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1980's New York City - better or worse than today?

  • 25-08-2020 8:07pm
    #1
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,355 ✭✭✭


    Seems to have lost any character.

    Back in 80's, well....



    Too much character, that was it's problem back then.

    Opinions on this city?

    I honestly think it's totally overhyped, primarily a product of American inflationism and Hollywood.

    A concrete and commute nightmare, and it certainly never sleeps cause of its awesome nightlife, more so because you spend so long commuting and so long working, that you never get the chance.

    .....

    Though honestly I was walking around north side Dublin last week and that other scene from Taxi Driver just popped in my head,



    There's gotta be some kind of happy middle ground, no?


«134

Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 631 ✭✭✭COVID


    The film 'Taxi Driver'was shot in 1976.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 572 ✭✭✭Errashareesh


    It was a terrible place in the 80s. On the verge of bankruptcy, crime was crazy (only watched a documentary about the Central Park Five the other day which discussed this).

    It would have been great if you were wealthy and going to Studio 54 every weekend of course (also just recently watched a documentary about Roy Cohn!) Damn exciting place for art between the Greenwich Village/Beat years and disco though. Gotta be said.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,785 ✭✭✭KungPao


    More of a question for Reddit, no?

    I’m sure the vast majority of folk here know shag all about New York City, me included.

    I like Seinfeld, if that helps? And Rudy Giuliani was in it too.

    I like Rudy.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,369 ✭✭✭ongarite


    It was a crime riden city run by the Mafia who controlled everything from unions, construction and waste management.
    Nice if you were rich but horrible for the working class


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,239 ✭✭✭Jimbob1977


    I've seen footage of the New York subway from the 1980s. What a dump!!

    Citizens terrified. Guardian Angels formed. Bernhard Goetz goes 'Death Wish' and shoots four robbers on a train.

    The five Mafia families ruling the roost. Like Chicago in the Roaring Twenties.

    New York seemed to turn the corner in the late 90s.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 572 ✭✭✭Errashareesh


    Photos of the South Bronx from the time look truly shocking. Like a fallout zone.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 552 ✭✭✭Gerry Hatrick


    Jimbob1977 wrote: »
    I've seen footage of the New York subway from the 1980s. What a dump!!

    Citizens terrified. Guardian Angels formed. Bernhard Goetz goes 'Death Wish' and shoots four robbers on a train.

    The five Mafia families ruling the roost. Like Chicago in the Roaring Twenties.

    New York seemed to turn the corner in the late 90s.

    You can thank Giuliani for that.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,295 ✭✭✭✭cj maxx


    Jimbob1977 wrote: »
    I've seen footage of the New York subway from the 1980s. What a dump!!

    Citizens terrified. Guardian Angels formed. Bernhard Goetz goes 'Death Wish' and shoots four robbers on a train.

    The five Mafia families ruling the roost. Like Chicago in the Roaring Twenties.

    New York seemed to turn the corner in the late 90s.

    That’s when I arrived , Guilliani? had did a lot of cleaning it up at that stage. Talking to lads who moved there in the 80’s early 90’s it was a kip. I hung around the lower east side a lot and 10 years earlier it was a no go zone.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,772 ✭✭✭Montage of Feck


    It had a gritty aesthetic that worked really well in late 70's film such as taxi driver, dog day afternoon, the taking of Pelham 123, the warriors etc. but probably a horrible place to actually live in.

    🙈🙉🙊



  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,355 ✭✭✭bo0li5eumx12kp


    It had a gritty aesthetic that worked really well in late 70's film such as taxi driver, dog day afternoon, the taking of Pelham 123, the warriors etc. but probably a horrible place to actually live in.

    Well - it's gone from horrible to boring.
    I'm just saying for all the bluster, the place is no great shakes.

    But the point I was actually trying to make was, Dublin North side - they could start, "cleaning up the scum", and the organized crime and degeneracy that pervades so much of it and sometimes makes it feel like the Dublin City Council have abandoned even attempts at modesty and integrity around those parts.

    Can we reincarnate Giuliani and let him work some magic on the north side for, you know - few months at least?


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  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,355 ✭✭✭bo0li5eumx12kp


    KungPao wrote: »
    More of a question for Reddit, no?

    Not when you're trying to use the image of a run down 80's New York to ridicule what North Dublin is descending into, even as we speak?

    Organized crime is the main thing I'm referring to.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,192 ✭✭✭chrissb8


    Don't know much but was talking to my Dad about it as he visited a friend who moved over to NY at the beginning of the 80's. Basically, as others are posting here, it was a very unsafe place and luckily he had a tour guide in his friend who knew where to go, places to avoid and essentially get a taxi at night.

    He also said that this idea of NY having more "character" was BS. Which I'd agree with, I would take boring and safe any day.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,355 ✭✭✭bo0li5eumx12kp


    chrissb8 wrote: »
    Don't know much but was talking to my Dad about it as he visited a friend who moved over to NY at the beginning of the 80's. Basically, as others are posting here, it was a very unsafe place and luckily he had a tour guide in his friend who knew where to go, places to avoid and essentially get a taxi at night.

    He also said that this idea of NY having more "character" was BS. Which I'd agree with, I would take boring and safe any day.

    Me also, however now, despite music producers writing songs singing the praises of NY and all the glamour and excitement, the nightlife blows (basically a few overpriced nightclubs and string of bars around 52nd), it's overcrowded as hell, shopping is relatively weak etc.

    I used to read biographies of former pro boxers who came out of gyms in NY and watch old school flicks and NY was described like, some kind of pro-boxing haven.

    With Madison square garden being the pro boxing promotion epicenter, I would have totally bought into that but what a dude who grew up in Brooklyn said to me was - his exact words - "NY used to be bad man, but no more. Boxing gyms on every corner etc, all gone";

    I could be completely wrong but it sounds like Giuliani did an excellent job at improving the city in many ways, it sounds like he also drained all the fun out of the place.

    .....

    I think this is because what he did right was, address organised crime primarily.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,452 ✭✭✭ceadaoin.


    It was a terrible place in the 80s. On the verge of bankruptcy, crime was crazy (only watched a documentary about the Central Park Five the other day which discussed this).

    .

    Going by whats happening there lately it could be heading back there. Crime way up, homeless people everywhere, people openly using drugs, shops and restaurants going out of business left right and centre, apathetic police, people leaving in droves. The pandemic and lockdown has really ****ed NYC.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,004 ✭✭✭✭hynesie08


    So you went to manhattan and drank in irish bars and decided new york has no character.......


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,355 ✭✭✭bo0li5eumx12kp


    hynesie08 wrote: »
    So you went to manhattan and drank in irish bars and decided new york has no character.......

    Irish bars?

    lolwut?

    I didn't go there to mix with the Irish, I went there to get away from that scene, lol.

    I realised that it's like a really good looking wedding cake, lots of frosting to make it look glam, but has a decidedly average sponge filling.

    It talks a big game, walks fairly dull one.
    ceadaoin. wrote: »
    Going by whats happening there lately it could be heading back there. Crime way up, homeless people everywhere, people openly using drugs, shops and restaurants going out of business left right and centre, apathetic police, people leaving in droves. The pandemic and lockdown has really ****ed NYC.

    Sounds like its true nature is being revealed when put under pressure.


  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    Big cities are all pretty terrible these days.

    Overpriced, gentrified, locals moved out, soul has been ripped from most of them.

    From NYC to London, Paris and everywhere. Living on past glories but lacking the essence that made them so special in the first place.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 20,633 ✭✭✭✭Buford T. Justice XIX


    Well - it's gone from horrible to boring.
    I'm just saying for all the bluster, the place is no great shakes.

    But the point I was actually trying to make was, Dublin North side - they could start, "cleaning up the scum", and the organized crime and degeneracy that pervades so much of it and sometimes makes it feel like the Dublin City Council have abandoned even attempts at modesty and integrity around those parts.

    Can we reincarnate Giuliani and let him work some magic on the north side for, you know - few months at least?

    Probably best to wait till he's died first, tbh.:P

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudy_Giuliani


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,355 ✭✭✭bo0li5eumx12kp


    Big cities are all pretty terrible these days.

    Overpriced, gentrified, locals moved out, soul has been ripped from most of them.

    From NYC to London, Paris and everywhere. Living on past glories but lacking the essence that made them so special in the first place.

    Don't know about Paris; London on the other hand was always over rated as hell, just like NYC.

    And just like NYC, quality of living there is freaking bogus but its lifeblood is its reputation.

    One city that's immune to me is, Amsterdam.

    I don't know what that was like back when, but it's got the model that every other try hard glam city needs to follow.

    Doesn't have a "north side" - it's pure class from top to bottom.

    uRUWLgn.jpg?1


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,498 ✭✭✭ArnoldJRimmer


    Definitely the most overrated city on the planet. Its dirty, smelly, overpriced, and the people are exceptionally rude. Don't give me this 'straight talking New Yorker' cr@p, they're just pig ignorant. Good pizza though, I'll give it that

    Might be nicer to look at these days than the 1980's, but I won't be returning there in a hurry. There are a ton of way better cities in the US to live in/ visit


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 497 ✭✭the-island-man


    I've only visited New York once in the summer of 2017 and only stayed for a couple of days. Mainly spent the time in Manhatten although I did walk across the Brooklyn bridge and went through Queens on the way to La Guardia airport. Not sure how qualified I am to answer this!

    I left the city thinking was there something I had missed! While Manhatten has the big glitzy sky scrapers I thought it was also a complete kip. Homeless all around the place, the subway is incredibly dilapidated (makes the London Underground look highly advanced), there was trash left on the streets (went to cross the street at one point but realised there was a dirty nappy just off the pavement) and I also thought any food I had there wasn't fresh.


  • Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 13,102 Mod ✭✭✭✭JupiterKid


    New York between the mid 1960s and the early 1990s was beset by huge problems - urban decay and blight, dysfunctional infrastructure, bankruptcy in the mid 1970s, high crime - much of it violent, murders, mugging, rampant prostitution, drug abuse and rampant corruption. Films like Taxi Driver (1976), Midnight Cowboy (1969), Fame (1980) and Death Wish (1974) capture the essence of the city in serious decline during that period. By 1975 much of the South Bronx was on fire - literally, as property owners used the fires as a means to collect insurance money on their practically worthless buildings.

    On the other hand, there was a burgeoning creative scene in New York in the 1970s in the arts and music, with artists and bands like Blondie, Patti Smith, Tom Waits, Billy Joel, Talking Heads and many more emerging. Andy Warhol and his studio The Factory was at the centre of the new arts scene at the time.

    The Stonewall riots marked the birth of the modern LGBT rights movement, with the first gay pride held in NYC in 1970. The first Earth Day was also held in 1970. There was a huge power blackout in 1977 and the city rioted and was looted.

    The gay scene was booming in the 1970s with the disco clubs such as Studio 54 attracting the zeitgeist of the party circuit.

    There are a few very good books about what life was like in NewYork back then - such as City Boy by Edmund White.

    From the late 1980s the city started to clean up its act - formerly decaying neighborhoods were sanitised and gentrified, policing was tightened up and crime fell drastically in the 1990s. This was due to a complex combination of factors, but key to this change was a rightward shift in the governance of the city.

    New York is a good place to visit and I have been a few times - fantastic entertainment, nightlife, shopping, sights- but I would never live there. Far too big and impersonal for my taste - and New Yorkers are not a friendly bunch in general compared to other cities I’ve visited. San Francisco is my go-to place in the States as I have a few friends based there from when I lived there two decades ago.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 28,633 ✭✭✭✭murpho999


    Don't know about Paris; London on the other hand was always over rated as hell, just like NYC.

    And just like NYC, quality of living there is freaking bogus but its lifeblood is its reputation.

    One city that's immune to me is, Amsterdam.

    I don't know what that was like back when, but it's got the model that every other try hard glam city needs to follow.

    Doesn't have a "north side" - it's pure class from top to bottom.

    uRUWLgn.jpg?1

    Well I don't think you don't know Amsterdam that well if you don't think it has its "Northside".

    Yes the city centre picturesque but go to Amserdam Zuid Oost or De Bijlmer for reality. Some rough areas and concrete jungles.

    main-qimg-d230d1d1c1f79b3409e37dc011e56bd1.webp

    No city is perfect.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,807 ✭✭✭ShatterAlan


    ceadaoin. wrote: »
    Going by whats happening there lately it could be heading back there. Crime way up, homeless people everywhere, people openly using drugs, shops and restaurants going out of business left right and centre, apathetic police, people leaving in droves. The pandemic and lockdown has really ****ed NYC.


    This article pretty much echos what you said:


    https://nypost.com/2020/08/17/nyc-is-dead-forever-heres-why-james-altucher/?fbclid=IwAR2jH7P7yf6Yg49jaouObIIETeiReAYCOWvHHN5MHHF3g6AgYyaxfiP_Mc4


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,530 ✭✭✭Hangdogroad


    Great music scene there in the late 70s early 80s. It's a cultural desert now.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,874 ✭✭✭Sunny Disposition


    Spent three years there in the 80s, parts of Manhattan were dodgy, it’s much better at night now.
    It was great to be there at the time though, it wasn’t crazy expensive like it is now, very easy to get work too, a much friendlier city than it is now and the Irish community was very strong.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,807 ✭✭✭ShatterAlan


    murpho999 wrote: »
    Well I don't think you don't know Amsterdam that well if you don't think it has its "Northside".

    Yes the city centre picturesque but go to Amserdam Zuid Oost or De Bijlmer for reality. Some rough areas and concrete jungles.

    main-qimg-d230d1d1c1f79b3409e37dc011e56bd1.webp

    No city is perfect.


    I laugh when people talk about De Bijlmer being some sort of ghetto. It's about as "ghetto" as Whitehall or Beaumont in Dublin which are both nice areas.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,711 ✭✭✭HBC08


    The current Tv series The Deuce from the same guy who did The Wire gives a good account of the seedy side of NYC in late 70s early 80s.
    Any time ive been there ive really enjoyed it but could never live there.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,807 ✭✭✭ShatterAlan


    I first went to NY for the summer in 1986. Worked for my uncle and stayed in Flushing. I used to wander around Woodside at night and have Chinese food because it was really cheap. But parts of the city were just decrepit. I lived there for 7 years in the 1990's. Worked in Manhattan, lived on Long Island. It was good fun. I was young and had a few quid in my pocket. Was back there for a visit in 2012 and it was crap then. A retirement home for millionaires basically. Overpriced, characterless. Wouldn't care if I never saw the place again.


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  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,355 ✭✭✭bo0li5eumx12kp


    murpho999 wrote: »
    Well I don't think you don't know Amsterdam that well if you don't think it has its "Northside".

    Yes the city centre picturesque but go to Amserdam Zuid Oost or De Bijlmer for reality. Some rough areas and concrete jungles.

    main-qimg-d230d1d1c1f79b3409e37dc011e56bd1.webp

    No city is perfect.

    You're absolutely correct.

    It's not perfect, they have some problems also - in some areas they could do better.

    However, I've never been to Bijlmer as one must take the metro its so far outside the central ring.

    Point being, whilst they could improve, it's so far ahead of every other supposedly "glam" city there is, it's almost laughable.

    What I mean by no "north side" is, the entire central city, it's just so damn beautiful, picturesque, quality of life is phenomenal, easy to get around, and it's a consistent state throughout;

    Like Dublin is clearly divided north vs south - with two distinct lifestyles to each.

    'Dam seems to blend the best of both - there's no trash, no "billy bad ass" areas where teh bad-boys and teh good-girls-gone-bad hang out; the outcome is splendor.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 28,633 ✭✭✭✭murpho999


    I laugh when people talk about De Bijlmer being some sort of ghetto. It's about as "ghetto" as Whitehall or Beaumont in Dublin which are both nice areas.

    I never said it was a ghetto.
    But it's certainly not what I would call a nice area but it has improved over the years.

    The point is people glorifying cities probably based on weekend trips in tourism centre.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 28,633 ✭✭✭✭murpho999


    You're absolutely correct.

    It's not perfect, they have some problems also - in some areas they could do better.

    However, I've never been to Bijlmer as one must take the metro its so far outside the central ring.

    Point being, whilst they could improve, it's so far ahead of every other supposedly "glam" city there is, it's almost laughable.

    What I mean by no "north side" is, the entire central city, it's just so damn beautiful, picturesque, quality of life is phenomenal, easy to get around, and it's a consistent state throughout;

    Like Dublin is clearly divided north vs south - with two distinct lifestyles to each.

    'Dam seems to blend the best of both - there's no trash, no "billy bad ass" areas where teh bad-boys and teh good-girls-gone-bad hang out; the outcome is splendor.

    Well I've lived in Holland for 7 years and I find your comments strange.

    Yes the central city is pretty with canals and buildings but like all cities it has rough spots like I said.

    I don't know why you're comparing Dublin's Northside which is a large area with many suburbs (so very nice ones too) to central Amsterdam.

    How can you make a fair comparison when you say you don't go outside Amsterdam's central ring (which is very small) yet compare it to Dublin's northside.


    How it's far ahead of "glam" cities is beyond me.

    Red Light district is awful and tacky. Damrak is full of awful restaurants and bars. Drugs is a problem like everywhere. Also place is full of grafitti.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,355 ✭✭✭bo0li5eumx12kp


    murpho999 wrote: »
    Well I've lived in Holland for 7 years and I find your comments strange.

    Yes the central city is pretty with canals and buildings but like all cities it has rough spots like I said.

    I don't know why you're comparing Dublin's Northside which is a large area with many suburbs (so very nice ones too) to central Amsterdam.

    How can you make a fair comparison when you say you don't go outside Amsterdam's central ring (which is very small) yet compare it to Dublin's northside.


    How it's far ahead of "glam" cities is beyond me.

    Red Light district is awful and tacky. Damrak is full of awful restaurants and bars. Drugs is a problem like everywhere. Also place is full of grafitti.

    North side?

    Pfff, as far as City north side goes it ends about Dorset St.

    As oppose to south side, the action arguably ends at the Green.

    Comparing one with the other is like going "the opposite side of the tracks" in some old hollywood flick.

    'Dam has consistency, like the best of the mentalities of each side are melded into one.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,194 ✭✭✭✭jimgoose


    The brother lived in New York for about ten years, he says there's nowhere quite like it, in a largely positive sense. Granted he did live in the rather swanky John St./Battery Park area of Lower Manhattan. I don't know much about how things were there in the 1980s, aside from watching the usual fillums.

    Only somewhat tangentially, ISTR it was John Updike who said "the true New Yorker secretly believes that people living anywhere else have to be, in some sense, kidding." :pac:


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,184 ✭✭✭riclad


    Theres a cliche about writers and people in the media leaving new york,
    its expensive to live there ,rents are high, traffic is bad,its hard to get a parking space,taxs are high.
    for the same money you can live in a large house in new jersey .
    Alot of people leave when they are over 30.
    Young people go there to get work and become successful.
    Like any city it can be good to live there if you are rich .
    And before covid there were lots of good concert venues, museum,s ,art gallerys ,librarys etc to visit.
    i think it was alot cheaper to live there in the 80,s ,rents were lower.
    middle class people are leaving new york now ,
    As it not as good to live there , with all the protests, going on,homeless people living on the streets, many of the shops are closed and boarded up.
    and of course people can work from home using the internet.
    https://nypost.com/2020/08/11/new-yorkers-flee-nyc-in-droves/

    https://nypost.com/2020/08/11/new-yorkers-flee-nyc-in-droves/

    rents are going down ,theres 1000,s of empty apartments in the city.

    i think it was better to live there in the 80s.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,023 ✭✭✭✭Joe_ Public


    riclad wrote: »
    Theres a cliche about writers and people in the media leaving new york,
    its expensive to live there ,rents are high, traffic is bad,its hard to get a parking space,taxs are high.
    for the same money you can live in a large house in new jersey .
    Alot of people leave when they are over 30.
    Young people go there to get work and become successful.
    Like any city it can be good to live there if you are rich .
    And before covid there were lots of good concert venues, museum,s ,art gallerys ,librarys etc to visit.
    i think it was alot cheaper to live there in the 80,s ,rents were lower.
    middle class people are leaving new york now ,
    As it not as good to live there , with all the protests, going on,homeless people living on the streets, many of the shops are closed and boarded up.
    and of course people can work from home using the internet.
    https://nypost.com/2020/08/11/new-yorkers-flee-nyc-in-droves/

    https://nypost.com/2020/08/11/new-yorkers-flee-nyc-in-droves/

    rents are going down ,theres 1000,s of empty apartments in the city.

    i think it was better to live there in the 80s.

    Just from observation from visiting, i could never square the compromise of living in sub standard conditions just to be in Manhattan. Could justify it 20s or early 30s, but not beyond. I'd much rather live comfortably in Astoria or Jackson Heights, a 20 minute subway ride from Grand Central, than be cooped up in a freezing upper east side shoebox, just so i could call myself a Manhattanite. But everybody is different, i guess.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,601 ✭✭✭RocketRaccoon



    As someone who loves New York(as a tourist) that's a horrible thing to read.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,355 ✭✭✭bo0li5eumx12kp


    Just from observation from visiting, i could never square the compromise of living in sub standard conditions just to be in Manhattan. Could justify it 20s or early 30s, but not beyond. I'd much rather live comfortably in Astoria or Jackson Heights, a 20 minute subway ride from Grand Central, than be cooped up in a freezing upper east side shoebox, just so i could call myself a Manhattanite. But everybody is different, i guess.

    Would you take New Jersey + path train ahead of this?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,809 ✭✭✭Hector Savage



    Jesus Christ!! That's a depressing article!!

    Really hope they're wrong ...


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,004 ✭✭✭✭hynesie08


    Would you take New Jersey + path train ahead of this?

    PATH runs to hoboken and Jersey City, wouldn't be that much cheaper than nyc, more bang for your buck though...... Realistically you'd want to be 60-90 minutes away by train to have a decent quality of life and still have the perks of manhattan.....


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,716 ✭✭✭✭Earthhorse


    I wouldn't worry too much about New York to be honest with you. Unless the virus spells the end for big cities in general it will bounce back.

    As for it being overrated I'm inclined to agree. But then, I think most things are overrated. Maybe it is a great place to live if you are very rich though.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,023 ✭✭✭✭Joe_ Public


    Would you take New Jersey + path train ahead of this?

    Well, personally I'd be looking at areas of Queens or even further out parts of Brooklyn like Bay Ridge before NJ but even they're not that affordable these days. A relative of mine moved into Long Island City bout 12 years ago and everyone told him he was mad but i always found it a good spot to stay when i visited and his rent was cheap compared to just a mile the other side of the bridge.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,004 ✭✭✭✭hynesie08


    Well, personally I'd be looking at areas of Queens or even further out parts of Brooklyn like Bay Ridge before NJ but even they're not that affordable these days. A relative of mine moved into Long Island City bout 12 years ago and everyone told him he was mad but i always found it a good spot to stay when i visited and his rent was cheap compared to just a mile the other side of the bridge.

    Up around Queens plaza is a lovely place to stay. Bit noisy if you are near the 2 stations, but either the 7 into manhattan with that view or walking over the Ed kosch bridge on a brisk autumn morning are 2 of my favorite things. Some good bars and real local food places as well. Been meaning to venture further into astoria but haven't gotten round to it yet.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,023 ✭✭✭✭Joe_ Public


    hynesie08 wrote: »
    Up around Queens plaza is a lovely place to stay. Bit noisy if you are near the 2 stations, but either the 7 into manhattan with that view or walking over the Ed kosch bridge on a brisk autumn morning are 2 of my favorite things. Some good bars and real local food places as well. Been meaning to venture further into astoria but haven't gotten round to it yet.

    Its improved a lot past few years, 10 years ago when i stayed there first, there was really nothing there. Looking at all the building going on, it's going to be a happening area within 10 years I'd say. Given its location, amazing it took so long. Walking over the bridge is great, but i find you need to watch out for all the budding Lance Armstrongs trying to set a new speed record. Nearly became a cropper once or twice!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 324 ✭✭Capt. Autumn




    Judging by this video shot on the streets of New York in 1982 people looked happier on the streets of New York then, than they do today.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,684 ✭✭✭FatherTed


    I live in Connecticut about an hour out of NYC. I love NYC to visit but wouldn't want to live there although I'd probably say the same about any large city. We usually go in once every 1-2 months either to visit friends or just walk about although we haven't been since Covid. There are a a zillion great places to eat, we're also into museums and theatre and I particularly like going to different sections like Arthur Ave area in the Bronx, Greenpoint, Chelsea, East Village. It's much safer and cleaner now than when I came here first 25 years ago.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,874 ✭✭✭Sunny Disposition



    So interesting, as so often happens in economics, NY will be a victim of its success. Huge property prices over the last 20 years mean the city is uncompetitive at a crucial time.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,184 ✭✭✭riclad


    I read an article, it says high class retail outlets in NYC are closing, the rich are leaving new York, it makes no sense to pay high rents in NYC
    when you customers are no longer living there.
    The offices are empty. With a reduced police presence and more homeless people on the streets middle class people are just choosing to leave NYC. So many people are working from home there's no reason to stay in the city when you can live anywhere that has broadband.
    Moving company's are working 7 days a week.
    Alot of shops and cafes rely on business from
    office workers who now work from home.
    I don't know if NYC can recover from this
    , big company's like airlines are letting 1000,s of people go.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,236 ✭✭✭Dr. Kenneth Noisewater


    I did a J1 in NYC in 2005 and loved the place. Went back there in 2016 and it had changed and developed so much in those 10 years, not surprising for a city of its size. Everything seemed to be twice the price of what I remembered and the amount of development around Midtown and Brooklyn was hard to believe.

    Great city, looking forward to going back.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,004 ✭✭✭✭hynesie08


    riclad wrote: »
    I read an article, it says high class retail outlets in NYC are closing, the rich are leaving new York, it makes no sense to pay high rents in NYC
    when you customers are no longer living there.
    The offices are empty. With a reduced police presence and more homeless people on the streets middle class people are just choosing to leave NYC. So many people are working from home there's no reason to stay in the city when you can live anywhere that has broadband.
    Moving company's are working 7 days a week.
    Alot of shops and cafes rely on business from
    office workers who now work from home.
    I don't know if NYC can recover from this
    , big company's like airlines are letting 1000,s of people go.

    A lot of those shops are all fur coat and no knickers, they were paying huge rents and advertising costs but barely breaking even, covid wiped them out.

    New York will bounce back, as long as it's the financial capital of America the people will return, tourists will be back, it'll look a bit different but it'll still be NYC.


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