America in the 70s

[CountDeMoney]

I think it's neat that shitty little alarm storefront on 387 Canal Street in the photo is still in business.  Good for you, Mom and Pop store.

[Capetan Mihali]

I used to visit a college buddy in the East Village pretty regularly in the late 80s.  Avenue A was a pretty firm no go line at that time.  Now from what I understand Alphabet City is white boy slacker heaven.

I think the jingle from the mid-80s (when well-off people were starting to go down there, and subsequently develop the real estate) was "A, a-ok; B, bad; C, crime; D, death."  It was only maybe, what, the early 2000s when the East River projects (along Avenue D) stopped being a decent dope-slinging spot.

[DGuller]

KRonn or gumbler, did these cars really look cool back then, or did they always give off this "piece of sloppy shit" vibe?

HEY NOW

Forgot about you, you can answer as well. 

[Grey Fox]

Note the lack of HFCS & Muslim immigrants.

[Syt]

The Southwest in the 70s:

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/07/america-in-the-1970s-the-southwest/100558/

















(More pictures on their site)

[CountDeMoney]

KRonn or gumbler, did these cars really look cool back then, or did they always give off this "piece of sloppy shit" vibe?

HEY NOW

Forgot about you, you can answer as well. 

Those cars are beautiful.  Dickhead.

[garbon]

The first picture is in the middle of DUMBO, a tiny district in Brooklyn that experienced massive gentifrication starting around the late 90s.  So that gives a rather extreme comparison.

That said, I still wouldn't really want to hang out just a few blocks east. Pretty desolate even during the day. Ugh and those remnant cobblestones.

[garbon]

I think it's neat that shitty little alarm storefront on 387 Canal Street in the photo is still in business.  Good for you, Mom and Pop store.

Waste of real estate.

[Razgovory]

In the 70s I had never been to New York; my impressions of the city all came from its depictions in the media - both fictional and non-fictional (like the blackout riots of '77).  The overall impression was that NYC was a distopian, crime-ridden dump on the one hand, and a business and arts powerhouse on the other.

My family first visited NYC in 1981 when Escape from New York was in the theaters.  The city wasn't quite as bad as the movie trailer indicated

That's cause it was filmed in East St. Louis.  You don't go to East Louis.  Ever.

http://imgur.com/iKIA8tx

City looks like Stalingrad circa 1943.

[CountDeMoney]

I think it's neat that shitty little alarm storefront on 387 Canal Street in the photo is still in business.  Good for you, Mom and Pop store.

Waste of real estate.

I'm sure it would make an abfab hipster internet cafe and tapas expo, but aren't there enough of those places as it is?

[derspiess]

That's cause it was filmed in East St. Louis.  You don't go to East Louis.  Ever.

Yep.  Watched National Lampoon's Vacation over the weekend and had to explain the East St. Louis thing to the wife.

[Syt]

That's cause it was filmed in East St. Louis.  You don't go to East Louis.  Ever.

Yep.  Watched National Lampoon's Vacation over the weekend and had to explain the East St. Louis thing to the wife.

Their website says:

East St. Louis, Illinois
     A Great Place
..to Live
..to Work
..to Do Business
..to Raise a Family
..to Visit

[Razgovory]

That's cause it was filmed in East St. Louis.  You don't go to East Louis.  Ever.

Yep.  Watched National Lampoon's Vacation over the weekend and had to explain the East St. Louis thing to the wife.

Their website says:

East St. Louis, Illinois
     A Great Place
..to Live
..to Work
..to Do Business
..to Raise a Family
..to Visit

Mayor Joshua Chamberlain's electoral slogan in 1913 " "Make East St. Louis a little more like home and a little less like hell.""

[garbon]

I think it's neat that shitty little alarm storefront on 387 Canal Street in the photo is still in business.  Good for you, Mom and Pop store.

Waste of real estate.

I'm sure it would make an abfab hipster internet cafe and tapas expo, but aren't there enough of those places as it is?

Not really - in fact, I long ago gave up going to coffeshops as nearly all of them are always packed. Much worse than in SF where you were about guaranteed some space and likely an outlet. It'd also class it up as a lot of Canal street is the pits.

[Syt]

Blacks in Chicago:

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/07/america-in-the-1970s-chicagos-african-american-community/100559/

















Yes, there were fat people:

Woman selling "Have A Nice Day" balloons on a Chicago South Side street corner at Sox Park Baseball Field, June 1973.