if you have ever been in new york in the 80's and are still here now. How has it changed?

Question

I live in new york. born 1990 and i know alot has changed even since i was little. It seems more boring but less violent. You guys tell me.. I live here all my life.

Answer 1

My sister moved to NYC in the late 80s and I have been to visit her about every other year since then, so I have witnessed the dramatic change from afar sort of and in little slices. It is difficult to describe how bad some parts of the city were during the worst of the crack epidemic... they removed almost every bench from all the parks in the city because a homeless person would just turn it into his bedroom. Almost every trash container you would see would be overflowing with garbage, partly because the homeless continuously dug through them for food and partly because the city was spending extra money on police and not enough on garbage service. Crime was rampant, especially petty crime like purse snatching and chain grabbing and muggings... everybody needed money for crack, and when you need money for crack you need it right that second. Lots of people who wouldn't ordinarily be considered criminals were dealing crack because you could make enough money dealing to pay for your own habit (sometimes). Violent crime was up because big time drug dealers enforce their own street justice with an iron hand, and with little regard for public safety. There were stories in the news almost daily about drug related murders. Nowadays New York is a lot cleaner, neater, friendlier, less dangerous and yes a little more boring than it used to be, but its still an exciting place to visit if you are used to rural south east Tennessee :-) It's all a matter of perspective.

Answer 2

The 1970s and early 1980s in NYC were going through an epidemic of crack cocaine influx. The city always had heroine addicts nodding off in public places, but crack really set off crime waves across all neighborhoods. You couldn't just stroll around at night without worrying about who was walking behind you. My car was stolen in Washington Heights in Sept of 1978, and crack vials littered the sidewalk where my car was parked. The papers were filled with stories of rapes and murders and robberies. Crack "dens" were abandoned buildings that the city walked away from, and inside were hopelessly addicted crack addicts exploiting each other in the grossest ways. Women who were hooked did anything to get another fix. I remember riding my bike one Sunday along the West Side Highway when I stopped to see three detectives and a couple of cops inspecting a dead body that had been dumped in a garbage-strewn empty lot. The guy was lying face down. It was very weird.
Still, I lived here and tried to live a normal life. It amazes me today how safe everyone feels. I never felt safe and still don't feel completely safe. Crack just seemed to go away, and with it record-breaking crime statistics, including murder, car thefts, assaults, rapes, and house robberies. It wasn't fun living through those years, although Ed Koch tried to make things happy, but Mayor Dinkins was pretty much asleep. The problems were too big for him. Although it's "boring," at least you don't have to worry about getting murdered, robbed, or cut up. It's kind of nice now in the city, isn't it? At least it is for me.