, jiggle joints right on Broadway in the 40s. Lots of places sold an egg & cheese sandwich on a roll and a small coffee for 99 cents ($1.25 with bacon). The Upper West Side was full of actors, students, working class people and gay bars! At times it all felt like the 1960s still.

Nobody lived in a renovated apartment. You were likely to have a fairly modern refrigerator but a stove from the 1940s-60s. For thirty plus years all the landlord would do is paint, maybe spackle a hole in the plaster between tenants. Your crazy downstairs neighbor was renting a seven-room flat for $315.00/mo yet never quit complaining!

Nothing worked, nothing was clean and nobody cared. I recall Bryant Park was basically fenced off and you would never think it wise to enter it. A trip to the DMV to get a new license was an all-day affair and you'd leave crying. As I recall many things were quite reasonably priced other than rent, but it was all very dog-eat-dog. People were much less nice or even civil. I remember people were still REALLY pissed that the subway fare had just taken a 25% price hike, from 60 cents to the outrageous 75 cents! How are we supposed to live!

If you wanted a job, or an apartment basically you just asked around and somebody would help you get one. That's just how things were done!

We wore all-black a lot.

Not every minute, but it was definitely a Go To look.

More please!

Never been to NYC and have no desire to at this point. These stories remind me of San Francisco in the 80s. Absolutely, by far, the best decade in my memory anyway. All (most) of the fabulous, funky, historic places, with the right dash of early days gentrification. We still had "the bad parts". You have to have those to make a city feel real. Now it is just degrees of gentrification and completely soulless (Mary!). Even my beloved Golden Gate Bridge has been sullied.

Tribeca had the fabulous wonderful Area! What amazing parties and tableaux.

Somebody really should make a GIF of Liza’s reaction when the waiter runs into her @ 0:16

Odeon opened in i think 1980 and that kind of marked the beginnings of that area becoming hip and “something.” Amazingly, it’s still around.

R50 Wasn’t it a plot point in Pose when one of the trannys has bottom surgery and loses her dick and no men want to pay to have sex with her anymore she becomes a bitchy hostess at Odeon?

Well done R45, every bit true.

R45 The Village Voice was a key ingredient in getting an apartment or a job, and there were a few locations where it would be delivered the night before it came out that week and if you picked it up then you got the jump on everyone else, especially for apartments where I got at least three by being the first person there that next morning.

R13- Sandy has a excellent Instagram page. She posts lots of her old work, Gia, etc.

Sandys IG

R53 Gem Spa on 8th street and 3rd had the Voice on Tuesday evening. One got that there to get a jump on jobs and apartments before the rest of the city got the weekly on Wednesday morning.

The newsstand at the Christopher Street #1 train had it first I think.

R57 Yes, that’s where I would go, I couldn’t remember, but obviously the VV offices were right there in what is now the Duplex.

In the 80s the Voice was near Union Square [R58]

Then it moved down below Astor Place.

That is why Gem Spa had it so early. The stands nearest the offices tended to have the paper first.

I didn’t live in NyC but visited quite a few times early to mid-80s. There was so much to do. I loved Danceteria.

Madonna used to hang around Gem Spa.

[quote] One got that there to get a jump on jobs and apartments before the rest of the city got the weekly on Wednesday morning.

I once got yelled at by a woman. I picked up the VV about 8:00 pm on Tuesday night at Christopher Street. There was a really good apartment ad, so I called at 8:30 pm to try to get the first appointment on Wednesday. She got really crabby with me for calling Tuesday night.

Everybody read the Village Voice. Whoever thought it would become irrelevant and cease publication?

R60 I loved Danceteria too. Maybe we danced together, who knows. Mudd Club too.

Times Square was filled with cheap porn theaters.

It was dangerous to walk around in.

[quote]Everybody read the Village Voice. Whoever thought it would become irrelevant and cease publication?

It's hard to believe they could mess up such a successful brand. There were some poor editorial and business decisions. In the last couple of years of publication, they had an identity crisis and didn't know how to handle it.

Having your apartment burgled, or being mugged on the street or subway was shockingly common.

The Upper West Side was populated by actors, dancers and cranky Jews who would become even crankier if you got in their way at Zabars.

R67 I got mugged twice in one week in the early nineties, everyone I knew was mugged at least once.

a friend never wore jewelry out after an incident in the late eighties where her necklace was ripped off her neck and her earrings were ripped OFF her earlobes in the C train

R69 and R70 really make me wonder if São Paulo is the new NYC. More dangerous but also more affordable and perhaps more gay friendly than New York was in the 80s

R71 Whatever you do don’t ask Ryan Lochte about that.

LOL!

It was fun! We loved it!

R67 very common. I was burgled twice. Also, believe it or not, union Square was dicey in the very early 80s.

I used to visit for work or, during my time in Connecticut, for day trips. You really needed to recalibrate your level of paranoia when you came into the city, although some people could be clueless----I recall being at a professional meeting and trying not to look too much like an out of towner---I was in a subway station in the 50s someplace and someone else from my meeting---a fresh faced Midwestern was on the next platform wearing his convention tag. I almost called out to him to lose the tag for awhile and pay attention to his surroundings. An older colleague had me walk a female colleague to Penn Station for her commuter train out of concern for her. I don't have to make much of an adjustment when I come into the City now, although I'm a little mor evigilant than when I'm home in DC.

SOHO was still edgy. The Bowery seemed truly grungy. It was popular to see what Street Vendors had in places like the Lower East Side and you could still find bargains on things shopping in lower rent neighborhoods. I never had a problem but I always was planful and vigilant in the City. yet, I always had a good time--plenty to see to and do. People complained about New York but still came there for school and work and to visit--it used to be almost like a ritual and it was always annoying to hear all those complaints.

In 1983 midway through the tunnel on the bus for a day trip into the city to see Evita, our Humanities teacher told us not to stare at anyone while we ran loose in the city, because they might kill us. Then at five o’clock rush hour around Rockefeller Center a well dresses business man told us “Children, run away from here, it’s not safe for you here when it starts getting dark.”

[quote]In 1983 midway through the tunnel on the bus for a day trip into the city to see Evita, our Humanities teacher told us not to stare at anyone while we ran loose in the city, because they might kill us.

We saw it in 1981. Our teacher said nothing to us. Gave us our tickets and let us loose on NYC. He probably hoped some of us would get killed. Being the nerd that I was, I discovered Coliseum Books and spent over an hour in there. Looking back, I wish I had followed our teacher. He seemed quite anxious to head off somewhere. Probably down to the peep shows on 42nd Street.

"The subway was a blast"

R79- I still ride it.

We should ask Blair, Jo and tootle. They made a couple of chaperoned trips here back in the day.

When they got to Times Square Mrs. Garrett told them "remember girls, if it's only in the ass you're still a virgin."

Tootle?

I visited NYC in 1989 (from Los Angeles) Times Square was insane, dirty, and dangerous.

Went into a peep show, and when I came out the attendant was screaming at me about why did I "piss in the booth"

No water sports here, it was raining and I guess I dragged in my wet shoes and made a mess.

He was screaming at me to clean up the booth that I "pissed" in. I got the hell out.

I also saw Batman at one of the movie theaters there. The movie theaters in New York City are nasty compared to the ones in Los Angeles (at the time at least) broken seats, rotting curtains, rodents running around everywhere.

But it was an experience that I'll never forget.

I lived in Greenwich Village from 1988-1990. It was pretty good then. Crime seemed to be creeping up though, and I heard it reached a peak not long after I left. I didn't have the misfortune of living there during the Dinken's admin, which apparently did the city no favors.

^^ "Dinkins" that is, not "Dinken's" lol.

R83 you know it originally autocorrected to Tootsie - I corrected it but i guess I didn’t catch this second snafu.

R85, you forget that Dinkin's brought down the crime rate. (Only to have it dismissed by Guiliani who claimed what mattered was not the crime rate but making people feel safe.)

Dinkins was no friend to the rich, which is what made his days limited.

Dinkins was a far better mayor than Giuliani and gets credit for.

Had a huge one-bedroom apartment in Park Slope for $243.00 a month.

They decided to convert to condo in 1987, so they bought us out for $13,000 even though we only had 3 months left on our lease.

Moved to Honolulu and lived there for 12 years.

[quote]I lived in Greenwich Village from 1988-1990

How much was your rent, R85?

^ $243.00 a month for a one bedroom in Park Slope was good value money, R90, even if inflation is taking into account.

Did you get the apartment, R62?

I commuted into New York for work 1976 through the 80s. What I loved about the city was how cheap everything was, the best seat for top Broadway musical cost $15-20. Duane Reade in NYC then was cheaper than my suburban CVS. Dozens and dozens of mom and pop stores, now all gone. Restaurants, most affordable. The subway was 50 cents.

^ I was in Kyiv, Ukraine recently and I'm pretty sure their subway was even cheaper, at least for inner city trips. Were you ever tempted to move to Manhattan?

Tell me more! Tell me more!

But, Ya don’t gotta brag.

R94, my dream fantasy was to move to Manhattan, but my paycheck didn't allow it. You could thoroughly enjoy the city on a budget, but couldn't live there and enjoy it without more $$. In 1989, I did live in New York - for a year. I found living and working there was way too much stress.

After the Shubert Organization And Gerry Schoenfeld decided to charge $50 for tix to CATS in 1983, the Broadway ticket prices seemed to skyrocket within a year. Every producer followed suit and that started the ball rolling on sky-high prices. Then Mel brooks blew it all to hell by charging "premium" ticket prices in 2001.

I thought that was David Merrick and 42nd Street, R98.

I was THERE

I was there too, in 1977 to see Star Wars at it's first run theater. Is there anyone out there who HATED IT like me?

I know this. Ghouliani really fucked it up.

[quote] a small rent controlled one bed in the West Village...apparently $2,100 today.

I didn't know housing was so affordable in NY.

r101 I went to the theatre near Times Square to see Star Wars the Saturday after it opened. The crowd moved in so fast, I lost my friends. Then everyone lit up joints. I hated the smell and I left before it started. I went downtown to Julius', met a guy at the bar, asked him if he wanted to fuck, and we went back to his place at London Terrace. A much better time was had than if I'd stayed to see that stupid movie.

I did finally watch it in 1998 or so, when I was sick and a friend brought over three Star Wars movies for me to watch. For the second time, I was glad I left the theatre that night.

R104 is a salt-of-the-earth Datalounger.

Very gratifying post.

[quote]I visited NYC in 1989 (from Los Angeles) Times Square was insane, dirty, and dangerous.

I'm surprised it was still that bad on the precipice of the 1990s. At what point did Time Square begin to smarten up?

Dinkins sold it out to Disney, Giuliani closed the remaining the XXX theaters, and Bloomberg put in extra wide sidewalks in and made it into a mall for tourists. I liked the old Times Squared better.

I like Chloe Sevigny and Kate Beckinsale as 80s NYC gals

^The Last Days of Disco was so disappointing. The way they talked really got on my nerves.

What I did find interesting was the idea of a railroad apartment. I never heard of them before. Did anybody here live in one?

[quote]Dinkins sold it out to Disney...

No, just stop. You don't know ANYTHING!

NOTHING ON EARTH can make people quit parroting this stupid reductive lie, but I will still try to add a fact or two.

The original Times Square Redevelopment effort was WELL UNDERWAY under Mayor Ed Koch, and not a minute too soon years before Mayor Dinkins! The fabled entertainment district and "Crossroads of the World" was beyond decrepit, filthy, dangerous and a number of the priceless landmarked buildings were on the verge of collapse. Notably the glorious Art Nouveau New Amsterdam Theatre, home of many of the Ziegfeld Follies.

Yes, the Walt Disney Company purchased and completely renovated this priceless jewel, and did so in an historically authentic manner. The theater was literally within a year or two of collapsing as most of the roof had already fallen in. Other than renting the building next door for a few years to sell merch, that is the totality of "Disney owns and ruined Times Square!" Total bullshit!

It ALL started under Koch, was a multi-year effort to bring thriving legitimate businesses back to Times Square, and salvage many historically significant theaters on the verge of the wrecking ball, all of which was accomplished. Giuliani might have scared off the last porn shops, but if you really think that's what is missing today, you've got a fucking screw loose!

Truth- in the early 80s no young people I knew, especially white people NEVER visited the 42nd Street area to spend money, so don't listen to all their bullshit. It was a disgrace and brought in very little tax revenue and was pretty much a crime scene. Why so many people who were never even there go on and on about how Disney of all people "ruined" it, I will never know! They didn't, and we should be grateful they saved the New Amsterdam Theatre!

The Last Days Of Disco is one of the very few things I've ever seen (movie or tv show) that actually showed realistic apartments for NYers relative to their socioeconomic status. Even though it was set in the late 70s, it's still pretty accurate forty-plus years later. Sevigny and Beckinsale were young women in their 20s and they lived in a shitbox railroad apartment in Yorkville that was like a closet, as did their boyfriends. That's the reality of living in Manhattan for many people at that age, it's a world away from "Friends."

OP, just watch an episode of Kate and Allie, it was set and filmed in NYC in the 1980s

In fairness, R111, most New Yorkers didn't frequent Studio 54.

r113 I never mentioned Studio 54, just commenting on the apartment situation in the movie.

R110, how old are you? I'm white and visited Times Square many many times in the 1970s and 80s to see theater, go to movies, buy non-porn merchandise, eat at Italian and French restaurants in the theater district, and walk around taking pictures. Never saw an act of violence. I stayed off Eighth Ave at 2AM. I did see that little old man with the placard sign on his chest that said 'Jesus Saves' parading around. Was it idea? Of course not, the rest of the city was no prize either, but neither was Philly or Boston.

I liked how HBO’s The Deuce included the Times Square Redevelopment story into the series, though it was such a B story at times it lost the thread at points.

Was it Ann Beattie who left new York because "people talked about nothing but real estate'"?

R109 - Asking a Manhattanite if they ever lived in a railroad apartment is like asking someone from Iowa if they've ever seen a cornfield. When you live in a studio, your friends railroad flats seem ENORMOUS. I had one friend who had a great railroad in the East Village -- It wasn't the typical kind that goes from the front of the building to the back with two extremely narrow apartments per floor with a steep staircase in the middle. This was a much wider building, so there were four apartments per floor, and the two main rooms were a decent square size - you entered into the kitchen, the living room was in front through a wide archway, with 2 windows overlooking the street; the much smaller bedroom was behind the kitchen -- both kitchen and bedroom only had windows onto the airshaft. The catch was there was no bathroom.

The kitchen had a deep slop-sink right next to the front door, with a shower head high up on the wall. There was a step ladder you would use to climb up into the sink, pull the shower curtain around you from the suspended square rod, and bathe away. There was a normal kitchen sink for washing dishes and your hands as well. The toilet was in the hallway. Perpendicular to the star landing in the middle of each floor, was a short hall lined with 4 small square closets, and in each was a toilet; one for each apartment on that floor - you had a separate key for the door to your toilet. I thought it was great, I referred to the toilet as her summer cottage. The apartment was in a great location, was rent controlled; insanely cheap and if it had been mine I would still be living there.

As goofy as E. Village apartments were, I coveted everyone of them I was ever in, they just always had such an authentic NYC feel to them, bathtub in the kitchen and all.

My first apt - on E5th - had that bathtub in the kitchen. I loved it. It was so goofy.

The Big Kahuna, Lucy's (not really a club, but a great place to eat drink and hang out. I still have a rubber dolphin from one of my drinks), Sweet Hurricane, China Club, Palladium, Nells, Limelight, The Tunnel etc. There was no shortage of places to go dancing with a fake ID when I was 16 and 17.

R121 I did my Met internship the summer of 1987 and lived on West 81 and probably spent more time at Lucy’s then any other straight bar in my life and coveted those plastic drink toys. At some point I would then sneak off from the other interns and go to the Works to pick up preppy daddies.

R122 was that you? I was the hot daddy weeping at the far end of the bar at Works. 'Memba?

I was frequently at every joint you listed, r121!

I also lived in that exact railroad one-bedroom with tub-in-kitch, but had my own water closet (toilet) just off the tiny bedroom. It was very inexpensive, but crumbling, and I found a nicer large studio off of Riverside Drive and 85th street for the same price!

[quote]Was it Ann Beattie who left new York because "people talked about nothing but real estate'"?

Aren't white people precious!

NYC was super fun in the late 70's into the 80's. I was living in LA and would fly out for a weekend of fun. clubbing and dining several times a year. I miss that.

As a young gayling, I had a crush on Bernie Goetz when I saw him on the news.

r125's crowd was too busy smoking crack and getting government benefits to talk about real estate.

I miss the homeless shelters.

R129 I don’t miss all the SROs and being hassled when you walk by their door or stoop and the feeling of wanting to rush home and shower.

I didn't mind the panhandlers. It was just part of the city. They'd ask for 5$ and say it was for a burger. Or you give them a pair of gloves and they ask if you have them in blue. Ah new york!

R131 I didn’t either, but walking by and SRO when the tenets were locked out of their rooms and there’d be a mob out front just waiting to get back and each of them hitting up each passerby was like running a gauntlet. If I knew it was coming up I would cross the street to avoid it.

We had an office in NYC so I had to go up frequently to visit it and the UN. I would often stay the weekend with close friends and colleagues.

It was nice and fun. Though I was born there I never really lived there except as a baby/toddler but it was exciting to me just to be there. My friends loved living there. Fun nightlife and I loved my work. I did visit NYC frequently in the 70s when I was in college cause I went to school nearby and it was fun then as well. $4 Chinese meals in basement restaurants with a few tables so they wanted you to eat quick and get out.

[quote]r99 I thought that was David Merrick and 42nd Street,

Bull. Merrick isn’t that crazy.

[quote][R131] I didn’t either, but walking by and SRO when the tenets were locked out of their rooms...

Congratulations!

You are now officially the FIRST PERSON EVER to mistakenly use the word "tenet" when they meant "tenant" and NOT the other way around like every other dumbbell in America!

Can we please do the 1990s next and then 2000s?

^^Get a fucking life you fucking spelling bee loser

I loved the grunge of the 80s: blowjobs in broken piers, dirty movie theatres with sticky floors, the hustler bars, glory holes galore, the drug deals in Bryant and free punk rock concerts in Tompkins, the Chinese Cuban eateries. Walking past the homeless and SROs didn't bother me at all. If I have change, I helped out, and if I didn't, I didn't.

[quote]^^Get a fucking life you fucking spelling bee loser

^^Get a fucking dictionary you fucking spelling bee loser

At least you didn't type "looser" like every other dumbbell in America.

Spelling and grammar trolls are just such sad people.

Deliciously sleazy, R138.

In the late 80s returning from Gay Pride to Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza barely looking 18, wearing skimpy shorts, a tight T-shirt and Doc Marten boots, I was proposition by an Orthodox Hasidic man in a Town Car to come take a ride with him. Yes, it was a sleazy time, and yes, I did decline.

AIDS-y

Normal people lived all over Manhattan. I tricked in apartments in about every Manhattan neighborhood south of 110th Street except for Chinatown.

[quote]Yes, it was a sleazy time, and yes, I did decline.

Because he made you feel all verklemmt?

R145 I’ll admit, I was totally slow on the uptake, it didn’t sink in right away that he wanted to have sex with me. I had only lived in Brooklyn for a year or two and was unawares of the sexual proclivities of Orthodox Jewish men and their attraction to twinks.

^ Was he good looking?

R147 You’ve obviously never been around Hasidim before I guess, personal grooming is nonexistent and you can usually smell them before you see them. There’s a reason they are one of the larger populations acquiring the services of male prostitutes, which is what that guy thought I was because of how I was dressed that day.

About twenty years ago I had an experience with an ACTOR playing a panhandler in Grand Central that was pretty amusing. This was the cleaned up Grand Central, no beggars or bodies on the floor, and with the stores there selling ridiculously inflated items including food.

I'm on the lower level waiting for my train. Along comes this young white guy dressed in black asking the guy next to me for money. After striking out with him (ignores him), he approaches me. I tell him where to go. Instead of leaving like a real beggar would, he proceeds to go into a speech about how I have "no heart." It's long and tedious, and there's no "God" thrown in because this is NYC. Again I tell him to get out of my face. Then he REPEATS his speech. It didn't stop until I threatened to call a cop.

Was twenty years ago the 80s, r149?

We're talking about panhandlers from the 1980s, above is the faux 2000 version, dearest.

During the 80s, I always felt the need to titrate my level of paranoia in NYC. Many things were dysfunctional like the subway (which, as I recall often was not air conditioned),

R152 - Many weren't; when Bella Abzug was running for mayor in the late 70's she had a tv commercial where she was talking to a group in the subway and she said "When I'm elected all the cars will be air-conditioned -- so you won't have to sweat like pigs.":

Yes, R152, very rare to get air conditioning on subways. Functioning fans were not consistent either. But I was young and it was a minor inconvenience.

The subway cars had beautiful graffiti. Not being sarcy.

Nobody mentioned crack? It was the cause of all the terribleness talked about here.

Bernhard Goetz was sex on a stick. Bet he was very popular the few months he was locked up.

Bella Abzug was fucking fabulous, she should've been president.

Abzug-Goetz '84

R10/ That cop 👮‍♀️ on the subway train 🚇 looks like Mike Stivic (MEATHEAD)

Bella Abzug was talking about the rights of gay people in the 1970s, she was a wonderful person.

But had very bad fashion sense.

R148, are you sure that wasn’t Lucille Ball rehearsing for her bravura turn as a homeless person in “Stone Pillow”?

Michael Musto takes the train to Coney Island 1987.

The son is paraded around like some jailbait.

[quote]R138 I loved the grunge of the 80s: blowjobs in broken piers, dirty movie theatres with sticky floors, the hustler bars, glory holes galore

Was that really still going on in the 80s, even after AIDS had made the cover of Time magazine?

Yes, for a little while longer, r166.

It is glamorized here a lot more than anyone really enjoyed it in real life. The grittiness was accompanied by a much higher crime rate and getting burglarized, assaulted and robbed was also part of the average NYers life.

While there is certainly plenty of nostalgia involved R167, it’s still incorrect to say being assaulted or mugged was part of life in the sense that most of us weren’t actually ever victims. What was a huge part of life here back then was the awareness that one could become a victim at almost any time and in most places, so everyone lived in a state of hyper-vigilance. How many muggings that actually prevented is debatable, but it was how we coped.