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06.02.20, 14:48 PM New York City
70 replies
When people say NYC used to be more gritty, is this what they mean? [ Reply | Watch | Flag ]
New York City 06.02.20, 02:48 PM Flag
 

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yes. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 02:51 PM Flag
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We will wax nostalgic about these days in 20 years [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 02:51 PM Flag
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Not even close. New York was way grittier then. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.03.20, 04:39 AM Flag
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Not really, it's more like there was a lot of regular day-to-day crime and vandalism, not huge riots. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 02:53 PM Flag
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+1 I grew up here. You were more alert, but there weren't the riots, more every day crime was higher and things were dirtier. Graffiti everywhere. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 06:27 PM Flag
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No. The murder rate used to 7X what it is now. Cars were stolen by the thousands. There were entire neighborhoods you wouldn't go to even during that day. This is not like that. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 03:07 PM Flag
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This! My landlord use to say the police would not go into Bed Stuy at all. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 03:33 PM Flag
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bingo [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.16.20, 09:09 PM Flag
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No. The streets were dirtier and you wouldn't flash money in public, let alone a computer. But there was a bit less of a chasm between rich and poor, and I don't remember any riots between c.1968 and 1976. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 03:09 PM Flag
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I remember before leaving the house to go to the subway I would put one subway token in one pocket with nothing else so when I had to take it out nothing else would be in my pocket. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 03:11 PM Flag
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i miss tokens [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.16.20, 09:09 PM Flag
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Did rich people live here in such numbers? [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 03:15 PM Flag
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Of course there were rich people; they tended to use the private schools & boarding schools. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 03:27 PM Flag
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^^and people lived in their Park Avenue apartments; they weren't used for foreigners to park their money. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 03:28 PM Flag
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OP here: I phrased this a bit sarcastically, but I guess I meant the general sense of unease, that people who lived here didn't feel particularly safe. I hope the past few days are a blip and that we're not trending in the wrong direction. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 03:14 PM Flag
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More Americans are dead than American combat deaths in WWI, and people are walking in masks looking like "Journal of the Plague Year" - of course there's unease! [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 03:16 PM Flag
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np all very true but this is not specific to NYC. I am currently in the city and do not feel unsafe (during the day) compared to how things were back before 1994. Tons of graffiti, aggressive squeegy guys, sexual harassment by strangers. .. just to name a few things from the past [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 03:28 PM Flag
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I agree: I could go for a walk in Central Park right now and feel safe. Of course, I would avoid crowds. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 03:34 PM Flag
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exactly. Central Park was a mess before people pumped money into cleaning and restoring it. It was so unsafe too [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 03:36 PM Flag
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It was safe enough during the day. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 03:40 PM Flag
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Google photos of Central Park in the 70s and 80s, you'll be shocked. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 03:47 PM Flag
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I saw it live back then. I remember it [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 04:05 PM Flag
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Yes, there are parts of Central Park that you should never visit. And heaven forbid if you were caught in the park too early or too late in the day. Now I love my 5am morning runs. It is by far safer. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.03.20, 04:25 AM Flag
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I still feel safe now. A lot more than 30 years ago. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 03:18 PM Flag
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Do you not feel safe now? I do. Granted I wouldn't go out at night now bc of the looting- but this is not a sustained way of life now in the city. Growing up here, there were subways you avoided, parks (like Madison Sq park, Washington Sq park) that you never walked into, etc etc. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 03:18 PM Flag
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OP: I feel safe in my immediate neighborhood right this minute, but I have no way of knowing if the looting won't spread here too. Lots of high-end stores to loot. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 03:22 PM Flag
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OP: I feel safe in my immediate neighborhood right this minute, but I have no way of knowing if the looting won't spread here too. Lots of high-end stores to loot. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 03:22 PM Flag
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Morningside Park, Ft Tryon Park, Central Park north of the Met. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 06:45 PM Flag
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Or the Ramble [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.03.20, 03:40 AM Flag
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I think it was less about feeling unsafe than accepting the fact that things would happen. $10 for "mug money" in your wallet/pocket, the rest of your cash in your shoe. Carrying your keys in your fist like brass knuckles after dark. Turning rings and tucking necklaces. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 03:33 PM Flag
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^^ it was all very casual and just part of living here [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 03:33 PM Flag
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this is accurate [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 06:43 PM Flag
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forgot about tthose things. true [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.03.20, 12:31 AM Flag
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Yes I still carry mug money. When I lived in a midwestern city that was very racially divided and tense I also carried pepper spray and held my keys that way. I always check inside my car and underneath it when entering it from a parking lot or the street. All learned from the 90’s. And as my parents said - if someone wants your car / wallet - whatever - just hand it over and run. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.03.20, 12:40 PM Flag
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Yes but you had to be more alert, ready to respond. These days I can still walk around thinking about my chores and be blissfulOh lost in thoughts of my To-Do list without dedicating a portion of my brain to danger. I feel far more ease despite the riots. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.03.20, 04:30 AM Flag
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I think people just had to be tougher in general. Life has gotten so much more luxury-oriented, and technology has made life easier, particularly for New Yorkers. Nobody needs to know the subway map or directions, you can just look it up; you don't have to schlep groceries or laundry if you don't want to, there is more accessible delivery services (these used to only be for the rich); nobody fights over cabs anymore, because of ride share services. And so on. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 03:14 PM Flag
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Right but there are so many more people and families battling school competition. If my DC want to do a museum event or summer camp in the city we have to log in the second it opens and hope to sign up. This was not the case in the 70s [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 04:27 PM Flag
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It's part and parcel - as the city became less "gritty" and safer, MC and UMC families stayed and flourished (rather than retreating to the suburbs). Also, back then middle class families could afford to live on one income, so there was less of a need to rely on summer programs for child care. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 04:35 PM Flag
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I have been here since the 70's . 70's through mid 90's we're really gritty and tough here. Now I feel much safer in the streets compared to that time. We never went outside on Halloween because teenagers would go out and throw eggs and threaten people . and this was on the UES even. Much much much cleaner and safer now compared to the true grit of NYC. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 03:25 PM Flag
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This. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.03.20, 04:31 AM Flag
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you know how people complain that real estate in NYC is too expensive, and they envy people who bought in the 1970s and 1980s for a song and the brownstones are now worth millions? It was times like these when they bought! So stop talking about fleeing to burbs and buy some real estate! [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 03:30 PM Flag
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We are not there yet in terms of fear of living in the city. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 03:41 PM Flag
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LOL real estate prices are going to CRASH in the city. Once that happens, sure, let's buy some real estate. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 04:04 PM Flag
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There was a good PBS documentary about the Bronx in the 70's and the building fires https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/films/decade-of-fire/ [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 04:16 PM Flag
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No, lol, I'm a native who grew up here, UWS in the 70s and 80s was very different, and I say that as someone who was mugged last year a block from my apartment in broad daylight. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 04:31 PM Flag
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Yikes so sorry. I hope you weren’t hurt. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 04:42 PM Flag
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Thanks, I'm ok, some dumb kid stole my AirPods. He was caught a couple of weeks later, fortunately someone suggested a diversion program where he could get counseling, etc., parole office asked me if I was ok with it and of course said yes, I was super mad but better to have a chance of changing the kid's life than a pound of flesh. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 06:04 PM Flag
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That's so nice. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.03.20, 12:31 PM Flag
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The UWS and upper Manhattan were so different. When I was a grad student we tried to stay on Broadway and never walk up Amsterdam. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 04:52 PM Flag
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Totally different. I lived in the 80s west of Broadway, there were hookers on the Broadway corner of our street every night as soon as it got dark. They liked to stand in the doorway of the stationery store, because it had lights on all night, we'd see them if we went to the supermarket or something. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 06:06 PM Flag
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late 80s, early 90s? [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 06:46 PM Flag
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Yes. This. I still live on the UWS still and it so different from then. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.03.20, 04:33 AM Flag
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It was much worse. Moved here in the 1980s. Cabs wouldn't cross 96th street. I remember people being shot in Tribeca and crack houses in Park Slope. There were rapists in the subway stations, so there were certain subway stops you would just avoid. Morningside Park not safe (I know there was a high-profile crime recently, but it's generally safe now). A ton of property crime and some "wealthy" blocks had private patrols. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 05:07 PM Flag
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Not even close. This city was flat-out dangerous in areas that are now pretty posh, even today. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 05:56 PM Flag
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this. NOT EVEN CLOSE!!!!! [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 08:55 PM Flag
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yes. the subways in the 70s & 80s. Times square was a dead zone to ANYONE who wasnt a sex worker or lookig=ng to find one. drugs offered to you on every corner of the east village. you couldnt walk on Ave B until the mid-1990s. Cracks me up because i lived there as it transitioned into a trendy avenue [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.03.20, 12:30 AM Flag
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Agreed. I was mugged, had flashers, once missed my stop and was scared because I was headed to a bad area (I was 16) , threatened with death, etc. I live in the same neighborhood and it is SO MUCH SAFER!! [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.03.20, 04:37 AM Flag
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When I married Dh and moved to NYC in 2000 he wouldn't leave a single item in his car. Still traumatized by past decades. Until this month, he'd leave instruments, bags, whatever in his car in broad daylight. Yes he's a weirdo who has his own car in NYC and drives it everywhere. I can't stop it. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 07:17 PM Flag
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I wouldn't do that either, to this day and in any city. You are asking for trouble. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 08:57 PM Flag
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Does anyone remember Curtis Sliwa's Guardian Angels? [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 09:00 PM Flag
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lol yes. and his then wife lisa sliwa. the red berets they would wear. occasionally u would see them on the subway. The whole Goetz thing [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.03.20, 12:31 AM Flag
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I remember seeing them on the subway in the late 80s. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.03.20, 03:39 AM Flag
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Did you know the current Queens district attorney is the mother of Sliwa’s children? [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.03.20, 02:12 AM Flag
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I forgot all about that. I thought she was gay but there were rumors of her with Alan Hevesi. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.03.20, 04:41 AM Flag
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Put it this way, that nice area around the 72nd St subway station now by Grey's Papaya? That was called Needle Park. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.02.20, 09:36 PM Flag
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See the movie! [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.03.20, 12:07 AM Flag
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^ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067549/ [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.03.20, 12:10 AM Flag
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Sherman Square [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.03.20, 12:07 AM Flag
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kind of. i grew up here in the 70s & 80s. there was the blackout of 77, there was TON of crime in central park. the pandemic is pushing this to a new level though. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.03.20, 12:28 AM Flag
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It was so bad that when Tricia Meili was attached, there was another attacker who came along and made it even worse. [ Reply | More
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General Topics 06.03.20, 04:31 AM Flag
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