As New Yorkers we don't necessarily miss the crime etc , but miss the people, culture and how DOPE, HIP they were.... NY had a RHYTHM about it then that can't be explained !!!
The thing is those cool people with culture commit crime. Im assuming youre a women because women see to always want to push toward things that are unsafe and then talk about how scared they are. For some reason they cant connect the dots.
1970s NYC: Dangerous but colorful, vibrant, and culturally rich 2010s-2020s NYC: Safer and cleaner but extremely expensive to live in, strictly a place of finance, overrun by pretentious hipsters and cold-blooded money hungry business people.
@@spacesoup6797 naw, Covid is doing a good clean up job so far. Between people leaving and people dying, there's a solid chance for a renaissance period for NYC. Keeping hope alive.
@@delesa08 only if they can fortify the millenials and Generation X with affordable local housing in The city otherwise it will be a borring city of old and mid age millionare boomers and X ers.
If those hipsters lived a day in 70s New York the would have been murdered on the very first second Ps: don’t take it seriously which I know you will I was just exaggerating
Great documentary about NYC during that era. I lived on the Upper West Side from 1973 - 1981 and experienced some of the best years of my life. The city was definitely on the verge of bankruptcy but the cultural life, the night life, the music and feel of the city was totally awesome. I rode the subway at all hours of the night, was at Studio 54, The Loft, and other clubs and really had the time of my life! Thanks, New York, for allowing me to live through the wild 70's in Manhattan . . .
Yes, it was unlike any other place 24/7. The culture and even friendliness of people -- Yes, I said, "friendliness," and down-to-earth attitudes(unlike today) of most NYers was the best . . . from Washington Sq to The Bandshell and so much more and you didn't even need any money!! If you didn't walk around in fear and distrust, you really could experience NY like no other place in the world!!
By the year 1981, the city was really in the depths of a severe economic crisis. The MTA subway system had become very dirty and unsafe. I moved from New York to San Francisco in October of 1981. Now, whenever I go back to NYC for a visit, I see how the city has been totally transformed over the years.
what do you think of the city now? What are the major differences, and will it ever be the same? And what caused the changes?? Thanks for your insight!
The city is now a much safer, and cleaner place. Mayor Guliani was able to close down the sex shops in Times Square (which now is known that the shops could have stayed open), that along with a better fiancial situation, crackdown on crack, better relations between whites and blacks started it....then the gentrification sealed it. Was much sleazier then...but more flavor.
To all you romanticizing and wishing that you could go to live in a place/time like this: Be glad you can't. I lived the first 20 years of my life in NYC (1960-1980). For every good memory I have of then I have 9 others that were hellish. Left when I was 20 and have never gone back. Yeah, there were moments that were cool, but the evil of the place was what got under your skin and stuck with you for life -- unless you were wealthy enough to be able to keep that evil from touching you. I wasn't. Find the cool of the where/when you are now and appreciate it.
Lance Kaz thank you. Why do people love to romanticize seedy places? Everyone does that with Havana, Cuba now and when I visited I was disturbed by the rampant prostitution and desperation of the locals. Cars didn't have seat belts and pieces would fall off the bldgs and kill passerby. It really isn't that glamorous.
Yeah, I agree... say it all the time. But it wasn't that evil or as bad as anywhere else, in any other big city. I can honestly say I made more with the less I had. And had more fun. Now, older and with more money. There's not much here in terms of affordable fun.
i totally agree w/you. i lived in new york from '90-2005 & there wasn't any "seedy" side of the city i wasn't ensconced in or aware of. when i left, that was it. i've never felt the need to go back or ruminated over anything. when people say "don't you miss it?? wouldn't you want to go back??" it's hard to explain my past to them in a way they could understand. i wouldn't trade my experiences for anything but i wouldn't want to go back there. i'm like you, i live in a "fly over state," now, but i love it!!! i can see parts of the city becoming like new york but it has it's charm--people are still innocent & 'wet behind the ears,' i'm so glad i live here . . .
@@rundbaum well, see... that timeframe you presented, specifically '90 to '95, was problematic for me. I call those the "Crack years: Aftermath"... crime, filth, unemployment... while not 'protected' from it. I could deal with it. Only because of who was in my "circle" or "bubble" so to speak. The Crack epidemic was truly frightening. Anything the came before it, or afterwards, paled in comparison. Still, I had more good times than bad. Just seems now, with age. Experience and finances. I can't even afford to have a good time. Trust me, I'm under NO illusions on what NY was really like back then. But all this talk about NY being a better place.... well, yeah. Obviously. But for who ?
I was 15 in 1977 living on Long Island, I would cut school all the time & take the LIRR into Penn station & walk up to 42st to watch Kung Fu flicks I loved it 3 movies for 3 bucks granted the theaters where disgusting & small the screens where filthy soda all over them, don't fall a sleep if you didn't want to get robbed. I never had a problem sure there where the scammers but I was hip at 15.
I remember going on the regular to the youth centers to here & dance to the music of African Bambada & the Zulu nation! 77 Was a crazy year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Smoked my first joint in 77. Saw my first concert at Madison square garden. Delivered lunches for a coffee shop in the dangerous garment district. Saw Star Wars on Times Square. Yeah, quite a time for a 15 year old.
@@shizzle1903 Magic, whole lot o’ magic. He’s the one and only. When you’re president of the biggest gang in the city, you don’t have to take any shit. Ahh fuck him.
I remember that era. I moved to NYC from London in late 1972. I loved it. It was crude dirty and rough but that is exactly what I was searching for because it was so different from where I grew up. I miss the way it was in those days, my best friend in the world grew up in Coney Island, he is the toughest guy I know but he's also the best person I know. You don't get such personality from New Yorkers today.
HELL yes.. It's now simply a Disney Land.. NO culture- well, not the true culture, regardless of your color.. My grandparents lived on the lower East side, in SLUMS too..I'm from the "fancy Bronx", but it was STILL the Bronx.. it's all just a back drop for the Today show now. I MISS the days of Times Square peep shows and hookers- the GRIT- the GRIME.. NY is losing ANY character, and it's very sad. I had to leave b/c I was too broke.. Had to leave MY HOME.. Now I live in suburban SPRAWL, where NOT A SOUL has a sense of humor, or background story.. It's all work, work, work your petty job to pay your mortgage.. No character.. I don't even KNOW my neighbors.. No one talks to each other.. No sitting on the stoop, no block parties.. It's so sad.
Such bullshit. I defy any of you people who seem to think that NYC was "grittier" or "cooler" or "more real" back then than it is today to truly think back when the graffiti caked subway stank of piss morning, noon and night. Or to go to any unsupervised corner of the city after sunset. All this rose-colored garbage talk is beyond laughable for those of us who shat bricks just riding a bicycle through Brooklyn or looking the wrong sick bastard in the eye at the wrong time. Back then the NYPD and Department of Sanitation basically had the same job: clean up as much of the mess as possible, and NOTHING more. Be a chick and do something as simply as sit in a car! Think it was romantic to see the streets looted due to the blackout or have brown water come out of your tap? Think again, ass holes.
A little off topic, but I just have to mention it, the 1977 Topps baseball card of Reggie Jackson is one of the coolest cards of the 1970s. It's his first card as a member of the New York Yankees. Today in excellent-plus condition that 1977 Topps Reggie Jackson card is worth about $15 to $20, not too shabby for a little piece of cardboard.
I grew up in NYC and graduated from Baruch in 77. Indeed there were unpleasant aspects about NYC life but in the neighborhoods of the boroughs with the exception of the McMansions now popping up life in the neighborhoods is not that much different now as opposed to then. Pizza and bagels are not materially different then they were back then etc. And indeed... there was one incredibly undeniably good aspect about life back then and that is that the city universities did not charge tuition for city residents until modestly so in 1977. While many of my friends were building up loans I was building up life experience at no material cost to myself or my parents who did not have much anyway. The classrooms were cold sometimes but it was good...
wow. i lived in new york for 7 years & never knew the colleges were free. that is amazing. i wish i'd been around in the 70s i would have definitely gone to college there!!! . . .
No the NY neighborhoods are not the same as before now... In the 80's - 90's Puerto Ricans Black Americans Jamaicians Italian Irish Jewish After Gentrification Africans Mexicans Arabs (these are the new and dominant ethnic groups there now,,, it is a completely different vibe, atmosphere etc etc now.... not the same at all !!
I'm not an American, but I wish I were. I just love those classical times, everything from Rock n Roll to Disco to Pop rock and finally the grunge up until the late 90s... America was happening, on a roll with the whole world following...
I remember in '77, the year I graduated HS we were hanging out in Greenwich Village going to the clubs there, all the live music. I saw Lou Reed at The Bottom Line at a table not four feet away from him. I wish I'd taken pix of the subways back then, but you never thought there WOULDN'T be graffitti all over the place some day. My daughter lives in Brooklyn now, and the subways are so clean you can't even believe it. Times Square was a hell hole, now it's a tourist trap. Unbelievable how much it's changed. Safer now by far...but better? IDK. Glad for my daughter it is the way it is, but we always loved life on the edge back then.
I was 7 and I remember freaking out because I was in queens and one of the victims had my last name Lauria. I yelled to my mother "he's gonna kill me!!!" Lol
Sure NY was a dirty and dangerous slump back then; but it was also a vibrant and dynamic place. Everything and anything went. Nowadays, NY is just a massive mall for turists and hipsters; Starbucks and Trader Joe's everywhere invading a souless city.
I was born in the bx in 1973. I remember the buildings burning that we could see in the distance. I lived on the concourse (1770 to be exact) and it was a good neighborhood until around 1976-77 then it started to declne. But I wouldn't trade my upbringing in the bx for nothing. we later moved 15 minutes west to teaneck.nj but I never forgot my Bronx roots. it was gritty but it was our Bronx.
I grew up on the West Coast and my Dad grew up in New Jersey. He took me back in 1976 when I was 14 years old. We spent a couple days in New York City, rode the subway, went up in the Empire State Building and the World Trade Center, stood on the roof of the WTC on the observation platform. My favorite parts were the subway and the World Trade Center. The IRT subway system in 1976 was like something out of a Planet of the Apes movie, it was a hundred years old and it SEEMED a hundred years old. I thought it was awesome. We drove out to south Long Island in a rental car and went to the beach, on the way back my Dad took a wrong turn off the highway and we ended up driving around in the South Bronx. The garbage collectors were on strike and there were big islands of trash piled up in all the intersections. They were like traffic diverters, we had to drive around them. You didn't see stuff like that in Seattle.
I remember that blackout in NYC. I lived in Queens, and I was 8 years old at the time so I didn't realize how bad everything was. To me it was a memory that I will never forget. All of the neighbors were outside with candles and flashlights. It was fun however some people were freaking out about the Son of Sam.
Jeez, what an accomplished and kickass documentary! The insights are compelling and the visuals crackle. Thanks for posting this amazing artifact of a pivotal cultural era.
This and "From Mambo to Hip-Hop: A South Bronx Tale" along with "What Difference Does It Make: A Film About Making Music" are in my opinion the greatest documentaries ever made. Anyone that likes this one should definitely check out those other two.
I would also recommend the documentary "American Pimp" and pretty much any documentary that John Pilger has made, although he deals with much different subject matter
Awesome times in 1977 I was 18, bronx boy take the subway into times square, 25cents a slice of pizza, .42 cents/gal gas, loved it! Wish i could go back.
Born in Little Italy in 1957. Have memories of the San Gennaro feast going right past our front door. My parents got us out of there in 1964. The city was already starting to show cracks by then. Don't regret for a minute growing up in the boring NJ suburbs.
When people say that they miss "Old NY", they don't mean the crime per say, but instead the culture, vibe and people then.... and the styles... the coolness and hipness of the entire city.... like no other
I wasn't even born in 1977. I was born in 1997, in September.. I miss NYC. I went there in 2013. Only experience I had of a pre 9/11 NYC was when my mom was in New York City on a business trip in March 1997, while she was pregnant with me.
Thank you sooo much for posting this doc as its the best doc I have ever had the chance to see on this time period in NY. It really gets the feeling over to the viewer about what its was like. Ive never seen a doc that shows it so raw like this.
I was 15, years old going on 16, in 1977, growing up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (The South Side) second largest Puerto Rican, neighborhood at the time behind Spanish Harlem. There was another candidate running for mayor in 1977, his name was Herman Badillo, from the Bronx. As far as I know Brooklyn, wasn't as bad as the Bronx, during that time. At least one good thing came out that decade for New York City. It was the best decade for all types of music. From Classic Rock, Disco, Salsa, Funk, you name it. But, I think the year 1978, stands out the most.
The night hip hop was born... July 13th 1977 when the lights went out all over NY for 25hrs... All the record stores that had all the high end quality DJ equipment were robbed. The very next day everyone in the Bronx was an MC with hella bad ass expensive equipment
Taxi Driver captures that atmosphere of NYC. The paranoia and the decadence of it. I just saw Death Wish, the original with Charles Bronson also seems quite realistic.
I'm from California - the California landscape is beautiful especially when you add in the weather - I look at these old videos of New York and think - Why would anybody want to live there ??? Especially in 1977 - but New Yorker's love New York - it is all they think and talk about with their little ascents and such - Thank God for Hip Hop or I just wouldn't understand it -
Wow as a guy born in 1990s damn that was some exciting gritty ass New York,I really wished I can witness it in person. Now I have a good reason to back up why I loved number 77 after all these years!
The last vestige of hip NYC officially died in 1995. You could feel it was on life support for sometime, starting in '91 when they closed The World, the last cool nightclub in town.
Rest In Peace Ivan P. Negron Aka. Roc 🇵🇷 🙏 From South Bronx, NYC 🗽 He passed from gun violence in Denver Co in 1991. Another Puerto Rican dude shot him close range and he was unarmed too. I read the supplemental report.
The best... born in 1958, I was 19 in 1977. Grew up on Gunhill Road in the Bronx. Gangs were everywhere. We would go to the city everyday, it was raining money in the city back then. As long as you didn’t use, you made $$$$$$$$$ all day with it.
I'm out here on the opposite coast but New York has always peaked my curiosty the culture, the diversity, the mindset. its always been to me a city oozing substance, alot of it so familiar yet so opposite, tight..bigups from LA
I hope I never become like you when I grow older. "back in my time there were NO cellphones!!!" Yeah I know that and I'm I supposed to be shocked about that.
@james harm Well no shit it’s 2020 the murder rate in NYC is down almost 90% since 1990. And it’s not the Escobar days anymore Bogota and Medellin Colombia isn’t that bad now try living in Honduras or Brazil or Mexico
As a kid growing up in the Midwest in the 70’s, NYC as portrayed on TV and movies scared the crap outta me. This was only reinforced by the Son of Sam and blackout coverage on TV news.
New York to me is it’s own country! They have well had, all these culturally diverse neighborhoods and folks and Nelson Sullivan and wonderfully creative people! Now, it’s own country which I feel like I never want to visit.
Sure, some elements of danger are found today in Camden, but with the danger in NYC in '77 also came the once in a lifetime ascendancy of hip hop, punk rock, disco etc. There were elements of adventure and it was cheap to live here. It was less repression and less a city for rich yuppies. Like Tommy Ramone says, sure NYC had its rough edges but some of the best things in life have rough edges. Camden has none of the art, culture and energy that NYC had then.
Thanks a lot for sharing this! I realy love watching old videos be it commercials, movies or personally recorded video tapes. It all gives you a piece of the past! Makes me a bit sad that i missed out on it all, being born in the early 85' i only experienced a brief moment of the 20th century. Everything seemed so more stylish, original, simple and down to earth back then unlike the reality we have today, where you've got a world that's obsessed with stupid smartphones and (at most time) unfunny internet fads that are reused jokes or refferences of the past anyway. The 21th century has taken a turn for the worse and i dont like it. All that matters to people today is if youve got the latest iphone. Television with shows like Jersy Shore isnt watchable, Cars of today are butt ugly hollow shells of the original models, and dont even get me started on the uninspired pop culture and music industry of today. Sure we might have all those uneccesary gadgets that we wished for back in the days, but at what cost?
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im the same way..born early 85 aswell..check out NYC TPD DECOY 1985..its a short clip of under cover cops busting crooks in the subways, its interesting
While many of your observations are true, some of them are false as well: as someone who was born in NYC in 1952, I remember the 1970s in NYC well: and not fondly. It was a *literal* war zone. It wasn't just Son Of Sam shooting us - the Police, the drug dealers, even the little old ladies were armed an *extremely* dangerous. The 1970s were truly, as the title alludes, Hell On Earth. While I appreciate the many lost freedoms we had back then, I certainly don't miss the crime (I lived in a *great* neighborhood by the standards of the day (the upper west side), yet I was held up ("mugged") at gun or knife point *at least* once a year since I was around six years old! I remember the "tenant patrols" (against police advise, and against their repeated attempts to shut it down!), where you couldn't get into a building unless someone on the patrol knew you belonged there; the walking to schools as an excersize in bravery (traversing the various gangs, druggies, outright junkies, and assorted used-up-human-trash, etc. If you want a real look into the period, rent (or Pirate Bay) the movie "Panic In Needle Park" (a/k/a Broadway and 77th st), with Al Pacino. This movie is a realistic look at the New York of the 70's., and it is NOT a pretty picture.
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measl thank you for that input...very interesting and it coincides with the 70s crime clips ive seen on youtube so far..my parents were born in the 60s so they cant even give me a good look into the 70s and im 32 already ..all i know is the 80s and my era...
measl just for the record, needle park was the triangle between 72nd and 73rd streets, broadway and amsterdam. not 77th and broadway. i grew up on the upper west side in the 60s and 70s, and while of course the city was not the safest place in the world, it was a far more interesting and diverse place back then. where on this planet is one truly "safe"? nowhere i would ever want to be. i would take 1970s new york over nyc anytime since.
You're right! It's been a verrrryyyy long time: I [sit] corrected - thanks! You're also right that the city was a much more diverse and cultured place, something that the city has chosen to sacrifice in the name of a false "security". All things considered, I'd rather the New York City of the 1960's (during the Lindsay administration): it had all of the positives and few of the subsequent negatives. Unfortunately Lindsay nearly destroyed the city with his fiscal games, and the disaster that was the 70's can be laid directly at his door.
NYC has changed so much since I moved here in 1995....it has a lot less street cred, and to be honest, I work on the lower east side; and it's becoming the upper west side with all of the yuppies that have moved in. Let them pay exorbitant rents, I will always have my memories.
I'm only 21 NYC back then def seemed mad fun but also way too chaotic, I wish I could time travel just to see what it was like but I wouldn't wanna live back then even compared to now. And even though it was less sterile and more free back then the reason a lot of you prob loved it so much because you were in your teens and 20's which is usually the most fun times in most ppl's lives.
Soundtrack (fill the gaps pls): 0:28 Bob James - Take Me To The Mardi Gras 2:05 Bob James - Take Me To The Mardi Gras 3:11 The Jimmy Castor Bunch - It's Just Begun 4:14 Unidentified 5:29 The Beginning of The End - Come Down 6:45 The Beginning of The End - Funky Nassau, Pt. 2 8:55 Unidentified Thanks goes to others that help me find this jewels and gems of 70's music
Absolutely one of my favorite times to be alive. Grew up in Queens and took subway into the city always throughout the 70’s. Was 15 during the blackout and had a great time that night. No looting was going on in my neighborhood so things were cool. Everyone was out in the street. There was a party atmosphere. NEVER felt afraid.
Krindy Pomperdil So just like me if you lived in the south Bronx, you probably have a story to tell too. I want to hear it. Keep it raw and brutal don’t hold back.
I'm from Boston, and now I live in LA. I've visited NYC over 100 times. I was born in 1980, so I missed the madness of the 70s. I visited New York in the summer of 1995 and there were still some X-rated shops and theaters near Times Square. Midtown Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn may be more upscale and tourist friendly, but there are still gritty areas of the city. There is still crime, graffiti, poverty, homelessness, panhandlers, prostitution, live music venues, street performers, etc.
what was funny back in them days when buildings where burnt but still up. They would stick fake windows with painted curtains and flower plants in the burnt out windows. LOL
Miss Shannon people would set them on fire. There were many reasons. Some people were just setting them on fire for the sake of watching it burn and some for insurance purposes to collect.
@@phdyoutubedegree1939 dam. Burn down they own hoods. Smh. That's messed up. And people still had to live there? I cant imagine. I visited new york in the late nineties. I guess if i were to visit now it wouldn't feel anywhere near the same. Smh. Im still comin up there though! Just to walk around and see. Ima take a road trip, and visit all the five boroughs. Just drive/walk around....
Overall great documentary. Excellent overview of life and culture of the infamous but historic year of 1977. Especially in music as the birth of both Hip-Hop/Rap and Punk Rock would laid the groundwork for contemporary music for the last 2 decades of the 20th Century and also the first two decades of the 21st century. Only thing missing in this documentary that should had at least a short mention was the 1977 NY Yankees Baseball club winning the world series. The George Steinbrenner-owned and Reggie Jackson-led "Bronx Zoo" team turmoil was also a big part of NYC culture in the summer of '77. And when the Yanks won the series that fall, it briefly brought the city together. This video should be played at any school(high school and college due to the adult chat used by those interviewed)that teaching a course on NYC history. And finally NYC and America in 2016 really misses a very good then-future mayor in Ed Koch. Mr. Koch had his flaws and stayed in office as NYC Mayor too long.(several scandals in his 3rd term) However Koch did play an important role in ending the fiscal crisis. Abe Beame other than Jimmie Walker was probably the worst NYC mayor of the 20th Century IMO. PS it would been nice if say Debbie Harry or an Greenwich Village area artist could also been interviewed for this special.
I Guess People Only remember Good things about the past, Was a Teenager in the 70's, Was Free Spirited, not Uptight, Like now, we're more Caring and not so many snooty people then, But now, its A trade-off, of the convenience of High tech, for a Fast Uptight, uncaring introvert Society,
I've been awaiting a DVD release of this film for years! It occasionally pops up on VH1 in the wee hours. Seen it at least twice. Thank God for TH-cam!
![[LIVE] : ONE ลุมพินี 68 | คู่เอก "พระจันทร์ฉาย vs โจนาธาน"](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/F3IM3w-XchI/mqdefault.jpg)
“The Bronx wasn’t burning...the Bronx was burnt!”
Spot on!
The Bronx was burnt and burning.
So was Harlem, Parts of Brooklyn and The Lower East Side
@@hereisayana8207 all of ny was basically burnt. Now it's just filled with gay people and white women.
@@rajbhattacharya4427 now it's full of a lot of foreigners
@@hereisayana8207 now its full of jive turkeys ya digg
hotwiring the street lamp to party has to be the most ghetto and coolest thing ive heard about ahaha
@Isuzu Slider Lmao very true
Jiggahata1 it was a more wild time but kids were smart then
Cool
They would hook up DJ turntables to it
'cold lampin'
As New Yorkers we don't necessarily miss the crime etc , but miss the people, culture and how DOPE, HIP they were.... NY had a RHYTHM about it then that can't be explained !!!
Go to prison
The thing is those cool people with culture commit crime. Im assuming youre a women because women see to always want to push toward things that are unsafe and then talk about how scared they are. For some reason they cant connect the dots.
1970s NYC: Dangerous but colorful, vibrant, and culturally rich
2010s-2020s NYC: Safer and cleaner but extremely expensive to live in, strictly a place of finance, overrun by pretentious hipsters and cold-blooded money hungry business people.
Maybe son of sam should come back ?
@@spacesoup6797 naw, Covid is doing a good clean up job so far. Between people leaving and people dying, there's a solid chance for a renaissance period for NYC. Keeping hope alive.
True fact I grow up here since 1987... This place is a srerile hospital now compared to even the late 90s
@@delesa08 only if they can fortify the millenials and Generation X with affordable local housing in The city otherwise it will be a borring city of old and mid age millionare boomers and X ers.
If those hipsters lived a day in 70s New York the would have been murdered on the very first second
Ps: don’t take it seriously which I know you will I was just exaggerating
Great documentary about NYC during that era. I lived on the Upper West Side from 1973 - 1981 and experienced some of the best years of my life. The city was definitely on the verge of bankruptcy but the cultural life, the night life, the music and feel of the city was totally awesome. I rode the subway at all hours of the night, was at Studio 54, The Loft, and other clubs and really had the time of my life! Thanks, New York, for allowing me to live through the wild 70's in Manhattan . . .
Yes, it was unlike any other place 24/7. The culture and even friendliness of people -- Yes, I said, "friendliness," and down-to-earth attitudes(unlike today) of most NYers was the best . . . from Washington Sq to The Bandshell and so much more and you didn't even need any money!! If you didn't walk around in fear and distrust, you really could experience NY like no other place in the world!!
i bet it was exciting. i wish i could time travel as i was born in 1981 and naturally would live to have been thriving a decade earlier
By the year 1981, the city was really in the depths of a severe economic crisis. The MTA subway system had become very dirty and unsafe. I moved from New York to San Francisco in October of 1981. Now, whenever I go back to NYC for a visit, I see how the city has been totally transformed over the years.
what do you think of the city now? What are the major differences, and will it ever be the same? And what caused the changes?? Thanks for your insight!
The city is now a much safer, and cleaner place. Mayor Guliani was able to close down the sex shops in Times Square (which now is known that the shops could have stayed open), that along with a better fiancial situation, crackdown on crack, better relations between whites and blacks started it....then the gentrification sealed it. Was much sleazier then...but more flavor.
To all you romanticizing and wishing that you could go to live in a place/time like this: Be glad you can't. I lived the first 20 years of my life in NYC (1960-1980). For every good memory I have of then I have 9 others that were hellish. Left when I was 20 and have never gone back. Yeah, there were moments that were cool, but the evil of the place was what got under your skin and stuck with you for life -- unless you were wealthy enough to be able to keep that evil from touching you. I wasn't. Find the cool of the where/when you are now and appreciate it.
Lance Kaz thank you. Why do people love to romanticize seedy places? Everyone does that with Havana, Cuba now and when I visited I was disturbed by the rampant prostitution and desperation of the locals. Cars didn't have seat belts and pieces would fall off the bldgs and kill passerby. It really isn't that glamorous.
I agree, I left too. 19 years raised in the Bronx. 1507 Popham ave. Eastchester Gardens and Webster ave projects. Wasn't nothing pretty. Glad I left.
Yeah, I agree... say it all the time. But it wasn't that evil or as bad as anywhere else, in any other big city. I can honestly say I made more with the less I had. And had more fun. Now, older and with more money. There's not much here in terms of affordable fun.
i totally agree w/you. i lived in new york from '90-2005 & there wasn't any "seedy" side of the city i wasn't ensconced in or aware of. when i left, that was it. i've never felt the need to go back or ruminated over anything. when people say "don't you miss it?? wouldn't you want to go back??" it's hard to explain my past to them in a way they could understand. i wouldn't trade my experiences for anything but i wouldn't want to go back there. i'm like you, i live in a "fly over state," now, but i love it!!! i can see parts of the city becoming like new york but it has it's charm--people are still innocent & 'wet behind the ears,' i'm so glad i live here . . .
@@rundbaum well, see... that timeframe you presented, specifically '90 to '95, was problematic for me. I call those the "Crack years: Aftermath"... crime, filth, unemployment... while not 'protected' from it. I could deal with it. Only because of who was in my "circle" or "bubble" so to speak. The Crack epidemic was truly frightening. Anything the came before it, or afterwards, paled in comparison. Still, I had more good times than bad. Just seems now, with age. Experience and finances. I can't even afford to have a good time. Trust me, I'm under NO illusions on what NY was really like back then. But all this talk about NY being a better place.... well, yeah. Obviously. But for who ?
NYC had character back in he 1970s, but a lot of stuff that was horrible. I grew up during this time.
Ray Gordon Teaches Chess I was born in the Bronx in 79. I missed when the Bronx has character too. Now it’s all gentrified
I was 15 in 1977 living on Long Island, I would cut school all the time & take the LIRR into Penn station & walk up to 42st to watch Kung Fu flicks I loved it 3 movies for 3 bucks granted the theaters where disgusting & small the screens where filthy soda all over them, don't fall a sleep if you didn't want to get robbed. I never had a problem sure there where the scammers but I was hip at 15.
kung fu flicks...wow!
Wow for me.
yeah its hip to be square..lol
Hello im Born 1991. Im looking for my Dad. My Mum get laid several times in New York. Dadd is it you? Here im your Boy!
We can smoke weed in the theater back in the days
It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under
Great song!
Bob Donovan That song came from the lifestyles of NYC. Those days are over now.
@Bob Donovan....that song should have definitely been on the soundtrack to this.
Huh huh-huh huh huh huh....
Broken glass EVERYWHERE! people pissin on the corner, you know they just don't care
I remember going on the regular to the youth centers to here & dance to the music of African Bambada & the Zulu nation! 77 Was a crazy year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And now he's in jail for pedophilia.
Smoked my first joint in 77. Saw my first concert at Madison square garden. Delivered lunches for a coffee shop in the dangerous garment district. Saw Star Wars on Times Square. Yeah, quite a time for a 15 year old.
"WARRIORS, come out to playyyy"
Cool movie
That was '79
What do you know about Cyrus?
come out AND play.
@@shizzle1903
Magic, whole lot o’ magic.
He’s the one and only.
When you’re president of the biggest gang in the city, you don’t have to take any shit.
Ahh fuck him.
"Most people thought that NYC's great days were over. My attitude was fuck 'em." Gotta love Mayor Koch.
How'm I doin'?
Gangsta Mayor Koch cracks me up at 2:47 "F*ck 'em!" lol
David Carpenter yeah, well said.R.I.P mayor.Ed Koch.you are so missed.
Yeah,you gotta love. Mayor Ed Koch R.I.P my friend, I miss you.we REALLY miss you.
Hahaha
The City was a Shit Hole in the 70's glad I survived !
I remember that era. I moved to NYC from London in late 1972. I loved it. It was crude dirty and rough but that is exactly what I was searching for because it was so different from where I grew up. I miss the way it was in those days, my best friend in the world grew up in Coney Island, he is the toughest guy I know but he's also the best person I know. You don't get such personality from New Yorkers today.
Most real NYers moved down south now and are ages 40 and up. Now NY is filled with 3rd world immigrants
ROh yeah? Is that what the REAL New Yorkers did?! Kinda sounds like they aren’t so REAL anymore after moving out of the city huh hahaha
NYC is the only place to introduce so many musical styles throughout history : Beebop jazz, Salsa, House and Hip-Hop....
A much grittier, yet more interesting New York City before they turned it into a giant theme park for tourists.
and a back drop for selfie photos for fat, white rich lena dunham hipsters from some nowhere flyover state
HELL yes.. It's now simply a Disney Land.. NO culture- well, not the true culture, regardless of your color.. My grandparents lived on the lower East side, in SLUMS too..I'm from the "fancy Bronx", but it was STILL the Bronx.. it's all just a back drop for the Today show now. I MISS the days of Times Square peep shows and hookers- the GRIT- the GRIME.. NY is losing ANY character, and it's very sad. I had to leave b/c I was too broke.. Had to leave MY HOME.. Now I live in suburban SPRAWL, where NOT A SOUL has a sense of humor, or background story.. It's all work, work, work your petty job to pay your mortgage.. No character.. I don't even KNOW my neighbors.. No one talks to each other.. No sitting on the stoop, no block parties.. It's so sad.
+illuminatioracle That description was awsome lmao
Such bullshit. I defy any of you people who seem to think that NYC was "grittier" or "cooler" or "more real" back then than it is today to truly think back when the graffiti caked subway stank of piss morning, noon and night. Or to go to any unsupervised corner of the city after sunset. All this rose-colored garbage talk is beyond laughable for those of us who shat bricks just riding a bicycle through Brooklyn or looking the wrong sick bastard in the eye at the wrong time. Back then the NYPD and Department of Sanitation basically had the same job: clean up as much of the mess as possible, and NOTHING more. Be a chick and do something as simply as sit in a car! Think it was romantic to see the streets looted due to the blackout or have brown water come out of your tap? Think again, ass holes.
paulph12002. _I'm down with you!_ 👏👏👏👍👍👍
I was 12yrs old, with not a care in the world.
I definitely understand that this was a place of hell. But I would love to just be in old New York for just 1 day to catch the feel of everything.
_Tough times! However, NYC was the _*_shit_*_ back then! I really do miss them good ol' times!_
This is THE best documentary on New York City in 'the Bad Ol' Days'!! GREAT Editing!!! Moves very well!
A little off topic, but I just have to mention it, the 1977 Topps baseball card of Reggie Jackson is one of the coolest cards of the 1970s. It's his first card as a member of the New York Yankees. Today in excellent-plus condition that 1977 Topps Reggie Jackson card is worth about $15 to $20, not too shabby for a little piece of cardboard.
How was yankee Stadium back in the day ?
I was 6 and to young to understand 77 at the time,I do remember the fun times I had just being a kid,not a worry in the world.
I grew up in NYC and graduated from Baruch in 77. Indeed there were unpleasant aspects about NYC life but in the neighborhoods of the boroughs with the exception of the McMansions now popping up life in the neighborhoods is not that much different now as opposed to then. Pizza and bagels are not materially different then they were back then etc. And indeed... there was one incredibly undeniably good aspect about life back then and that is that the city universities did not charge tuition for city residents until modestly so in 1977. While many of my friends were building up loans I was building up life experience at no material cost to myself or my parents who did not have much anyway. The classrooms were cold sometimes but it was good...
wow. i lived in new york for 7 years & never knew the colleges were free. that is amazing. i wish i'd been around in the 70s i would have definitely gone to college there!!! . . .
No the NY neighborhoods are not the same as before now...
In the 80's - 90's
Puerto Ricans
Black Americans
Jamaicians
Italian
Irish
Jewish
After Gentrification
Africans
Mexicans
Arabs
(these are the new and dominant ethnic groups there now,,, it is a completely different vibe, atmosphere etc etc now.... not the same at all !!
I'm not an American, but I wish I were. I just love those classical times, everything from Rock n Roll to Disco to Pop rock and finally the grunge up until the late 90s... America was happening, on a roll with the whole world following...
Nirvana For All where u from??
I remember in '77, the year I graduated HS we were hanging out in Greenwich
Village going to the clubs there, all the live music. I saw Lou Reed at The Bottom Line at a table not four feet away from him. I wish I'd taken pix of the subways back then, but you never thought there WOULDN'T be graffitti all over the place some day. My daughter lives in Brooklyn now, and the subways are so clean you can't even believe it. Times Square was a hell hole, now it's a tourist trap. Unbelievable how much it's changed. Safer now by far...but better? IDK. Glad for my daughter it is the way it is, but we always loved life on the edge back then.
evolvedtg lou reed ahh so lucky im jealous
Check out the book Subway Art (or the film Style Wars) . Maybe you’ll catch some subway cars you saw back in the day
I was 7 and I remember freaking out because I was in queens and one of the victims had my last name Lauria. I yelled to my mother "he's gonna kill me!!!" Lol
David Berkowitz the son of sam? lol.
BAMBAATAA definitely was feeling the youths energy.
Ya in a up close and personal kind of way...lol
😂😂😂😂😂😂Mos def
😂😂😂😂😂
Lol
Sure NY was a dirty and dangerous slump back then; but it was also a vibrant and dynamic place. Everything and anything went. Nowadays, NY is just a massive mall for turists and hipsters; Starbucks and Trader Joe's everywhere invading a souless city.
I was born in the bx in 1973. I remember the buildings burning that we could see in the distance. I lived on the concourse (1770 to be exact) and it was a good neighborhood until around 1976-77 then it started to declne. But I wouldn't trade my upbringing in the bx for nothing. we later moved 15 minutes west to teaneck.nj but I never forgot my Bronx roots. it was gritty but it was our Bronx.
I was 8 in '77 living in Staten Island. I'm still there now at 50!!! I love it.
My city, it was bad, but it was home, and we made the best of it as kids. Until the teenage years. 🏠
I grew up on the West Coast and my Dad grew up in New Jersey. He took me back in 1976 when I was 14 years old. We spent a couple days in New York City, rode the subway, went up in the Empire State Building and the World Trade Center, stood on the roof of the WTC on the observation platform. My favorite parts were the subway and the World Trade Center. The IRT subway system in 1976 was like something out of a Planet of the Apes movie, it was a hundred years old and it SEEMED a hundred years old. I thought it was awesome.
We drove out to south Long Island in a rental car and went to the beach, on the way back my Dad took a wrong turn off the highway and we ended up driving around in the South Bronx. The garbage collectors were on strike and there were big islands of trash piled up in all the intersections. They were like traffic diverters, we had to drive around them. You didn't see stuff like that in Seattle.
You see that in Seattle every day now...
I remember that blackout in NYC. I lived in Queens, and I was 8 years old at the time so I didn't realize how bad everything was. To me it was a memory that I will never forget. All of the neighbors were outside with candles and flashlights. It was fun however some people were freaking out about the Son of Sam.
"My attitude was...fuck 'em."
So New York.
It was great back then, the Italians kept their neighborhoods safe and clean
Don’t see ppl in America sweeping sidewalks no more
Lol safe they were just as dangerous
Like I always say, an overly clean room/house/neighborhood/city is just a sign that nothing's going on there worth a damn.
Ok
Jeez, what an accomplished and kickass documentary! The insights are compelling and the visuals crackle. Thanks for posting this amazing artifact of a pivotal cultural era.
94 was the turn around with Rudy .
Can't believe my dad was living there during this time period. A part of history.
This video is Brilliant..Thanx from England.
This and "From Mambo to Hip-Hop: A South Bronx Tale" along with "What Difference Does It Make: A Film About Making Music" are in my opinion the greatest documentaries ever made. Anyone that likes this one should definitely check out those other two.
Don't forget 80 blocks from tiffany's
Antonio Johnson Never seen it before, checking it out now thanks!
I would also recommend the documentary "American Pimp" and pretty much any documentary that John Pilger has made, although he deals with much different subject matter
Are you alive Matt? A majority of the film footages from this Doc, was from 80 blocks from tiffany's
+Are you alive Matt? I got that on amazon prime.
Every seven years it's in everybody's recommendations... Oh, and part 2 is missing. Would be nice if you could reupload it...
Awesome times in 1977 I was 18, bronx boy take the subway into times square, 25cents a slice of pizza, .42 cents/gal gas, loved it! Wish i could go back.
When young people say that baby boomers were all spoilt and had an easy life show them this video.
As if all of our parents grew up in the slums of new York
White boomers.
I remember this shit , I was 7 years old. I tried to persuade my mother in letting me got out in the black out.
Bruh you was trippin lol
Mike tyson grew up in this generation no wonder he was tough
If you New Yorkers miss this so much, just come to Skid Row in LA today. Yeah... Didn't think so!
A people who trade their freedom for security has neither and soon loses both
The 70s in NYC were indescribeable-glad I was there!
Love mayor Koch’s attitude & expression- “fuck ‘em !” 2:54
Born in Little Italy in 1957. Have memories of the San Gennaro feast going right past our front door. My parents got us out of there in 1964. The city was already starting to show cracks by then. Don't regret for a minute growing up in the boring NJ suburbs.
When people say that they miss "Old NY", they don't mean the crime per say, but instead the culture, vibe and people then.... and the styles... the coolness and hipness of the entire city.... like no other
I agree, I definitely would have been in the skate crowd smoking blunts and drinking 40s
I love back when new york had style but after i look at the crime rate and poverty,i feel like detroit was better than late 60s-early 80s new york.
Born on June 13 1977 in Brooklyn, NY. Oh what surrounded me as I began the journey!
me 3 Nov 24 1977 thanksgiving word born
ha ha i was 13 in 77 and im born on 9th june ironic!
What surrounded you? *Police*
I wasn't even born in 1977. I was born in 1997, in September.. I miss NYC. I went there in 2013.
Only experience I had of a pre 9/11 NYC was when my mom was in New York City on a business trip in March 1997, while she was pregnant with me.
Bodyknowledge 77 My brother was born in May of 1977.
Thank you sooo much for posting this doc as its the best doc I have ever had the chance to see on this time period in NY. It really gets the feeling over to the viewer about what its was like. Ive never seen a doc that shows it so raw like this.
I was 15, years old going on 16, in 1977, growing up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (The South Side) second largest Puerto Rican, neighborhood at the time behind Spanish Harlem. There was another candidate running for mayor in 1977, his name was Herman Badillo, from the Bronx. As far as I know Brooklyn, wasn't as bad as the Bronx, during that time. At least one good thing came out that decade for New York City. It was the best decade for all types of music. From Classic Rock, Disco, Salsa, Funk, you name it. But, I think the year 1978, stands out the most.
My father often talks about 1977 in NYC. Now, after watching this, it has so much more meaning to me.
The night hip hop was born... July 13th 1977 when the lights went out all over NY for 25hrs... All the record stores that had all the high end quality DJ equipment were robbed. The very next day everyone in the Bronx was an MC with hella bad ass expensive equipment
What? The bronx was created in 71
Taxi Driver captures that atmosphere of NYC. The paranoia and the decadence of it. I just saw Death Wish, the original with Charles Bronson also seems quite realistic.
I'm from California - the California landscape is beautiful especially when you add in the weather - I look at these old videos of New York and think - Why would anybody want to live there ??? Especially in 1977 - but New Yorker's love New York - it is all they think and talk about with their little ascents and such - Thank God for Hip Hop or I just wouldn't understand it -
Yeah I was there then. I miss the decay.
Wow as a guy born in 1990s damn that was some exciting gritty ass New York,I really wished I can witness it in person.
Now I have a good reason to back up why I loved number 77 after all these years!
The last vestige of hip NYC officially died in 1995. You could feel it was on life support for sometime, starting in '91 when they closed The World, the last cool nightclub in town.
Seeing this reminds me of how I grew up in New Orleans in the 70’s and 80’s. NOLA is a totally different city now than it was then.
MAN, miss the old New York!!!
MADNEW YORKER I know u did mr racist..y'all blacks abused every race ..even your own n now u can't do that cuz latins stopped y'all abuse
@@nancyvazquez5048 🤡🤡🤡
@@nancyvazquez5048 try going back to school so you can speak without sounding like an idiot....
@@jamesmack3314 it’s back!
@@nancyvazquez5048 So what race had too do with it...
Rest In Peace Ivan P. Negron
Aka. Roc 🇵🇷 🙏
From South Bronx, NYC 🗽
He passed from gun violence in Denver Co in 1991.
Another Puerto Rican dude shot him close range and he was unarmed too.
I read the supplemental report.
The best... born in 1958, I was 19 in 1977. Grew up on Gunhill Road in the Bronx. Gangs were everywhere. We would go to the city everyday, it was raining money in the city back then. As long as you didn’t use, you made $$$$$$$$$ all day with it.
Dont forget the amazing punk and early hip hop scenes from 77. NYC 77 was the greatest. It's just not the same now
Damn shame what they did to the peep shows,, but just off of Farmers and Rockaways Queens there's one still a available 🤯🤯🤯
born 12/31/76, Glad i wasn't around this until 1988
I'm out here on the opposite coast but New York has always peaked my curiosty the culture, the diversity, the mindset. its always been to me a city oozing substance, alot of it so familiar yet so opposite, tight..bigups from LA
When there were NO cell phones!!!!!
+MN yo as well as another 15 years down the road
Yes, but new york in 1477 was even wilder!!! No books!!!! No tech at all
I hope I never become like you when I grow older. "back in my time there were NO cellphones!!!" Yeah I know that and I'm I supposed to be shocked about that.
First cell phone was invented in 1973... though, I know what you mean.
Another old person complaining about modern technology
like the Rolling Stones say, " to live in this town, you must be tough tough tough tough tough tough tough tough ..."
@james harm Well no shit it’s 2020 the murder rate in NYC is down almost 90% since 1990. And it’s not the Escobar days anymore Bogota and Medellin Colombia isn’t that bad now try living in Honduras or Brazil or Mexico
Yes back then we’re rough times but called the good old days if you were mob connected
As a kid growing up in the Midwest in the 70’s, NYC as portrayed on TV and movies scared the crap outta me. This was only reinforced by the Son of Sam and blackout coverage on TV news.
New York to me is it’s own country! They have well had, all these culturally diverse neighborhoods and folks and Nelson Sullivan and wonderfully creative people! Now, it’s own country which I feel like I never want to visit.
Sure, some elements of danger are found today in Camden, but with the danger in NYC in '77 also came the once in a lifetime ascendancy of hip hop, punk rock, disco etc. There were elements of adventure and it was cheap to live here. It was less repression and less a city for rich yuppies. Like Tommy Ramone says, sure NYC had its rough edges but some of the best things in life have rough edges. Camden has none of the art, culture and energy that NYC had then.
Thanks a lot for sharing this! I realy love watching old videos be it commercials, movies or personally recorded video tapes. It all gives you a piece of the past! Makes me a bit sad that i missed out on it all, being born in the early 85' i only experienced a brief moment of the 20th century. Everything seemed so more stylish, original, simple and down to earth back then unlike the reality we have today, where you've got a world that's obsessed with stupid smartphones and (at most time) unfunny internet fads that are reused jokes or refferences of the past anyway. The 21th century has taken a turn for the worse and i dont like it. All that matters to people today is if youve got the latest iphone. Television with shows like Jersy Shore isnt watchable, Cars of today are butt ugly hollow shells of the original models, and dont even get me started on the uninspired pop culture and music industry of today. Sure we might have all those uneccesary gadgets that we wished for back in the days, but at what cost?
im the same way..born early 85 aswell..check out NYC TPD DECOY 1985..its a short clip of under cover cops busting crooks in the subways, its interesting
While many of your observations are true, some of them are false as well: as someone who was born in NYC in 1952, I remember the 1970s in NYC well: and not fondly. It was a *literal* war zone. It wasn't just Son Of Sam shooting us - the Police, the drug dealers, even the little old ladies were armed an *extremely* dangerous. The 1970s were truly, as the title alludes, Hell On Earth.
While I appreciate the many lost freedoms we had back then, I certainly don't miss the crime (I lived in a *great* neighborhood by the standards of the day (the upper west side), yet I was held up ("mugged") at gun or knife point *at least* once a year since I was around six years old! I remember the "tenant patrols" (against police advise, and against their repeated attempts to shut it down!), where you couldn't get into a building unless someone on the patrol knew you belonged there; the walking to schools as an excersize in bravery (traversing the various gangs, druggies, outright junkies, and assorted used-up-human-trash, etc.
If you want a real look into the period, rent (or Pirate Bay) the movie "Panic In Needle Park" (a/k/a Broadway and 77th st), with Al Pacino. This movie is a realistic look at the New York of the 70's., and it is NOT a pretty picture.
measl thank you for that input...very interesting and it coincides with the 70s crime clips ive seen on youtube so far..my parents were born in the 60s so they cant even give me a good look into the 70s and im 32 already ..all i know is the 80s and my era...
measl just for the record, needle park was the triangle between 72nd and 73rd streets, broadway and amsterdam. not 77th and broadway.
i grew up on the upper west side in the 60s and 70s, and while of course the city was not the safest place in the world, it was a far more interesting and diverse place back then. where on this planet is one truly "safe"? nowhere i would ever want to be. i would take 1970s new york over nyc anytime since.
You're right! It's been a verrrryyyy long time: I [sit] corrected - thanks!
You're also right that the city was a much more diverse and cultured place, something that the city has chosen to sacrifice in the name of a false "security".
All things considered, I'd rather the New York City of the 1960's (during the Lindsay administration): it had all of the positives and few of the subsequent negatives. Unfortunately Lindsay nearly destroyed the city with his fiscal games, and the disaster that was the 70's can be laid directly at his door.
NYC has changed so much since I moved here in 1995....it has a lot less street cred, and to be honest, I work on the lower east side; and it's becoming the upper west side with all of the yuppies that have moved in. Let them pay exorbitant rents, I will always have my memories.
Thanks for uploading this series. I remember this before it was sterilized by Disney.
If Bella Abzug had married Jim Fregosi,she would have been Bella Fregosi.
Brilliant!
Had she married Bella Lugosi she would have been,...Bella Lugosi,
Shout out to my fellow 1977 babies.
I was in summer camp in Litchfield, CT for all this action though I heard it on the radio. Most incredible year ever in many ways.
I love when interesting stuff like this shows up in my recommended feed!
I'm only 21 NYC back then def seemed mad fun but also way too chaotic, I wish I could time travel just to see what it was like but I wouldn't wanna live back then even compared to now.
And even though it was less sterile and more free back then the reason a lot of you prob loved it so much because you were in your teens and 20's which is usually the most fun times in most ppl's lives.
Soundtrack (fill the gaps pls):
0:28 Bob James - Take Me To The Mardi Gras
2:05 Bob James - Take Me To The Mardi Gras
3:11 The Jimmy Castor Bunch - It's Just Begun
4:14 Unidentified
5:29 The Beginning of The End - Come Down
6:45 The Beginning of The End - Funky Nassau, Pt. 2
8:55 Unidentified
Thanks goes to others that help me find this jewels and gems of 70's music
2:05 Same tune th-cam.com/video/Ove38w3ztG4/w-d-xo.html
@@muziklvr7776 I think you got it
@@muziklvr7776 what a track!
Absolutely one of my favorite times to be alive. Grew up in Queens and took subway into the city always throughout the 70’s. Was 15 during the blackout and had a great time that night. No looting was going on in my neighborhood so things were cool. Everyone was out in the street. There was a party atmosphere. NEVER felt afraid.
Would love to of visited New York back then. Absolute madness but so much going on!
January 13th 1975 Queens miss those days growing up to break dancing in the 1980s
I was born in the Bronx in 1977
Krindy Pomperdil So just like me if you lived in the south Bronx, you probably have a story to tell too. I want to hear it. Keep it raw and brutal don’t hold back.
Curly Savv ayyyeee same here
I'm from Boston, and now I live in LA. I've visited NYC over 100 times. I was born in 1980, so I missed the madness of the 70s. I visited New York in the summer of 1995 and there were still some X-rated shops and theaters near Times Square. Midtown Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn may be more upscale and tourist friendly, but there are still gritty areas of the city. There is still crime, graffiti, poverty, homelessness, panhandlers, prostitution, live music venues, street performers, etc.
This is a great piece of history, thanks for uploading.
what was funny back in them days when buildings where burnt but still up. They would stick fake windows with painted curtains and flower plants in the burnt out windows. LOL
@ New York Bushes.....hahaha you remember that too?
How all the buildings get burnt out?
Miss Shannon people would set them on fire. There were many reasons. Some people were just setting them on fire for the sake of watching it burn and some for insurance purposes to collect.
Anthony Patterson lol some days the building were my playgrounds.
@@phdyoutubedegree1939 dam. Burn down they own hoods. Smh. That's messed up. And people still had to live there? I cant imagine.
I visited new york in the late nineties. I guess if i were to visit now it wouldn't feel anywhere near the same. Smh.
Im still comin up there though! Just to walk around and see. Ima take a road trip, and visit all the five boroughs. Just drive/walk around....
Oh its already done, Jersey City is the same is NY now. It looks nothing like it did in the 80's and 90's when I grew up there.
40 years later and KRS-One is a Hip-Hop
Legend.......... Money well spent.
Kool Herc IS THE GODFATHER OF HIP/HOP!
Overall great documentary. Excellent overview of life and culture of the infamous but historic year of 1977. Especially in music as the birth of both Hip-Hop/Rap and Punk Rock would laid the groundwork for contemporary music for the last 2 decades of the 20th Century and also the first two decades of the 21st century. Only thing missing in this documentary that should had at least a short mention was the 1977 NY Yankees Baseball club winning the world series. The George Steinbrenner-owned and Reggie Jackson-led "Bronx Zoo" team turmoil was also a big part of NYC culture in the summer of '77. And when the Yanks won the series that fall, it briefly brought the city together. This video should be played at any school(high school and college due to the adult chat used by those interviewed)that teaching a course on NYC history.
And finally NYC and America in 2016 really misses a very good then-future mayor in Ed Koch. Mr. Koch had his flaws and stayed in office as NYC Mayor too long.(several scandals in his 3rd term) However Koch did play an important role in ending the fiscal crisis. Abe Beame other than Jimmie Walker was probably the worst NYC mayor of the 20th Century IMO. PS it would been nice if say Debbie Harry or an Greenwich Village area artist could also been interviewed for this special.
How I would have loved to been born early enough to be an adult in NYC of the 1970's! THE GOLRY DAYS OF SEED!
I Guess People Only remember Good things about the past, Was a Teenager in the 70's, Was Free Spirited, not Uptight, Like now, we're more Caring and not so many snooty people then, But now, its A trade-off, of the convenience of High tech, for a Fast Uptight, uncaring introvert Society,
Greg Muncie every generation says the same thing it's not true it's just nostalgic bullshit
Beame, Was still better than the Mayor we have now. Thanks, to De'Blasio.
I've been awaiting a DVD release of this film for years! It occasionally pops up on VH1 in the wee hours. Seen it at least twice. Thank God for TH-cam!