Do you ever feel sad/nostalgic about NY?

I'm nostalgic for the old night life, especially the big clubs like the Palladium, Area, Garage, Danceteria, etc. More mixing among classes and less social stratification in late-night club life back then than today. The 'lounges' of today also seem to peeter out early by traditional NYC standards. It wasn't a good night of clubbing then if you were coming home before daylight. Now that I'm older, I wouldn't be able to keep up anyway, but NYC nightlife today seems tame compared to 20 years ago.

Agreed. I remember how you'd go to limelight, and everyone was there. The jocks, the preps, the drama chicks, even the nerds. The clubs were too big to discriminate too much. Everyone would eventually get in, and it really was a diverse bunch.

The lounges do peter out but I think a lot of stuff has gone private. Though it was cool to have Robots only get started at 3am.

And remember... DANCING? Remember when people used to actually dance. Not the ironic sway. Not the Russian girls doing fake lesbian striptease. Actual dancing?

And not standing in the middle of the dance floor fucking TEXTING!!! I hate people.

But anyway, some clubs were diverse because they had highly skilled doormen selecting for that -- the best of each type. The most beautiful beautiful people, the ugliest ugly people, and like that by all cuts. Everyone did NOT eventually get in, no matter how large the club.

Haoui says hi.

wtf is with the tendency to send text photo and video to all one's friends not present? whatever the event?

is it to create envy? to document that one is in front of something cool?

it's as thought the transmission that one is present is more important than the experience

reminds me of parents i used to observe videotaping every moment possible of their children's lives--they ended up missing their kids' childhoods, fidgeting with a camera they were stuck behind--as though they would ever have time to watch the thousands of hours shot

somewhereelse,

I totally agree with you! I remember when people walked the streets of NYC with life, today, people walk the streets lifeless. Yes, we have progressed but during the dangerous times of NYC people had more fun than today. 34th St was packed on a weekend; 125th St. was packed on a weekend; Graham Ave in W'Burg was packed on a weekend. I think it is safe to say most of NYC shopping districts were packed on weekends with lively shoppers. I do miss May's on 14th St and Woolworth, but Target does the same job! Remember Corvette's? 3 Card Monty LOL. Out with the old, in with the new!

The lines to enter clubs were long and the door rushed to get everyone in. The clubs gave back to the partyers back in the day day. Sadie Hawkins Day Dances? Themed weekends and ballons! Oh what a night! Do you remember the Kaboose?

From another thread.

""I'm in love dancin'." Yes. You can say what you want about the epoch of the Garage and Crisco Disco, but NYC was alive then in a way that now seems a distant memory."

Bottle Service is older than previously mentioned, 1970s BYOBB! Classic!

I feel sad and nostalgic about not being 25 anymore. When I was 25 there were people in their 50s and 60s who were sad and nostalgic for "the New York that used to be....."

Palladium was fun, as was the Saint, etc., etc. Times Square was appalling. The biggest difference then v. now is tourists. Canal Street, Mulberry Street and countless other places are now museums to what they were before the tourists showed up in droves to see what the fuss was all about. I remember a coworker my mom's age talking nostalgically about how nice Times Square had been in her youth, a place a guy would take his date on a Saturday night. Others talked about things like sleeping outside on their fire escapes. Some of my memories that sum it all up, then v. now, best are: going to a houseparty in Park Slope, where the entire brownstone was rented by a group of 20-somethings for something like $500 a month and there were burned out, chained-off houses all around; going to see "Apocalypse Now" in a movie theater in the Times Square area and my seat collapsing onto the floor, which hadn't been cleaned in who-knows-how-long; W. 72nd Street being a really, really sleazy place with junkies; UWS being dangerous; a "club" somewhere in Alphabet City that had a dirt floor and picnic tables -- no, I do not miss the good old days. I do think the newer generations of wannabe NYers are much more materialistic, though.

somewhereelse "And remember... DANCING? Remember when people used to actually dance. Not the ironic sway. Not the Russian girls doing fake lesbian striptease. Actual dancing" BINGO with a capital F.

wbttm, if it's not up on utube, it never happened.

I remember back in the days, I'd throw illegal keg parties in the lower east side and have all the kids from 12-17 show up and take $10/head. I cleared $3K dollar one saturday nite. I was 16. That was fking ridiculous. Everyone looked the other way. I'm sure if my son ddi that today, he'd be in jail in two minutes. Seriouosy, every 3 or 4 months a cheap azzed lite kegger from a warehouse in jersey where my bouncers would pick it up and have it delivered. innocent fun, bf crack hit.

"Strolling the Village is a very civilized experience nowadays."

Please, Wonderboy, go back to the Short Hills mall.

lowery,

Not only materialistic but out of touch with reality. Yes, times square of yesteryear was appalling, but people walked the streets of times square with a purpose and lively. Today, when people walk the streets of NYC, pedestrians remind me of iRobots. Although, life is about progressing, some aspects of life people have regressed, which in turn has dumbdown society, in example people communicating with one another. I would prefer to encounter smoky clubs and good parties than smokeless clubs and parties where partyers are not dancing, people not interacting with each other, with a table full of overpriced topshelf liquor bottles.

mutombonyc, one of the most incredible things I've seen in my life is people standing outside the meet/at-market bars on 3rd Ave near 34th Street TALKING ON CELLPHONES! Why even bother going out if you're going to talk to your phone-chat-mates? Lately, most people on subways are checking their texts and voicemail messages on their iphones, or using them to play computer games. My biggest peeve about cellphones is that people no longer have any phone etiquette. They disconnect their landlines and insist on talking via warbly, walkietalkie-like wireless connections and instead of saying "hello," they say things like, "Hey!" Or they pick up their phone calls while continuing their banter that they were in the middle of with someone else. Then there's the surreal specter of people meeting for lunch in restaurants and ignoring each other while they talk to OTHER people on their cellphones. Or running into coworkers in the subway and saying, "Didjaget my email?"

The zombiness is probably combination of many things, but look at those babies in those megalithic, supersized ultraluxe baby strollers: their mouths are permanently attached to straws and bottles supplying with lifegiving (artificial) fluids. They have no physical contact with their parents, and they get their nutritions from ....... "solution." Maybe those zombie trances people walk around in are unhappiness.

"The zombiness is probably combination of many things, but look at those babies in those megalithic, supersized ultraluxe baby strollers: their mouths are permanently attached to straws and bottles supplying with lifegiving (artificial) fluids. They have no physical contact with their parents, and they get their nutritions from ....... "solution." "

You mean those babies who are being pushed around by NANNIES?

lowery,

The zombiness is a combination of many things: the internet is one; the cell phone is two; banking is three; fresh direct is four; shall I continue, do you care to add? Do you remember when we used to remember phone numbers? Phone numbers were sacred, moms used to say, "don't be giving out my number to those stranger in the street." LOL. No physical or lack of physical contact means us human beings are not transferring our energy, which is impetus. I remember when 34th St. was PACKED on Saturdays, today, 34th St on Saturdays, reminds me of the gentile sabbath back in the 80s and prior. As someone said, NYC is not alive in a way it used to be! I remember my moms used to say, "if you acting crazy in the streets, the police are going to pick you up and take you to the hospital." Mental illness has become normal because society wants to be medicated. I totally agree with your thoughts, it is a new dawn.

well, mutom, it's nice that someone else has been as disturbed by these things as I, but I try to understand that times, they a-change, and humans are humans under it all, just dressed in different styles.

Manhattan used to have lots of what we could label "creatives" - people with dreams that had absolutely nothing to do with banking, marketing, the internet, people who wanted to find their niche as songwriters, fashion designers, violinists, opera singers, the next Bob Dylan, etc., etc. This is the "life" I think people notice has vanished, but I prefer to think that the creative energy in NYC is now diffused through Brooklyn, Queens, Jersey and the Bronx. Although it's commercial and glitzy, Bedford Avenue is the only sort of commercial hub I've been to in the past decade that has any semblance of the old ambience of New York. I have no illusions about the next Kerouac or Basqiat being among those wannabes, any more than that he was getting high in the Michael Todd Room with me in the '80s, but you get my drift.

And no, NYCMatt, I'm not talking about nannies. People of childbearing age today have an obvious aversion to holding their babies, and don't seem to get that making baby comfie has nothing to do with toy radios and extra pampers.

mutomb, I think it's more than being medicated. Medicaments are, after all, just one more nonessential that's been mass-marketed, with eager-to-be-brainwashed consumers embracing them as though they are can't-do-withouts.

lowery, there's some definite feelings of nostalgia evident in your posts.

I've read recently (although don't get me started on the quality of news reporting) that many artists feel priced out of the boros even. maybe east new York isn't their cup of tea.

in terms of parenting, it's difficult to judge unless you actually know the circumstances. mothers are excoriated for leaving their kids with the nannies (and nannies come in all levels of awful to great, much depends upon money, and jalmost as much depends upon luck, far more than it ought to), but they are also berated for staying at home. how many times have I been called "just a housewife"?

aboutready, my mother never used a baby stroller. Had she had more money, maybe she would have, but they just were not so ubiquitous in the olden days. We crawled, we waddled, we walked, we leaned on whatever we could, and when she did grocery shopping we got to sit in those nifty little sections of the shopping carts that small children could sort of fit into. This does not mean that she was a touchy-feely mommy, but my point is that our generation has witnessed the spawning of entire industries that basically sell air. Someone ought to do a study on the average cubic inch size of baby strollers over the past 50 years. From nothing to ..... Mac Trucks!!! And parents have always devised ways to distract and amuse children, toys, trinkets, etc., but the scale of late is unbelievable, and babies are learning to "play" games like "talk on the cellphone while doing other things, just like mommy and daddy." I have not been around nannified kids that much, and I think people exaggerate their prevalence. What I am rolling my eyes at is the sheer volume of the accoutrements, and it cuts across class lines. Why not leave all that junk at home if baby must come out with mommie?

our kid was attached to the husband on weekend outings in the baby bjorn for a long time. but not so long, really, because she was in the 100th percentile for height and she routinely kicked him in the balls out of excitement.

lowery, how did she get you to the grocery store when you were an infant? was it in NYC? have you asked her whether or not it was easy, sort of easy, or almost impossible? did dad help? did she have family who could stay with you while she shopped? did she work?

our daughter actually perfected her walking at a bar (where we routinely went for sunday brunch), which had very little clientele when she was learning to walk. she'd cruise the banquettes, but even more so they had an empty umbrella holder that she'd walk back and forth. and before you berate me, she was very much adored by both staff and patrons (like i said, it was mostly empty).

aboutready, I have many siblings and we are all close in age. Car seats did exist then, but they were smaller and simpler. I see toddlers in baby strollers long past the age when infants are helpless. My mother was very resourceful and I am not claiming that our simpler way of doing things was better or worse; only that what people take as necessities has mushroomed, and the baby strollers are no longer simply devices for babies to sit in - they have to function as storage units for the extras that do not really need to be dragged everywhere with baby and mom-or-nanny. In this way, baby is learning materialism in its most obvious form, stuff that we carry around with us to the point where carrying it becomes a chore. Cellphones are a chore. So are laptops. So are backpacks for our bottled water jugs. I think there is a connection between this attachment to junk and the zombie look in people's eyes, but also being constantly plugged into electronic transmissions of "music" (prefabricated formulaic rhythmic patterns generated by computers and mass produced with slight variations and branding). If you'd ask my mother if it was difficult/impossible, etc., her answer would be it doesn't matter, that she just did it.

Somehow related to the zombie theme, watch this, which I'm sure you'll love:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/1389/saturday-night-live-dont-buy-stuff

And notice that the online streaming video is preceded by advertisements for - you count them - how many product features? HDTV, hulu.com, multiple movies by title, etc. It's beautifully ironic given the SNL skit that follows!

ok, but my kid was in a stroller until five. and she was huge so i got abuse regularly.

but should you judge me for that? our walking commute was well over twenty minutes which would have been forty minutes if I'd had her walk.

so, if you ask me, my method was just doing it.

but, I feel quite nostalgic.

Meh. I hate all these comparisons between the "good" old days and today. First of all, I was rarely in a stroller as a child but there was no necessity to be in a stroller. There were multiple women looking after me - the main grocery shopper had plenty of child-free time to shop w/o schlepping a kid.

Fast forward to now. I have 3 kids, but they're spaced far enough apart that I did not need to have a double stroller for more than a few months. The older one/s walked at a young age and everything I need to do can be done (school, food, gym) within a 10 block radius. I also live on multiple bus lines which helps. There are plenty of very alert, bright & limber kids who were lugged around in strollers more than mine because of their various commutes (say >20 blocks). My kids have more TV & computer game options but they are also outside way more, and walk way more and have many more playdates than I had as a child.

I used to wait hours for people to show up or not know why they were late sans cell phones - or wait to get messages back. Cellphones - brilliant invention.

lowery,

I totally agree, humans progress in life end of story. It is sad that air can be sold, does selling air make someone a good salesperson or make buyers easy? My problem is, we the people do not have a say, there are people of status who make decisions for humanities; selling and purchasing air is a smaller part to bigger issues in life. NYC for the most part, has always been different from the majority of cities in the Union. When NYC announced, they were changing street signs to read BEDFORD to Bedford, NYC forfeited there identity to become ThatCity, USA, which is a smaller part to bigger issues in life.

most of us never went to preschool. not having multiple people looking after me, if my mother needed something she tossed me in the back seat and off we went, second-hand smoke and all.

certainly not everything is better, and 10023 i don't think you were even around for what we ancients are discussing. but a certain vitality has definitely been fading here.

i like the cellphone for it's convenience, but the smart phone/blackberry has created a culture where everything is with you all the time, whether its social connections or work obligations. we just don't turn off any more.

Preschools are a necessary part of life for two household families. Have to agree with 10023 cellphones and blackberries are a very useful technology.. and second hand smoke? It's a big positive that the new norm is not to expose children to this. I'm all for the libertarian approach, but it seems that children don't really have a choice here.

Also agree with the zombie references. There's no substitute for parents interacting one on one with their kids.

Somehow related to the zombie theme, watch this, which I'm sure you'll love:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/1389/saturday-night-live-dont-buy-stuff

Classic, but I thought that's why people lease?

the parents of the 60s and 70s were not necessarily more interactive with their children. if you have a chance pick up a copy of the Dr. Spock from back then, who advised that it was better not to spend any time (even 15 minutes) with the kid upon returning home if it would irritate you.

and no, preschools are not necessary. in NYC if both parents work the child likely has both a full-time nanny and preschool. in many communities kids don't go to preschool.

There are plenty who would argue that Ben Spock helped create a generation of spoiled brats. I agree about not approaching your child when angry, but children should not be seen as an irritant(allowing for the occasional bad day).

10023, it's interesting you filled in the cellphone detail that I had omitted from my jeremiad. Being on time, keeping appointments, respecting and valuing one's friend/coworker/associate/family-member 10023 is not the same as calling him on his cellphone to spare him standing there waiting and being stood up. Where our mentality has changed is that a person could say, boy, thank goodness for cellphones, otherwise I'd be really pissed that I'm being stood up! In my case, I have a different attitude about this social phenomenon: people are taking advantage of the presumption everyone is cellphone-ready-to-cancel to cram their lives with those little distractions and added-up on, piled-up engagements and busy-nesses to blow off the person they are supposed to meet somewhere. Oh, that's okay, I can always reach 10023 on his cellphone. And they do. The culture of convenience is turning people into conveniences to each other. It's another aspect of the people-as-commodity culture that goes along with "outsourcing," which is not just let's have our goods manufactured in China for less and shipped to us, because you can "outsource" a position in a company by sending it across the street or hiring temps or subcontractors. I feel sorry for young people today, because they are facing extortionate tuition at not only private schools, but state universities and even community colleges, which were devised to enable people to stay with parents for two years, making education more affordable. The reason tuition is so high is that our tax dollars do not get funneled into colleges and universities. Everyone can blow all the hot air all they want about their ideological justifications for this, but here we are, the United States of Education is No Longer Free or Even Remotely Affordable for Anyone But a Small Percentage of Households.

That is not civilization. That is a culture that has stripped itself down part by part to where there is no soul left.

How can I take parenting advice from a guy that uses a$25k/month comp to justify a $4mm sex pad.

"being constantly plugged into electronic transmissions of "music" (prefabricated formulaic rhythmic patterns generated by computers and mass produced with slight variations and branding)."

Lowery, that's a brilliant observation. LOVE IT!

*****

"most of us never went to preschool. not having multiple people looking after me, if my mother needed something she tossed me in the back seat and off we went, second-hand smoke and all."

Me too, minus the second-hand smoke.

Although, even if we didn't live in a smoking household, most of us children of the '60s and '70s were exposed to a considerable amount of second-hand smoke, and managed to make it through life OK. I remember spending a lot of time at my one Grandma's house and my one great aunt's house, and my memories all have a bluish tinge to them since the houses were in a perennial smoke haze! Does anyone remember how ubiquitous ash trays were? No one smoked in our house, but every household always had ash trays for guests. We even left them out on end tables all the time, like coasters ... just in case. Hell, the default clay project in school art classes was the funky-looking ash tray for dad or uncle!

And as for this car seat nonsense ... that's exactly what it is: nonsense. I'm convinced it's a conspiracy to force families with more than two kids into buying gigantic SUVs and minivans ... while also forcing them to buy not only multiple car seats for each kid, but a new car seat every six months as the kid grows up, keeping them in car seats until they get their learner's permit to actually start DRIVING the car. And just to prevent using an older car seat for a younger kid who might now be growing into it, the government manages to find some reason to RECALL that car seat, making it illegal, forcing you to buy still another new one.

My parents squeezed THREE of us kids into the back of a 1976 Volkswagen Rabbit. My toddler sister was nestled between her older brothers for protection. We didn't wear seat belts -- Mom only made us wear seat belts when we were on the Interstate, going on a trip somewhere. Our cars also didn't have air bags (but the one car, a fabulously gigantic 1973 Buick LeSabre, DID have plenty of Detroit steel to protect us ... remember, back in those days, when a car hit a telephone pole, it was the telephone pole that lost the fight, not the car??).

We even used to ride in the back of my uncle's Ford Pinto. AND we rode in the back of my grandpa's pickup truck! While eating peanut butter sandwiches (without going into a seizure) and homemade cookies made with real sugar and butter (without getting fat).

THOSE were the days!

"The reason tuition is so high is that our tax dollars do not get funneled into colleges and universities."

No.

Not getting tax dollars is not the reason why university tuition is so high. One has nothing to do with the other. Universities for decades have been overly-generous with compensation and retirement packages, from professors right down to the janitors. They've also been on a spending spree for sports stadiums and other fancy facilities.

Tax dollars were never intended to go to colleges in the first place.

Yeah, but I'd love to hear from the family from the 60's who lost 3 children in a rear ender. Anyone? Anyone?

coop prez? Shouldn't you be enforcing open house rules this lovely saturday bf Xmas?

"The culture of convenience is turning people into conveniences to each other."

I find some people in the outerboroughs want their boroughs to be equivalent to Manhattan for convenience. Today, people seem like they want to remain in there neighborhoods for one stop shopping, eating, work, entertainment and avoid Manhattan out of convenience. Manhattan was unique because it was different from the other four boroughs, center city.

lowery,

You are great!

Matt, nowdays car seats have expiration dates like milk:

http://www.thriftyandchicmom.com/2010/07/car-seat-expiration-dates-and-when-you-should-replace-them/

Only people who hate babies would question the logic.

Lowery: I get your point. I am luddite-ish. But, I have my human weaknesses. I was consistently being late, very late, to meet with friends prior to owning a cellphone (proud owner since '97). And, no, I DON'T use my cellphone to stand people up or be late. For me (and maybe only me), it has reduced my tardiness to zero because I know that people can use it to check up on me, so I'm just on time now. And I hate wearing watches, so it's a good timekeeper for me.

Glad to know that you are an old-fashioned person who would never dream of being late or standing people up, but honestly, I've been a crazy multi-tasker all my life, and get distracted. Cellphones help ME be a better friend.

this whole "we're fine despite the chemicals, second-hand smoke we experienced" etc. is bullshit, and coming from someone who is absolutely paranoid about suntan lotion, food additives, etc. who knows how fine we are? the recent studies on second-hand smoke show awful correlations to disease. maybe we're not worse than before because lots of people smoked, but i doubt that's true. women, mothers, didn't really take to smoking with a passion until the fifties. lung cancer rates are huge, and the numbers of people who have never smoked who are getting lung cancer are concerning.

my brother once fell out of a moving car, my mother caught him by a leg, he merely grazed his head. just some blood. oh, the good old days.

i'm a bit luddite-ish myself. it works well for our current circumstances, but i hated it earlier, when it meant only more work and no more freedom.

lowery, i think the whole concept of canceling an appointment, date, engagement, friendly meeting, because you're TOO busy predates (or is independent of) the cell phone. nothing new yorkers like more than to show people how important they are. i have "friends" in the city who were in our wedding party who i see less than once every three years. always a manicure, or a facial, or what f'ng ever to plan. this couple doesn't have children.

i have a New Yorker friend who told me well over twenty years ago that she doesn't like to arrive on time (in this instance we were waiting for her in a Tokyo subway station, for over a half an hour). her excuse? she doesn't like to wait for people. really.

That's funny!

lowery,

First, I want to thank you again for your thoughts. I am writing a piece that conflates with this thread.

"Manhattan used to have lots of what we could label "creatives" - people with dreams that had absolutely nothing to do with banking, marketing, the internet, people who wanted to find their niche as songwriters, fashion designers, violinists, opera singers, the next Bob Dylan, etc., etc. This is the "life" I think people notice has vanished, but I prefer to think that the creative energy in NYC is now diffused through Brooklyn, Queens, Jersey and the Bronx. Although it's commercial and glitzy, Bedford Avenue is the only sort of commercial hub I've been to in the past decade that has any semblance of the old ambience of New York. I have no illusions about the next Kerouac or Basqiat being among those wannabes, any more than that he was getting high in the Michael Todd Room with me in the '80s, but you get my drift."

OK, I understand that "life" and agree that is has vanished, but the life people had in them emitting a lively energy is gone too, as shopping districts are not lively and supermarkets are not lively also. Yes, creative energy is present and diffused throughout the boroughs, but is lacking that impetus that was present in the 80s with people searching to become Dinosaur L; Talking Heads; Bob Dylan; Blondie; Madonna; songwriters; fashion designers and etc...etc. Yes, Bedford Ave slightly relives the 80s, but is lacking that lively energetic force as the uniformity in appearance is greatly concentrated in the neighborhood, Bedford Ave is the trendy place to be in Brooklyn, W'Burg proper. I do not want to see 50 female solo acts who all look like Alicia Keys or seventy five male groups that look like Morris Day And The Time. I am starting to view banking and marketing as organizations that is institutionalizing people therefore, stripping people of that lively energy. I have concluded, when people lack lively energy it descends in fashion; arts; socializing and a plethora of areas that made NYC The best City on Earth, Mecca to the World!

OK, I'll get my third cellphone and try to get with it ;)
hahahahaha

Yes, all the bad behaviors predate the gadgets, but I believe that all our highfalutin' gadgets promise us advances in lifestyle efficiency and smartness, but get used for the most ridiculous, mundane things. Most internet usage is probably shopping and facebook now, not interchange of ideas and self-education. Cellphones, yes, they can be lifesavers when you're in an accident or something, and can function as a timekeeper, but in practical application most people do abuse them. "That guy" is everywhere........

The creative energy thing, I knowo some people blame it on the gentrification of Manhattan, that there's no central focal point or gathering spot, but it probably has more to do with economics - there's no way to just barely work enough to scrape by with a little apartment somewhere in the city and devote one's energies to poetry, design, music, anarchy, etc. Being an adult is brutally difficult now, and look at the debts people come into the workforce carrying from schools.

Matt, I think we could go around in circles on tuition. No matter how much universities overspend, if they were 100% funded by taxes, the student would still pay zero tuition. We are so brainwashed in this country that we will actually run out into the streets and protest AGAINST having things like education provided as an "entitlement."

And at least in Manhattan there are lots of people who feel that since they have succeeded monetarily, it's because they deserved it, and that by logical extension, anyone who is less monetarily plush is simply less deserving.

Could it also be that one used to live in the central cities somewhat removed from the lifestyles of most people, because most people left the city at 5:00 pm to go to suburbs and leave the city for nonconformists? Just a possibility.........

In the mid 80s, I'm pretty sure my first semester tuition for Baruch College was around $800.
Wonder what it is today.

$45 a credit.

Wrong.

As usual.

This point has been made before, but I'll make it again. EVERYTHING seemed vital & exciting & fun & lively when I was in my teens & early 20s. I just get tired now, and want to curl up in bed with a good book at 10pm. That's my idea of fun. I like having all the mod-cons at hand, the VERY idea of lining up to go anywhere, esp. on a cold winter's night in my "get up" or looking for adventure with friends seems tiring. I suppose that I could chose to take my boring self out of Manhattan and free up real estate for the young and hip and/or creative but it ain't happening. There is something to the idea that my generation and the one before it is aging in place in Manhattan at a rate not seen in the 20th C.

Truthskr,
At one point City College was free

and the subway was a nickel.

"At one point City College was free"
Yeah I imagine that didn't help the city's budget in the 70s.

CC, yeah, I wasn't playing a game of rememem.....reme..me.mmember...... was just curious if inflationary costs for a CUNY college matched housing.

per their website, $2,415 per semester for in state tuition.

Oh ok, still a good deal, been hearing some of the numbers for my nephews looking towards out of state colleges, it's insane.

I don't believe that education is what is bankrupting the State. It's health care and pensions.

Rivala
How about when your professors and teachers and janitors and aids in the education system need healthcare and pensions.....it's still somewhat connected.

A lot of what's being discussed here isn't specific to NYC... cell phones, email, car seats, etc. That is happening all over the country.

Tuition at four year CUNY schools are $2,600 a sememster, not bad!

broadwayron, We are talking about NYC and not Any City, USA.

"We are talking about NYC and not Any City, USA."

The thread started like that, but then it devolved into people complaining about technology and the sort, and the negative effects it's had on everyone.
At least, that's how it looks to me; maybe I'm wrong.

Max's Kansas City, Reno Sweeney's, The Night Owl, Fridays Thursdays and Wednesdays Sunday Brunch, The Scene and The Cheetah, The House of Chan,Korvettes,Chock Full o'Nuts, The Mayflower Coffee Shop,Schatzkins Knishes,

broadwayron, i think the work demands on people who live and work in this area are greater. technology plays a greater role here than most other places because employers demand that it does. i can't recall the exact details but recently a managing partner at a law firm, after an associate missed a late-night e-mail, told everyone that the last thing they needed to accomplish before going to sleep was checking their e-mail.

almost everyone has e-mail these days. but not every area of the US requires that you check it hourly.

Horn & Hardart's 42nd and 3rd!

Cake Masters

Has anyone mentioned the subway? I remember riding to work between the cars on the Lexington line, in a muck sweat. Moving to Rockefeller Center for work was great, as walking home two miles in 95° weather was better than the train. Now it's luxury-land.

Horn % H, was that the place with all those pieces of cake in the glass vending machines?

NEver bring your kid to something like that, I remember tugging on my moms coat begging for money for like 5 desserts.

> Everyone did NOT eventually get in, no matter how large the club.

Depends on the club, and where in the cycle it was. We're not talking stuido 54, but if you stood long enough at limelight or tunnel, you'll get in. Could be hours.

The "immediate response" (so short line) clubs really took off with the lounge run, led by Spy Bar. Where they were so cool they didn't need a line. That started the whole "we're not even going to put up a sign" thing.

truthskr10,

Yes H&H was the place with the vending machines aka automat.

I miss Studio 54 and Infinity and Crisco Disco. I miss BAltmans. I miss Empire Diner. I miss Circuit City. I miss PanAm and the PanAm building.