Did anyone here live in New York City from 1971-1991?

[Concrete Whale]

Robocop is set in Detroit but it is on the same theme

Thanks to everyone who posted their experiences.

Seems like the subway was one of the most dangerous places to be (hence the Guardian Angels)

By September 1979, around 250 felonies per week (or about 13,000 that year) were being recorded on the subway, making the crime rate the most of any other mass transit network anywhere in the world. Some police officers supposedly could not act upon quality of life crimes, and were only to look for violent crimes.

The murder rate in NYC is nearly 6 times lower than it was at its peak in 1990 (335 - 2245)

 

[Exception]

NYC in the 70's and 80's was the wild west.... NYC was RAW back then. It can't compare to the "DISNEY" look it has now. In many ways it was better, but it would eat you alive then and you had to be street smart.. I miss those decades..

LMAO @ some elderly broke chump that couldn't make it then, and should go slowly now. If you couldn't handle it when it was easy then don't expect us to slow down for your ass now. Your 'disney' version is aka reality and there's a legit reason we'll kick over your box when we feel like it. It's not unfair, it's death of the weakest.

 

[Fedorable]

LMAO @ some elderly broke chump that couldn't make it then, and should go slowly now. If you couldn't handle it when it was easy then don't expect us to slow down for your ass now. Your 'disney' version is aka reality and there's a legit reason we'll kick over your box when we feel like it. It's not unfair, it's death of the weakest.

I like your cute doggy avatar.

 

[Concrete Whale]

The NYC website only has figures from 2000 but even since then

murder down by 48%
rape down by 30%
robbery down by 49%
felony assault down by 22%
burglary down by 61%

 

[Exception]

The NYC website only has figures from 2000 but even since then

murder down by 48%
rape down by 30%
robbery down by 49%
felony assault down by 22%
burglary down by 61%

Nah dude, listen to @wonderbread tell you how tough it was. His toyass will tell you how bad it was getting used by every bum on the corner back then.

 

[machidafan99]

Yes, I lived there in the 70s and 90s. Crime-wise, it sucked but the change after Dinkins was incredible. Let me show you why.

The rapid improvement in safety in NYC hinged on NY Transit Authority Lt. Jack Maple(pictured above), a modern day dandy with a great idea. To re-introduce crime mapping which had been around and known to work for many decades.

"In taking a map of the boroughs of New York and through color-coding indicating the locations where various crimes throughout the transit district were reported. He then sent his partrol officers out to those areas having the greatest concentrations of a particular color that identified the crime type, location, time and suspect descriptions. The practice caught the attention of the newly elected mayor and his appointed police commissioner, William Bratton" In 1995 Bratton appointed Maple as a deputy commissioner and the Compstat was put into use.

Crime dropped quickly. I couldn't believe the difference living there. Compstat worked. However, it has been perverted.

Crime mapping worked so well and was so efficient that the need for so many uniformed police came into question. It was then that Compstat "stats" began to be padded to justify people's jobs. This is what stop & frisk is about and this is what arrest quotas are about, to justify jobs.

 

[OverCoronavirus Pressure]

Not necessarily for all of that time. But during the time when the crime was really bad, heroin and crack epidemic, out of control arson, street crime, violent crime, burglary, murder rate up to 5 times what it is now.

I'd just be interested in your impressions of what life was like in NYC during that time period. I've realised that a lot of US pop culture has derived from that mileu as well such as hip hop, gangster films, the Batman films and so on.

I grew up in Sunnyside, Queens, born 1970.
My memory of it isn't terribly useful since I left at age twelve but...
Gas lines, I remember em

A sense of crime being rampant, at least that was the buzz. I never saw any but it was known that the city was having this problem, and adults were freaking out. "Inform your child about the potential dangers of- -" was all the rage.
I personally didn't have great perspective because I was a child. I remember loving it. Going to see Star Wars the week it hit the theater and being blown away by it. Sneaking into Jaws and being scared by it.
When I left, there was a thing called rap, getting huge with Run DMC (were they from Bed-Stuy?). I recall a break dancing instructor teaching us how to Moonwalk in the school gym.

 

[Supereem]

I'm interested in hearing more stories from this era. I've never been to NY but so much of the cities identity in my mind was from movies of this era (The Warriors, taxi driver, ghost busters, teenage mutant ninja turtles, etc).

 

[machidafan99]

I'm interested in hearing more stories from this era. I've never been to NY but so much of the cities identity in my mind was from movies of this era (The Warriors, taxi driver, ghost busters, teenage mutant ninja turtles, etc).

Just know that life in certain areas of the Bronx could also be great. Catholic school, stoop ball, diamond ball, neighbors that actually looked out for each other. I have some great memories. Some effed up ones too. I hated moving to the suburbs. Took years to appreciate it.

 

[Rhood]

That was the prime time era for the mafioso.
Ever seen the movie Goodfellas?
It was based on the events in New York during that time period.

 

[wonderbread]

That was the prime time era for the mafioso.
Ever seen the movie Goodfellas?
It was based on the events in New York during that time period.

Goodfellas was NJ for the most part..

 

[Lanx]

Not necessarily for all of that time. But during the time when the crime was really bad, heroin and crack epidemic, out of control arson, street crime, violent crime, burglary, murder rate up to 5 times what it is now.

I'd just be interested in your impressions of what life was like in NYC during that time period. I've realised that a lot of US pop culture has derived from that mileu as well such as hip hop, gangster films, the Batman films and so on.

You gotta find a really, really, really old fuck, probably doesn't even know how to type that well.

I was born in 79, even then i was taking the subway at 10,

tokens were fucking awesome

It gave those ppl who sat in a booth, something to do.

Yes, I lived there in the 70s and 90s. Crime-wise, it sucked but the change after Dinkins was incredible. Let me show you why.

Moms still has a letter i got from Dinkins, that i wrote to city hall in like 5th grade. It was a class project, of course my letter was the only one that got a reply, even the teacher didn't believe me until i showed it to her.

I said the garbage wasn't picked up on time, weeks later garbage collection got better!

 

[Anung Un Rama]

I am from upstate but have family in the city so used to visit them throughout the 80s and early 90s. I was a kid back then so would've been shielded from the worst of it but I distinctly remember visiting Times Square in the early 80s and there were still prostitutes and drug dealers hanging about, the place was filthy, drunks everywhere, people pissing up walls, everything you'd expect. I went to MIT in the 90s so am familiar with the infamous 'combat zone' in Boston and this was far worse (though that place had been cleaned up significantly since the 70s/80s too).

Koch and Dinkins were the archetypal shit Democratic mayors who let the town go to hell, both of them complete fuck ups. The fact that Giuliani turned it around so significantly almost immediately shows you how incompetent they were. Same shit has happened now under Democratic leadership in Chicago and Detroit, too bad there isn't a Giuliani for those guys.

I've got the same background except I'm white.
I used to go down with friends all the time when I was younger (late 80s, 90s). Shit was legit scary, lol.
I hadn't been in a long time and had business there about 8 years ago, I couldn't believe it. TC felt like a Carnival Cruise deck.

 

[MadSquabbles500]

I'm interested in hearing more stories from this era. I've never been to NY but so much of the cities identity in my mind was from movies of this era (The Warriors, taxi driver, ghost busters, teenage mutant ninja turtles, etc).

It was much more working class back then. I mean midtown and downtown areas. The Upper East and Upper West were always kind of uppity. It was not nearly as expensive unless you lived in Trump Tower. Manhattan had a good mix of rich and poor. FIRE economy was not large enough or employed enough people to gentrify any place.

 

[MadSquabbles500]

That was the prime time era for the mafioso.
Ever seen the movie Goodfellas?
It was based on the events in New York during that time period.

My father, who came to NYC during that era said an interesting thing to me when the GFC hit. He said these people like Bernie Madoff could not pull a scam like the one he did back then. Because when organize crime was around, you can hire a hitman to take revenge. That probably is not that true because Madoff started his little scheme back when organized crime was still thing.

 

[Lanx]

One thing that many movies cannot fake is the train.

I can tell exactly how a NYC train is supposed to sound like, from the "doo,-doo" closing sound, to running on the train track, it's very fucking distinct if you've ridden the trains for a few years, i'm sure many NY'ers would agree.

 

[KONG-D'SNT-TAP]

Woody Allen said in a movie of his that anyone who was anyone moved to LA in the 70s. He stayed though. NYC was most certainly a rough city during the 70s

 

[Concrete Whale]

 

[weed]

yes. I was born & raised here.

growing up in the 80s I used to explore anywhere & everywhere any chance I was able to get.

- I used to collect these little clear tubes with different colored tops. they were literally everywhere on the floor at the park. my mom found out & yelled at me after throwing them out. I learned later they were crack vials haha.
- I used to collect these metal canisters which I thought were for BB guns. same deal, everywhere at the park. they were perfect for throwing. later learned they were nitrous canisters, aka "whip-its" haha
- I found a gun, a really small one that fit perfectly in my hand. my brother stole it from me (like he did with everything when I was a kid) & still has it buried somewhere.
- I also found a ton of bullets. same deal, big bro stole them from me.
- there was an obscene amount of porn magazines easily found in the streets/parks haha. so weird.

those are just off the top of my head.

oh yeah, I remember I was with the parents driving to the BX & while at the gas station, I remember it was so hot in my dad's Firebird & I used to get carsick, so my mom takes me outside & outta nowhere an explosive dude rips by on a bike & snatches my mom's gold necklace off of her neck.

 

[Oeshon]

still plenty of places in the world where you can get the 'wild west' experience.