New York City: from the 1960s to today

[GramercyRiff99]

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=402544

If you've ever wanted to know what NYC was like at the time of The Warriors, look no further than this thread on Skyscraper City. It's a compilation of photos taken by a Danish vagabond who toured across America from the late 1960s to the early 1990s, with his own comments interspersed. These ones in particular are taken throughout NYC, with a focus on the South Bronx, Harlem, and the Brooklyn ghettos. This was the city The Warriors fought through on that fateful night in July of 1979. When you look at the city today you can't possibly get an idea of what they lived in, but seeing these pictures, you can understand why the gangs formed. You can understand the bitterness in the minds of every gang member as they looked out onto their city and saw what these images portray. For us, we look at them and think "Wow, must have sucked". For someone living back then, though, this was life. Every day was a constant fight against muggers, gangs, addicts, and the police. If you woke up and your apartment wasn't broken into, you were thankful. If you got home after dark safely, you were surprised. If you walked to the corner store, you risked being stabbed, shot, beaten, or robbed.

Nowadays you look at NYC and you see condos, yuppies, and sterility. Times Square is a tourist haven of neon blasted concrete, whereas just two decades ago it was a danger zone of porn shops, homeless people, and men who would kill you for a dollar. Today we have Ground Zero, surrounded by skyscrapers and million dollar apartments, whereas just two decades ago you could see lots full of burnt out cars from the lower levels of the WTC. Harlem's brownstones, selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars now, used to be inhabited by the dregs of society, falling apart and owned by slum lords who would burn the places down for the insurance money at the drop of a hat. Even the South Bronx, formerly full of neighbourhoods so bad the police wouldn't even go in after dark, has been rebranded as "SoBro", where young urban professionals spend thousands of dollars a month to live in condos separate from the dwelling places of the poor.

One could say it isn't even the same city, and I would agree. Is it a change for the better? That depends on your perspective. I'd certainly take safety over death at the hands of drug addicts, however, New York City has lost it's charm in a lot of ways. The pendulum has swung away from the side of urban decay, crime, and death, past it's ideal middle point, and to the other side. That other side is an artificial city, prepackaged and inhabited by those with money. Neighbourhoods are built rather than developed over time, with ethnic shops and small businesses being priced out by big brands and chains. The less fortunate among us are forced out as their rent increases wildly, with jumps as large as thousands of dollars per month in one year. Suddenly, instead of a diverse neighbourhood of mom and pop stores, different economic levels, and life, you have a branded, hipster filled wasteland where everyone makes enough money to afford the outrageous rents. Of course, the poor people don't just disappear. They go elsewhere, simply repeating the ghettoization somewhere else. Ever wondered why New Jersey gets such a bad rap? And why some areas the city are avoided at night to this day? The poor people of the inner city have been displaced to the undeveloped parts of it, and as more of the city gentrifies, these people will have nowhere else to go. Little by little, the active, vibrant neighbourhoods of the past will be razed to the ground so the new developments can be put up in their place.

Is there a place in the middle of crime-ridden wasteland and upper-class paradise? Of course there is. One can have a vibrant, affordable, safe neighbourhood. However, the politicians of New York don't want to allow that. Even our beloved Coney Island is being destroyed now, turned into a tourist attraction and residence for the upper class. Once again, those who can't afford it will be priced out, forced into the new ghettos, and pushed out of the consciousness of the average American. Because really, who cares about everyone else when you have everything you need? Surely a lot of people do pay attention to this sort of thing, and even more don't know it happens. However, there is always that group of people that could effect change, but don't because "it doesn't affect me directly".

Anyway, I'm done now. I just thought I'd spark a little thought about A) how New York used to be, B) how it is now, and C) if it's possible to create a blend of the two that's better than things were in either individual case. Also, even if you didn't read my big post up there, look at the pictures anyway. It gives you a great idea of what the Warriors' everyday lives must have been like.

[Ninth Delegate]

Thanks for highlighting this.  Very informative and poignant; especially the part where the only way to make a good living is by working in a funeral parlour.

[canyoucount]

GramercyRiff...
Congrats!  That was a great post, esp. with the website you threw in.  I'm sure I'll go back to it at least a few more times, not only because I'm drawn to even that kind of photography (I've been doing some in gritty sections myself lately), but it's one way to get pumped up over the way bureaucrats, certain business people, etc. think about only themselves.

One example comes to mind:  have you ever watched The Saint of Fort Washington?  After Matthew, and many others, had gotten kicked out of their bldg, because the city was tearing it down, he found an article on this.  This article included a pic of the developer, who had done this illegally.  Real pretty-boy smug look on his face.  I'll stop here.  Starting to blow steam out my ears.

Thanks, and hopefully you, and others, will share more stuff like this.

[The Swan]

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=402544
It gives you a great idea of what the Warriors' everyday lives must have been like.

Great Link and what you wrote about The Warriors' Everyday Life... well, it's REALLY "Something" to chew on.
That Photo with The Statue of Liberty and the "damaged" cars... well, Nothing to Add!!!

[GramercyRiff99]

That Photo with The Statue of Liberty and the "damaged" cars... well, Nothing to Add!!!

My favourite shot of all of them is probably the one of a lot full of abandoned cars with the World Trade Center in the background. Here's you have one of the crowning achievements of western engineering, nowadays surrounded by some of the most expensive real estate and safest streets in the country, yet back then people were dumping stolen cars within spitting distance.

[kowolski]

Cool link GR99.  I noticed that almost every pic had a junk car in it With the current scrap metal boom I will bet that there are none to be found now days! People fight over who gets to haul off junk cars today   I haul scrap car bodies as a side living. The prices have never been higher than as a few weeks ago. Now that the Olympics have started China has slowed buying steel and shut down most of its factorys in a effort to convince the world that they have clean air there ::)
It would look bad if the athletes had to wear dust masks when hey got off the planes. 

[GramercyRiff99]

Those cars aren't junk, or at least they weren't intended to be. I can virtually guarantee you that 95% of those cars were stolen, stripped for parts, and then dumped somewhere for the cops to find. Since the cops had more important things to worry about than car theft, they just let them sit there and rust.

[The Swan]

Yeah, sure those cars were stolen, and dumped somewhere.
Those pics, with Statue of Liberty, The Twin Towers or The Rich City in the background+"what" also happens (ed) everyday... Give us Just The Real "Meaning" of New York. Money, Power and All The Rest+who and "how" everyday lives (lived) on the Edge.
This Also is the World.

[kowolski]

Are any of guys fans of the HBO series the Wire. It tells the inner city workings of the police,politicians,gangs,jail,newspapers,drug trafficking, homeless in the city of Baltimore. Very good stuff if you havent already seen it.

[Godfather]

Great photos, that guy has some interesting photos of america and other countries.

[warriors4life2008]

man those pictures was sad but you got to be a warrior at heart to handle those kinds of things