hi,

I'm glad I found your site, I have to make an assignment for my school, about New York's history, how New York was in the time when the musical West Side Story was made, and what the difference is between Modern New York, (New york 2003),and New York in the sixty's /seventy's/eighty's,I would really appreciate your help, especially because it is very important for me to get a good note, if I don't.., I won't pass (Highschool),I hope you can help me out.


your sincerely,

Samantha Jackson.

I hate answering homework questions, but this one is interesting enough to make me break my rules.

New York before 1994 - I'd put the dividing line at 1994 - was an entirely different place. People who came here since then, especially people who came here since '97 or so, wouldn't recognize it. Much as the new book _Fortress of Solitude) makes me wince with emotional pain, I think it's a great evocation of New York of the 70s and 80s.

Betty will have to handle New York before 1965, the turning point after the last golden age. The late 1960s and early 1970s saw a collapse in the city's finances, massive racial and social unrest, and people fleeing to the suburbs.

The city I was born into in 1974 was a place where rats ran in the streets, where you didn't enter parks at night, where the subways were a riot of graffiti. The city was bankrupt and shrinking; entire neighborhoods were 'no go zones,' places you wouldn't even want to walk in the daytime. During my junior-high years in the '80s, it was well known the Decepticon gang roamed the D train in Brooklyn and that you could - and would - be slashed by some kid with a boxcutter for your down coat on your commute home.

But at the same time, it was a place of possibilities. Apartments were affordable, and what felt like tens of thousands of artists were setting up everywhere. My parents and their friends grabbed a bunch of empty old warehouses in SoHo, threw the sewing machines out the window, started living in them, creating art, starting little food co-ops like Dean & Deluca and ad hoc galleries. A bunch of rockers took over a legal office in the no-go Lower East Side with a shattered sign (ABogado Con NOtario) and turned it into ABC NO RIO, a hub for punk culture. Andy Warhol and Jean Michael Basquiat roamed those streets; Leonard Cohen and Lou Reed sang about them. It was a place of pain and beauty. Anyone with a dollar and a dream could make it here, provided they were tough enough.

It was a place of rough justice. In the late 1970s, a bunch of Puerto Ricans got sick of an abandoned school being used by pimps and dealers and took it over, armed with a slew of baseball bats, creating a cultural center. In the mid-1980s, a trigger happy, skinny white guy named Bernie Goetz whipped out a pistol on the subway to face down four would-be robbers and became a cause celebre. During the blackout of 1977, police were nowhere to be found; the stores in poor neighborhoods which weren't looted, were usually saved by their owners' guts and guns.

By the 1980s, great glass towers went up all over town, and brokers recited the mantra "greed is good." But crack-addled gangs ran in the streets, "wilding" and leaving young joggers for dead; the Masters of the Universe took taxis home, never setting foot in the subway.

Then Giuliani came, and now we live here. Low crime rate, clean subways, expensive apartments, friendly people. Less art. That is the tradeoff.

O.k., I'll jump in re the '50s and '60s... but later. I've got to think about this.

After Red's answer you have a lot to live up to. He's incredible! Oh by the way Betty I'm going to Carmine's with my husband and about 12 friends on the 14th November. I'm really looking forward to it. Then I'm going out with the girls. They have planned a big girls night out for me. No idea where we're going, it's a secret.

Are you just trying to make me jealous? I haven't had breakfast and have another 15 minutes for lunch. Hear that growling? Right now I could plow through an entire Carmine's porterhouse steak, then segue into an order of their chocolate bread pudding.

Talk to you later... this is torture!

Oh, shucks, Marea. Betty's a pretty hard act to follow herself. And Kelly may be the most patient woman on Earth. We all do our parts. Thanks.

Am I blushing, or is it the heat of my bland tomato soup? I'm sitting here trying to fight the urge to hit the Rock Center farmer's market for a slice of pecan pie. Help me, someone!

Anyway, I keep writing a response to this original message, leaving it on the screen for a few minutes, rereading it and then deleting it. Talk about a tough assignment! My "New York by the decades" is not a history of New York, but of my own life. Decades of happiness, awakening, rebellion, idealism, drudgery and cynicism. Sounds just like the aging process.

I'm trying to articulate my feelings about the pre- and post-Giuliani New York. I thought Ed Koch was a wonderful representation of New York's attitude over the course of his first three terms. By his fourth term, though, his arrogance became overwhelming. He had outstayed his welcome, for me anyway. I had high hopes for David Dinkins, who projected a kinder, gentler image. Unfortunately, that kindness and gentleness never caught on with New Yorkers. Somewhere around Koch's last administration and Dinkins' term, New York became ruder, dirtier and uglier.

Then along came the antithesis of kindness and gentleness -- Giuliani, the mob buster of the crime stories. Many here and elsewhere credit him with lowering the crime statistics and cleaning up the city. I'm not so sure it was worth giving up so much freedom to the police, even if you want to credit him in the first place. And the way he wielded power still makes the little hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. It baffles me how easily people give up personal freedom, not just in New York, but throughout the U.S.

Part of the experience of age is also knowing that nothing lasts forever. I'm glad Giuliani is gone. I think it's too early to review the Bloomberg years, hopefully we won't have to do so with the cynicism of the last mayor.

Anyway, this really still has little to do with how NY has changed through the decades, it's only one perception of how things have changed under different mayors. Does one man cause such changes in society? I don't think so.

In total, I find, from the '50s to the present, that New Yorkers are less socially responsible, more self-centered, and ruder. Thankfully, there are still many who aren't. Those are the ones that make living here o.k. (And you know who you are!)

THEY are Red, Kelly, Betty, and soon Marea! This weekend is National Make a Difference Day, I salute you all for making a difference for the people who come to this site looking for a friendly ear and an answer to what sometimes is a silly or redundant question.

I saw Bette Midler on The View the other day (home sick), and she talked a little about how when she moved back in 96, NY was so dirty, she could not believe people could live like that. Then she talked about a group she founded who go out and clean streets, parks, etc. They started with Fort Tyron years ago, and will be opening a new park somewhere soon. I know it is near a lake, because it is the first time a boat house (for rowing) will have been built since Central Park. It was nice to hear of new green space for my friends to the east.

Betty I think society in general is less socially responsible, more self-centred and rude, not just New York. That's evolution for you I guess. I saw Bette Midler on the view as well and there should be more of those projects. We have many such groups in Australia but it is never enough, we also have Clean Up Australia Day once a year where thousands volunteer throughout the country to spend a whole day cleaning their local areas.

Just found this site. Finally. Did a little searching and found this interesting thread. All I have to say is what a pity that Samantha never came back to see the discussion.

Yes John, it was a good thread. I bet Samantha came back, read it, did her homework, and forgot to say Thank You.

Rab


Rab@at.gs


Re: What's the difference between New York 2003, and New York in the
seventy's?

[reunion.at.gs]

i was young and jacko every was a fan we the rab will wont again this to no one why the world even in NY is strong doing soo wrong get a litle them on this at my childrens song in da www.Ch.at.gs chat





Rab@at.gs
has good words for Jacko.
Human allways made by
human thats all beeing.
[www.fc-rabe.de]
ask more details about crime search it on the web or in real live you will find


(C)(R)TM AG.at.gs give europe a hand for help please thanks o/a
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