I came across a book titled "New York Then and Now" at my local library. In it contained about a hundred photos of New York from the late 19th/ early 20th century and compared the same locations from the same perspective in the 1970s.
It reminded me of the time I visited New York in the latter half of the 1990s with my family on multiple occasions. Simply put, it was a big city. I didn't think it to be bad nor amazing.
Shows like Seinfeld and Friends portrayed my experience in a rather similar light. I have seen scenes of the gritty ghettos of the Harlem, and the filthy grafitti on the subways, but it all was pertinent to the character of the city. I heard of crime and struggle, but people seemed to continue with their lives in a nonchalant sort of way.
I was planning to visit New York on my own in 2001, but then 9/11 happened and I decided to postpone my plan. Still, I saw the city in the same light I as usual. From that day on, it is hard for me to say if the attitude of the city really changed that much.
Fast forward 15 years later, and I decide to pay another visit just for the fun of it. It completely changed. The attitude of people is no longer the same. Everyone is angry, unhelpful, or of foreign backgrounds. Many men were dressed feminine like, even those headed to work. There are billboards showing gay couples holding hands. Everywhere I went, there was a lackluster feel to it. Nowhere I went seemed genuine, as if the people took pride in the establishment. In short, it was very disappointing.
So tell me Sup Forums, what truly happened and will it ever return back to the same way I remembered it as?
>inb4 niggers
Niggers have always been around in New York; from the 90s, the population of black actually decreased in Manhattan
>inb4 terrorism
New York is safer than it has been in the last 50 years. When I first visited, I didn't sense any crime at all, though it peaked around the time I was there. More people are victims of violent crime in this country than all the acts of terrorism.
>inb4 muh diversity
Again, the climate of New York was always diverse, even if it is more so now. The attitude just...changed. People are very sarcastic and ironic. Is it like this in other cities of the same size? Why have we allowed this to happen at a rate never seen before?
Elijah Young
Thank De Blasio for undoing all the cleaning up Giuliani did.
Anthony Perez
How are titties a bad thing? Also, the NYPD post is for heavy traffic areas for like baseball games and shit.
Dylan Davis
It couldn't have been all his fault... I mean, half the city hates the guy. Something shifted in the past decade that destroyed the culture of the city (not 9/11)
Dominic Jones
>Something shifted in the past decade that destroyed the culture of the city (not 9/11) It was 9/11.
Jace Morgan
>how can the degeneracy be reversed
it can't. we go full circle
Camden Ortiz
Post-modernist architecture ruined New York's character
Modernist architecture: shit like old New York, like the Empire State building, it may even try to look like something, but still look like a building at the same time, less is more, and subtlety is key "If you work hard, you will reach truth"
Post-Modernist architecture: all those ridiculous looking buildings you see in New York, Basically anything can be "good", whether work was put into it or not "Why work hard when all your work can be destroyed in an instant?"
Architects got lazy Also the sexual revolution caused the degeneracy you're upset about
Jack Powell
DiBlasio's real name is Warren Wilhelm the Third. and this user is right, it was 9/11
William Turner
How did 9/11 change the culture THAT much?
Zachary Wright
The internet has ruined everything and gave a soap box top every self destructive sociopath out there. That is your answer.
Brandon Smith
70s NYC had one of the highest murder rates in the nation. Organized crime was still a very real fear. Homeless people lived in the subway tunnels.
Michael Powell
Demographic change happnened..... NYc is no longer a white city full of irish,italians, germans,english, polish and other europeans by a vast majority.
lol you know nothing about nyc and its history other than thru memes. nyc was always a shit show; dirty, trash in the streets, corrupt. way better now than before
Zachary Gomez
>How did two plane loads of people flying into the most recognizable buildings in the US, then collapsing taking over 2000 people with them, which then resulted in two increasingly unpopular wars change NYC? Gee I wonder user? All snark aside, it's like having your identity ripped violently from you for (at the time) no reason at all. It's the day EVERYBODY remembers in incredible detail. It's kinda like JFK's assassination or Pearl Harbor.
Xavier Campbell
Correct me if I'm wrong, but New York always had some beautiful and crime free parts. Hell, times square was a dump until the 90s when Koch removed all the peep shows on broadway.
And? It was different from now in the 90s as well. At that time, they weren't a vast majority either.
It may be cleaner, but it is much more shallow and artificial.
Asher Reed
NYers have no idea how on the cusp their city is to collapsing. There is a big push to relocate the financial industry to NJ where it is cheaper and where all the Indians are. If Wall Street goes checkmate NYC. The collapse will be entertaining as all hell as the MTA is the next domino to fall as train revenue crashes and they strike demanding more money from the local government which they don't have anymore because they are unable to pay all their pensions and other important bills.
Justin Sanchez
Dominicans, man. Dominicans.
Christian Campbell
(You) i guess that's just up to a personal opinion; and do remember that unless you were there to live thru nyc throughout the years,you can't really gaze a city's mood especially not through media
Liam Wilson
He's right. NYC has always been a diverse pile of shit that only works thanks to high salaries you can attain here and the SS like NYPD. If the NYPD were to disband tomorrow this entire city would go to shit but that would have been the case 10, 20, 30 years ago.
Nathan Myers
>i guess that's just up to a personal opinion; and do remember that unless you were there to live thru nyc throughout the years,you can't really gaze a city's mood especially not through media It's not media. NYC in the 70s and 80s was a shithole of gargantuan proportions. Literally anybody who had lived or been there in those years will tell you the same thing. You know Times Square, with the billboards and recruiting station in the middle? It used to be filled to the brim with strip clubs and organized crime.
>but it is much more shallow and artificial. I guess it's a difference in perspective.
Camden Johnson
> i was replying to the comment about it being "more" shallow and artificial, you can't really gaze something like that unless you've lived through it
Camden Williams
"Reversed"? You're in a dream world if you think it can be reversed. Once a kid reaches a certain age after learning a degenerate attitude that sticks with them forever regardless of nearly anything else.
The only way it can be dealt with at this point is a clearing of the board in totality of such things and that is never going to happen. So it will eventually, as it always does, lead to conflict with the stronger group killing off the weaker one.
Daniel Jenkins
bump
Ian Martin
oh oops my bad
John Cook
Don't bump your shit thread if you aren't going to participate or have a clear purpose for is
Jace Hernandez
Go fuck yourself you piece of shit faggot. Can't you read the title you stupid nigger? I hope you die a slow painful death.
Adam Green
"I hope you die a slow painful death."
"What happened and how can the degeneracy be reversed?"
