What Do You Miss About OLD NYC?

I think Avery had a similar discussion on this topic.
Come on over to my "If the World ends on Saturday", needsadvice. Looking forward to your comment there.

I miss the days of the $350 per month rental studio that came with a doorman.

I miss the 3 course meal plus a drink in most mid priced restaurants for $30.

I miss some of the old restaurants: Windows on the World, Tavern On The Green, Top Of The Park (now Trump International Hotel), Top Of The Sixes (666 5th Avenue), The Rainbow Room, and so many more no one ever heard of.

I miss the World Trade Center.

I miss being able to walk into any office building without being forced by a Rent-A-Cop to leave a DNA sample and show "proof" that I have an appointment with someone in the building.

I miss the $750/month Manhattan studio (and for those of us on a "budget", $350 in Park Slope!).

I miss Coliseum Books. Hell, I miss BOOKSTORES in general (not super-centers like Borders and Barnes and Noble).

I miss Bendix Diner.

I miss real meat in the Meatpacking District, complete with blood running between the cobblestones.

I miss The Lure, The Vault, and Mike's in the Meatpacking District.

I miss Bleecker Street being BLEECKER Street, not Rodeo Drive East.

I miss Bradlee's on Union Square.

I really miss Barney's on Seventh and 17th.

I miss subway tokens.

I miss coffeehouses (REAL coffeehouses, not Starbucks).

I miss being in restaurants, bars, and lounges surrounded by people who are *present* and open to socializing, rather than buried in their iPhones, iPads, Blackberries, and Kindles.

I miss being able to take a cab pretty much anywhere in Manhattan, handing the driver a $20, and always getting back at least $5 in change ... AFTER the tip!

I miss the big yellow NYNEX trucks.

I miss Manufacturer's Hanover.

The Automat! Does anybody remember the high-tech, low-taste wonder that was the automat? Best. Jello. Ever. The orange jello rocked. Do they even HAVE Jello at the Whole Foods?

I remember this weird diner, I can't remember where it was, but all the chairs were like little school desks, arranged against the wall in a U shape. The waitress was in the middle of the giant U, and she would flip up the little table top, you'd slide in and then she'd close you in. I'd order a bagel with cream cheese, toasted. She'd bring a bagel with the ENTIRE block of cream cheese on it. Not spread or schmeared, just the whole block stuck on the bagel.

IT WAS A DOLLAR. . .

I also miss tokens. . .

The Rainbow Room! WORST damn food, but you went anyway, because that's what you did.

So true about people not being present. It's like their 2D life is somehow better than the 3D world. WHO are they talking to that's so important? Seriously, who?

I miss when you were walking somewhere and you wanted to make a phone call and you'd have to find a payphone and half the time it was broken and the other half the time is was disgusting and you'd try to find some way to actually dial the number and hold the phone receiver without actually touching any of the physical phone but you always messed up and did touch the phone and it would totally gross you out.

needsadvice,

Are you talking about Horn & *Hardarth's?

I miss the graffiti on the train, LMAO Jokin'. I miss how inexpensive NYC was and you got more for your bang! I miss the moms and pops stores. Today, NYC appears to be a movie a bad movie. Pen and paper in the night life circuit. NYC did have a great edginess! We progress don't we?

http://streeteasy.com/nyc/talk/discussion/24235-do-you-ever-feel-sadnostalgic-about-ny

I miss that everything was not a business back in the day. From school, to clubbing, to dining a business today.

Who remembers Chock Full O Nuts & Nedicks?

http://streeteasy.com/nyc/talk/discussion/24235-do-you-ever-feel-sadnostalgic-about-ny

LOL I miss that old thread! Full of Wonderboy, and aboutready and lowery arguing.

powdered whole wheat donuts and cream cheese sandwich with raisin nut bread

west34, perusing the thread you so thoughtfully resurrected i couldn't help but notice that at the bottom of the thread the comment by mhillqt has been removed, and is indeed listed as having been removed, which is usually an indication that SE has eliminated a poster. a search for mhillqt revealed that all signs of mhillqt (other than some insults and passing references) have even been removed from his obnoxious (but not obviously a cause for deletion) thread about his super having a party involving, IIRC, spanish music.

mhillqt a troll? i was a bit harsh when he was in a dither over whether or not he should buy in murray hill, but i never suspected him of going over to the dark side.

cc, stay away from cream cheese, for the love of....

Hmmm, all posts by chelapt (mhillqt's other login) are gone too.

I wish SE would enlighten us.

@ mutombonyc, Don't remember the name of it, was that in Midtown? I'm thinking it was in midtown, maybe as far down as the 30's.

Remember when you'd go down to Canal Street and it was full of weird little stores full of electronic parts and plastic bits? You could make some crazy cool stuff with the oddments, stuff that lit up and made noises, just a soldering gun away.

@West34; Oh, lord, I remember the phones. Half the time, the receiver would just be ripped off the cord. WTF did they do with all those receivers?

needsadvice,

how many years ago? I'm certain the automat was H&H! Do you remember, when people played 3 card monty on 34th street? LMAO.

I miss Mays, Woolworth's and TSS!

@ mutombonyc: I didn't even know the automat HAD a name! Last time I went was in the '80's, just to show someone what it was like.

Three card seemed to be in almost every subway station. I never played, though.

Remember when you shopped all over the city because you just couldn't find it (whatever it was) anywhere else? Now it's all on Amazon.

It was Horn & Hardart, LOL. 3 card monty was out on the street too.

Used book stores
Record shops
Seedy Time Square
Needle Park
Shanty Town under the West Side highway
The old West Side Highway
NY Coliseum
Greenwich Village the way it used to be...
Plato's retreat
Trains going over Chelsea on the tracks in stead of a high line park

In many ways the city is better now. In other ways it's less interesting and more sterile

mutombonyc: The last H&H was located on 3rd and 42nd street. It closed in the 1990's. A survivor to the end.
It's a Gap store now.

Truth,

Yeah I know. I think needsadvice went to the H&H on 30something Street not far from Macy's. Can't remember the exact street.

CBGB's. The rivertown lounge on orchard street.

Some of old NY has returned....Chock Full O Nuts....with the whole wheat, powdered or plain, donuts and cream cheese sandwiches on raisin nut bread.....it's 25 West 23rd Street off Fifth Ave.

danceteria, i miss danceteria.

and, as always, the elvis booth at exterminator chili.

Especially Wuthering Heights.

wtc

i miss when people wanted to live in new york because they loved it and felt a connection to it. not because it was the most expensive status symbol for assholes who define themselves in such terms, having little detectable personality beyond ambition. also, i miss when people who came to new york were not inspired to do so by a vapid tv show about co dependent girl power and shoes and witty gay bffs and sparkly things.

Miss the old retailers:

Gimbels
A&S
Altman's
Klein's
Orbach's
May's
Stern's
Alexander's
Gertz
Woolworth's
Lamston
W.T. Grant
E.J. Korvettes
Sak's 34th St.
Times Square Stores
Martin's
Crazy Eddie
The Wiz
Lafayette Radio
Trader Horn
Circuit City
SaveMart
Goodwin's
Caldor's

One of the last Horn & Hardart was located on West 57th north/west of sixth ave. It became a kind of Deli Restaurant with a huge frankart deco lady faux statue in the window. Who knows what it is now? I seem to remember the last one was in the 30's and Eyewitness News did a story about it's demise. Oh, and at Times Square the old people used to go to that one in the 1970's and perform their old acts from vaudeville and that became a Burger King.

Miss NYC nightlife: clubs used to be way more mixed than today: black/white, gay/straight. Music was not top-40, but edged out and interesting. Loved the clubs Save the Robots and Sway.

the HoJo's in times square

"the HoJo's in times square"

It's gone?

It was turned into a Conde Nast cafeteria.

Although NYC has changed, it's still has a lot of character.

So does Doris Day.

"Although NYC has changed, it's still has a lot of character."

You mean like from Disney?

what did NYC 1960's/1970's "character" punks/druggies/J&J chic crowd think of the 1980's/1990's trustafarian clubkids and faux hipsters from ohio...

i bet edie sedgwick thought said "character" of the '80's/90' to be just as Disney...

it's all relative, there's still a lot of grime if you know where to find it (easily)..

i find in general people "nostalgic" of the old days, really aren't...

..otherwise, what's stopping you from moving to bedstuy and "full of NYC character SpaHa"?

**thought = would have thought

Bonwits

Headless bodies in topless bars

I miss the time when people walked along the sidewalks at an orderly, brisk pace, and in straight paths, like a game of Frogger. Perhaps it is a general reflection of the reduced pace of NYC, but it seems that everyone on the sidewalk or subway stations move at a snail's pace, wander side-to-side while texting and talking on their phone, and otherwise just piss me off.

hol4, disagree. What existed before was convergence of all NY had to offer in any area. Now you can travel way the hell up to Washington Heights for grime *OR* way out to County Queens for food *OR* way out to London for clubbing ... but it's not the same.

Matt,

NYC is still different from Seattle and Denver; those two cities are similiar.

nyc_sport - people can't walk in a straight line b/c there's dog shit everywhere. was this the case with old NYC?

ahart disagree..

grime is relative..for me grime is healthy living, dirty mind.. some of the cleanest condos, have some of the best "dirtiest" (safe only here, but you have other options if so) sex parties.. some setup like businesses advertising to all, while many of the better ones are private and advertised only to known friends or pre-screened (read hot & young)..

..unless you mean "grime" in the literal sense of murder, garbage pile up, and AIDS.. the latter of which there are many bareback parties you can take to your liking in the heart of midtown, if that's what you miss. not my thing, but for you, it's still there, alive and well, drugs provided or BYO, no rubbers allowed.

food, yelp it..lot of cheap "ethnic" eats in midtown.. can't get more NY than bullshitting with your favorite halal cart guy.. hopefully he spits in your falafel, so you can really feel like a cool, dirty NY'er.

clubbing, not a big clubber as i used to be.. but did you go to the kenny kenny/club 57/original mr black/bbar tues/cielo wed/must i go on.. gay, straight, black, white, fag hags, str8 girls, confused str8 dudes turned curious by end of the night, drag queens, clubkids (yes they still exist and some still funded by mama n papa just like alig of the '80's) all below 58th street, without having to cross any rivers.

seems like the people who call NY Disney (and i do get it), sound like your typical tourist conversation on my flight back to JFK...

Cali girl #1: OMG, I sooo wanna hit up Times Square, it's the epicenter of New York
Cali girl #2: Yes, if I move to NY I'd only live in Times Square to be in the center of it all. It's like the Santa Monica of NY, ya know?
Cali girl #1: OMG so true, let's do brunch, and be such NY'ers using brunch as a verb!
Cali girl #2: OMG, I vom at the thought. Look they have a TGIF right next to the TICKTS stand do you think they have good brunch?
Cali girl #1: Yes, but let's be adventurous and try Joe's Crab Shack across the street. We're such NY'ers being dirty and eating with our hands, why can't I find a man to love me?

locals (assuming you actually like to venture beyond said establishments) know where to go and hopefully won't advertise it to the likes of people like you who only view NY as "Disney" and kill the party's mood.

The Ramones at CBGS's, Springsteen at The Bottom Line, The Clash at Bonds. Beer for under $7 a bottle and drinks for under $12. Box seat to a Mets game (in the 70's) for $5. When you could walk without having to dodge tourists. I don't however, miss the subways. They are infinetly better today.

"there's dog shit everywhere. was this the case with old NYC?"

Actually, it was worse. I think the poop law came in around '77 and people were vocal about it to the guilty pet owners. Entitlement seems to overshadow sense of community.

Old NYC sucked, the only think to miss is lower rents and affordable housing.

First track: http://www.mp3rocket.com/mp3/-1_00/Art-Ugly-People-With-Fancy-Hairdos-We-Are-All-Boat-People.htm

[yes, I've posted this before ... sorry!]

I love NY now. I love NY then. Plenty I'd miss from today if I went back in time, but that said...some of what's gone now that I miss--in no particular order:

Needing a dime to call someone.
Phone booths you could use your dime in.
The sound of IBM Selectrics filling offices.
Scribners book store.
Uncle Charlie's, Private Eyes, The Saint, Boy Bar, Bar Lui, Rick's Lounge, Lola's when it was new and hot.
As a kid watching business men drink 3 martinis at lunch at the Cattleman in mid-town.
The Auto Pub at the GM Building for lunch as a kid with my dad.
The World Trade Center (in 1980 I NEVER would have thought I'd ever say that).
The NY Times when it was 4 section in black and white: A-Int'l and Nat'l news; B-New York City; C-Arts; D-Business.

Can I add JFK,Jr. and Jackie O.

Sadly never been to CBGBs but I think I saw the Ramones at a west side pier, I believe a Miller beer sponsored concert in the late 80s.
Also saw the Who's last tour at Shea stadium, but I believe that is still available.....the Who that is, not Shea.

I had a birthday party at the Auto Pub, and also went to the Cattleman as a child. And, of course, Rumplemayer's at the St. Moritz.

And still had enough spare time to watch waterbug races on the Upper West Side.

I miss the real old black charcoal subway cars, the ones with the "straw" seats that always snagged your stockings, and had the big old fans on top of the cars. I also miss how in the summertime the doors between the cars were always open, and you could ride the trains between cars.

I do not, however, miss the lack of air conditioning.

"Please keep hands off the doors."

Those are called "City of New York IND" cars. [Yes, I'm a dweeb for knowing]

I miss they days when New Yorkers called this city by its name -- New York -- and only mainlander tourists said "New York City" (thereby putting it in a class with Salt Lake City, Atlantic City, Oklahoma City, etc.). World tourists always said "New York", and for the most part still do.

I miss the thousands of Chicklets machines in the subway ... great strategic move, guys!

And I miss the nice police officer who politely asked that we smoke our pot across the street, where (he gingerly explained) it's a different precinct ... and not on the church steps where we were doing so at that particular moment.

"I saw the Ramones at a west side pier, I believe a Miller beer sponsored concert in the late 80s." Started out in Central Park as the Schaeffer Music Festival, then moved to Pier 84 as the Dr. Pepper Music Festival, later changed to Miller. Those were some good shows, and cheap tickets.

I missed when Columbia County was not in New York City.

The city is wayy better now (cause I have a kid and like the low crime-clean streets thing) but I do miss: Sophies (when they had the hole in the bathroom wall that let in fresh air), McHales (burgers), Save the Robots, Lucy Retired Surfers Bar, Brownies and No Tell Motel. The days of teh true dive are over . . . :(

Odd Lot & McCrory's

I miss watching people projectile-vomiting on subway platforms at 5 A.M.

More precisely, PV *from* platforms onto tracks ... PVers had more decorum back then.

I also miss WWII blackout paint.

the crack park on west 46th street. grassrooots tavern on st. marks, had the best a/c in the city, a veritable monster that made awesome and scary noises as it pumped out frigid air during those hot 1980's summers.

markznyc, agree, mchales was a great bar with burgers.

I miss stories of old Christmas Eve. The times when you could go downstairs to the bar from your Hell's Kitchen neighborhood apartment and borrow a toilet plunger and enjoy the rest of the evening with the husband.

oh, i forgot, i really loved the dive bar robert's in hells kitchen. the bartenders were fantastic. we even borrowed a plunger one holiday night from them. i can't imagine borrowing a plunger from mumbles. or veritas.

the per se plunger

Great slide show, control in upper-right corner (better in person): http://www.paulkasmingallery.com/exhibitions/2011-05-19_nir-hod/

As a society, we don't borrow plungers, phones, cups of sugar and rice anymore!

Alan...Very weird. Do you think #41 looks like you?

No, #33 looks like me.

No way!! Too angelic and sans joint.

alanhart finds the best art.

I remember scooting under an IND stairway to hurl. Felt embarrassed for about two minutes.

Old New York is too uncouth. Anyone who covets living such a classless/filthy lifestyle needs help.

I wouldn't have moved here from Beverly Hills if NY was anything of old.

I miss the native New Yorkers.

The Red Parrot, The Saint Limelight, the club on Varick, and the one on 21 street that was three floors. I was in school in the 80's and we got free passes to all the clubs. Also going to the garden and being at a concert and not needing to do any weed and just getting the high from the ambient smoke, or bringing in a large flask and enjoying it during the concert. Ponchitos on Bleeker, my first introduction to mexican food, Carambas down in the east village for frozen margaritas. It was great to be young then. Decadent and outrageous. Now its great in a different way, safer cleaner...but there was something about it that will always be ...

i like it

Not that I'd want it anymore, but smoking in the Zeigfeld theatre balcony.
The real Abercrombie & Fitch with stuffed game Teddy Roosevelt shot around the store (as a kid I was told they were his but who knows).
Diners with waitresses with old-fashioned New Yawka accents.
Fumbling for subway tokens.
NOTHING about the old subway cars.
Views from Windows on the World (but not the food).

The original FAO Schwartz. Same location as today (for you newbs) but it wasn't always owned by a giant corporation. The 25 foot clock was cool.

Street fairs that were actual STREET FAIRS run by informal neighborhood organizations. Now they are all run by the same company because they scared the neighborhood associations with talk of liability and other BS. That's why all the merch is the same from fair to fair.

Little Italy when it wasn't a crowded tourist trap, and the restaurants were owned by people that lived above them. You remember those days? Nobody was wearing a fanny pack or flip-flops . . .

>Views from Windows on the World (but not the food).

The elevator ride was something the kids always enjoyed

wavedeva
about 10 hours ago
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I miss the native New Yorkers.

cheer up, wavedeva. the little kids you trip over every day are the new crop of natives. they'll be cool. why wouldn't they be?

the people from the old nyc.

Kw... 'Fumbling for subway tokens.'

Never needed it with the train

Passes from school. But in the summer I'd buy some illegal subway token slugs from my friend whose dad was a subway token clerk..... Ah the good ole days of rampant corruption and parking meters that you could break and park all day with some well Placed sticky taped coins or even cardboard.

I miss having to keep my wallet in my front pocket and carry a knife on the subway....well not really.

I do miss the old Times Square, and the ability to get to "gritty NYC" without having to go out of my way

"the people from the old nyc."

AMEN!!!!!!

"I miss having to keep my wallet in my front pocket"

You don't still do this??

Our youth?

So many less rules back then.

Ditto. I miss the native New Yorkers. At least NY pizza is still the best.

"what did NYC 1960's/1970's "character" punks/druggies/J&J chic crowd think of the 1980's/1990's trustafarian clubkids and faux hipsters from ohio...
i bet edie sedgwick thought said "character" of the '80's/90' to be just as Disney...
it's all relative, there's still a lot of grime if you know where to find it (easily)..
i find in general people "nostalgic" of the old days, really aren't... "

Agreed 100%

The people I know who talk about missing the old times square... weren't actually going there. People missing things only when they realize they haven't been there for 7 years.

I remember being in the prime crack years... few people were interesting in saving the grime and the crime. Most of the city was talking about leaving the city.

I think most of the "nostalgic" folks are folks who have been here 5 years trying to sound cooler than the folks who were here for 3 years.

"The people I know who talk about missing the old times square... weren't actually going there. People missing things only when they realize they haven't been there for 7 years."

That just about says it all. Those of us who grew up here seem to have more to miss. That said, it seems that those of us that were here that long seem to enjoy the changes. There was nothing amusing or socially redeeming about Needle Park and the like. Also, I think that lo88 covered the other side of the coin of what we miss, "our youth". Everything is relevant. When I was a kid, the old folks bemoaned the loss of the Stork Club and El Morocco as we kids rolled our eyes.

Totally....

NeedsAdvice - the old FAO which is in the same location? Now I DO feel like an old timer. The old FAO Schwarz was much lower on 5th avenue and was on the 2nd floor of one of the older buildings. I remember as a kid how cool it was that every toy was open to play with, but the toys were all sorts of "higher-end" toys you didn't find in department store toy-departments (yes, I predate the first Toys-R-Us on Rt. 4), but it was uncool in that there were no GI Joes, etc.

I miss driving onto the State Island Ferry. (Never did visit SI, just drove off on the other end and then back on, I grew up in the Bronx.)

I miss Western style horseback riding through Van Cortland Park before the stables there became all big and fancy.

I miss subway tokens with the "Y" cut into them.

I miss the Riverdale Ice skating rink and the restaurant in the Stella D'Oro factory.

I miss the elevated West Side Highway below 56th st.

There is a lot to miss. There is a lot not to miss. I DO NOT miss having to walk always looking down to avoid a veritable minefield of dog poop.

I love subway air conditioning, but I miss riding between the cars. I also miss being able to stand in the front car and watching as you raced down the tracks.

I miss the WTC and I never thought I would. Boy did I think those buildings were ugly when they went up.

I miss 47th St. Photo. B&H is essentially the same, but not as gritty.

Missing the "old" New York is just part of being a New Yorker, even if you just got here. My favorite is the t-shirt for infants that says "I miss the old New York." Like banging on the hood of taxis that cut us off in the crosswalk or jaywalking, it is our God-given right as New York denizens to complain about what we miss.

FAO Schwartz was accross the street on 58th. They didn't move very far, but it is a whole different thing with the magic now gone.

NeedsAdvice - the old FAO which is in the same location? Now I DO feel like an old timer. The old FAO Schwarz was much lower on 5th avenue and was on the 2nd floor of one of the older buildings. I remember as a kid how cool it was that every toy was open to play with, but the toys were all sorts of "higher-end" toys you didn't find in department store toy-departments (yes, I predate the first Toys-R-Us on Rt. 4), but it was uncool in that there were no GI Joes, etc.

I miss driving onto the State Island Ferry. (Never did visit SI, just drove off on the other end and then back on, I grew up in the Bronx.)

I miss Western style horseback riding through Van Cortland Park before the stables there became all big and fancy.

I miss subway tokens with the "Y" cut into them.

I miss the Riverdale Ice skating rink and the restaurant in the Stella D'Oro factory.

I miss the elevated West Side Highway below 56th st.

There is a lot to miss. There is a lot not to miss. I DO NOT miss having to walk always looking down to avoid a veritable minefield of dog poop.

I love subway air conditioning, but I miss riding between the cars. I also miss being able to stand in the front car and watching as you raced down the tracks.

I miss the WTC and I never thought I would. Boy did I think those buildings were ugly when they went up.

I miss 47th St. Photo. B&H is essentially the same, but not as gritty.

oops. Double post.

the Papaya King price war with Nathan's when PK dogs came down to 4 for a dollar.

Crossroads. didn't realize till today that I had missed its closing.

nothing