NYC in the 80's ??

[Tarman]

A question for the American/New York City listeners, I know the difference between reality and films but i've always wondered if New York really was as grim in the 80's as i've seen in a lot of films (Maniac, C.H.U.D, Death Wish, Maniac Cop).

Please forgive my ignorance but i've seen it too many times for it to be a coincidence. Still love to visit

[cdb]

Parts of it, yes. Parts of it still are that grim. It wasn't like that in the 40s and 50s from what my dad told me. It was safe for a big city into the 60s, even in what are thought to be bad areas today, and then it really started to go into overload in the mid sixties and seventies and then followed the 80s. I remember Ridley Scott commenting on it, how he used to take photos in Harlem in the 60s and never had any issues. Basically it followed the economic ups and downs of the country, plus some horrible mismanagement of the city services for a long time and you got yourself one hell of a place to take a walk for a few decades.

[hammerhead]

I had to go back to NYC every summer to visit my grandparents, and I remember thinking I'd walked into some kind of hideous purgatory. Giuliani broke the back of the criminals, and NYC certainly looks better now. But if you want to see what it used to look like, just go to Newark.

[Tarman]

suppose every city has its good and bad areas, it does make a good setting for a movie though.

[dv909]

Times Square was an absolute cess pool of junkies, porn theaters, prostitutes...you name it. Guiliani certainly cleaned it up...but if you ask me, lately there's been somewhat of a downturn as 8th avenue, one avenue removed from Times Square, seems very rank these days.

I would say Death Wish and Maniac Cop are good representations of NYC in the 70's. Along with The Warriors (minus the gangs in uniforms). By the time Chud came out a good number of movies were entering into the realm of parody when it came to depicting NYC in decay like F13: Jason Takes Manhattan, TMNTurtles, and even Ghostbusters takes pot shots at the city.

[misterd]

A lot of films I think capture the feel of the city back then. Ghostbusters is one. French Connection. The on-location portions of Superman. Almost anything by Scorsese or Woody Allen. Of course my parents tended to steer me clear of the skankiest locations when I was growing up (I lived 2hr from NYC, but my dad worked downtown so we'd go down a few times a year).