Modern New York.

I would be very interested to know what New York is like these days.

Does it still have its old side; the Irish, the Italians and Latinos, and the African American neighbourhoods?

What is the Bronx like these days? You know it has always been painted through the movies as being total gang land and very tough. Is there any yuppyisation happening, like gentrification of the old neighbourhoods?

If there is anyone who knows New York very well I would be very interested to gain even just a little insight into the modern New York. Pictures of neighbourhoods would be very welcome, too, just anything that can give me a taste.

After all it is Christmas Fairy Tale In New York!



In loving memory of beautiful Kirsty MacColl.

a reply to: Revolution9

Why don't nobody wanna talk about New York? It fascinates me.

Ok, I will have to go to other sources. May be I will come visit one day on the Good Ship Queen Mary.

Well this is what Frank has got to say about New York...

a reply to: Revolution9
Lived there most my life, too many people.

a reply to: Tiamat384

Yes, I imagine it is very crowded.

Did you live in New York City itself? Did you travel to different areas there or did you keep to just your neighbourhood?

I live in a very rural and quiet place by the ocean, a small fishing village. To me New York would be such a buzz. I expect I would be a right old country boy there.

I don't travel like a lot of tourists. I always stay with local communities and try and get a real feel for the place. If I visited New York City I would want to see the neighbourhoods somehow, what real life is like for communities. Hell's Kitchen, The Bronx are places that fascinate me. Greenwich village, too, but I have already heard that has gone upmarket now.

In comparison, much of old London is disappearing. It is being gentrified. House prices there have sky rocketed. That is where the big money is made in UK. Everyone flocks there for work. International buyers find it a safe investment opportunity to buy up real estate because England has solid laws that protect them and their investment, very safe.

New York holds much fascination for ma, romance and intrigue. My favourite music mostly comes from there and the writers like Jack Kerouac who spent so much of their time there, too.

I guess the grass is greener. The thing we are not used to is what attracts us.

It has its charm.
You either love it or can't stand it. I think it smells like a urinal and has to many people.
But not everybody likes my home state either.

The ethnic neighborhoods are mostly gone. Gentrification has turned some really seedy areas of the city into desirable areas to live. Culturally it is still a very diverse place with countless options for any type of activity that happens to interest you.

I'll tell ya.. New York is not what it used to be.

It had a really cool atmosphere going on in the 70's and 80's even if it was economically depressed. Lots of good music and creativity, and a community sort of feeling. People hanging out in the streets.. it was very social. Cool places to go. .But now it's kinda weird and it doesn't feel like you are in NYC at all. Lots of people from outside moving into New York City to pursue careers, etc. or looking for city excitement. Lots of kids from wealthy parents, good education, heavily schooled.. you, know .. those kids. Like college kid mentality.. no culture.. Gentrifying all the neighborhoods in and around Manhattan.

Before it was a land of many immigrants, several generations in, or just a few. And lots of interesting culture. Now, I don't know.. for me it's disappointing. Manhattan on weekends is like drunk college kids going 'woo hoo!'; not that interesting at all.

originally posted by: nOraKat
It had a really cool atmosphere going on in the 70's and 80's even if it was economically depressed. Lots of good music and creativity, and a community sort of feeling. People hanging out in the streets..

Then you are not looking in the right places.

A perfect example is Alphabet City where, even just twenty years ago, you would get chopped into tiny pieces for strolling down the wrong side street. Now it is wall to wall shops, restaurants, galleries and bars with people hanging out all over the place.

a reply to: Revolution9
I lived in Queens, time to time in Manhattan and just too many. I like smaller towns like the one I was born in. Oh, but I have an interesting ethnic story if you're interested.

originally posted by: Tiamat384
a reply to: Revolution9
I lived in Queens, time to time in Manhattan and just too many. I like smaller towns like the one I was born in. Oh, but I have an interesting ethnic story if you're interested.

Yes please. I would be very interested. I am just wanting to get any kind of reflections about New York and the people. So often we get bashed with stereotypes of places in the world when the reality is very different.

I have always admired travellers, especially the really humble ones who go tramping around and people don't even really notice they are tourists as such. I always stay in cheap places, like dorms and eat street food and see a more down to earth side. It seems pointless to spend all that money and only see a hotel, pool, the tour bus and the airplane.

I would say to anyone the true traveller has the most innocent intentions. They honour you and your area because it matters so much to them to be there they have gone to a lot of trouble and expense just to witness you and your life and get a flavour of your culture.

Yes, anything you want to share. Anybody else, too.

originally posted by: Revolution9
a reply to: Tiamat384

Hell's Kitchen, The Bronx are places that fascinate me. Greenwich village..

Yeah, they used to be really interesting places.. what changed the most is that back in the days artists, interesting people, and diverse immigrants used to be able to live there (Greenwich village, Hell's Kitchen, and other neighborhoods in Manhattan), now only the wealthy are able to live there which cuts out the diversity and interesting. Before, almost anyone can live there and make a living.. it was a good mood.

And in the Bronx, where I am from, the demographic/ethnicities has changed. It is a different time. There is no culture like there used to be. People listen to pop music and thumb their phones.

That said, there are some interesting neighborhoods on the outskirts..

originally posted by: nOraKat
Yeah, they used to be really interesting places...

I would not classify neighborhoods you could not safely walk through as 'interesting', I would call them unsafe. Now there are much less unsafe places in New York and plenty of locations where you can get your cultural infusion.

a reply to: nOraKat

Thanks, that is helpful. I knew it would be so. Just as London and Paris is probably not too far behind. I wonder about Berlin. Tel Aviv is fascinating. It is not like people think at all. It is very fresh, young and exciting; quite cosmo, too.

It is sad to watch the individuality of cities being lost. They are all turning into the same kind of nondescript concrete blobs with the same shops, coffee bars and hotels, lol, the world over.

I know a lot of the aspects of individual city life could be unpleasant, too. Life for all of us is changing so rapidly and our experiences are becoming so much more uniform.

Thanks to everybody so far. I am reading with acute interest. New York from an outside perspective and what has been told of it through art, novels, music and poetry, movies, had so much life and vitality. If you consider all the modern culture that came from New York and not the commercial stuff like LA can at times be guilty of, lol, real modern quality creativity came from NYC. There are many cultural icons who came out of New York post World War 2.

It had so many layers. Yet that will all be lost to memory, pictures that fade. For the sake of global oneness we are paying a huge sacrifice. I hope it can be one that will be worth making and not just a corporate stitch up.

a reply to: Revolution9
Well, maybe I was off with my description as ethnic (a tad busy and very tired). I was waiting for a concert at Saint Vitus, which is in Brooklyn not far from Greenpoint, and the security (one guy) that checked tickets and ID (the place is 21+ so I'm a couple short) when there was some fight/argument across the street, two women. I have no clue what it was about. I could have sworn they were walking friendly just a moment ago. These were two black women, and one got into a fight with the security of the bar where the concert was (he was also black) and from what I gathered she was his ex and lives three buildings away from his work and so he sees her often. Well, she apparently walked into a deli and came out with a knife (I can't confirm where the knife came from, but can confirm there was a large kitchen knife in her hand). He had gone back in and came back with a bar stool. Nothing happened, beyond the wielding of those weapons (the knife is a tad frightening..) and yelling. At that time, when the knife was out, a metalhead (as we all were that were attending for the concert) called the police who did arrive, but not in time to see this display and arrest the woman and so they just stood around and watched mostly. That's one of the experiences I have had, and that was the first time I was in the area at that hour and length of time (previously I was during daylight and for a shorter period). Of course that is just one location, one incident. But still every incident creates the image.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: nOraKat
It had a really cool atmosphere going on in the 70's and 80's even if it was economically depressed. Lots of good music and creativity, and a community sort of feeling. People hanging out in the streets..

Then you are not looking in the right places.

I meant in the neighborhoods..

A perfect example is Alphabet City where, even just twenty years ago, you would get chopped into tiny pieces for strolling down the wrong side street. Now it is wall to wall shops, restaurants, galleries and bars with people hanging out all over the place.

Thats what I meant when I said, 'drunk college kids going 'woo hoo'.

I meant

originally posted by: nOraKat
Thats what I meant when I said, 'drunk college kids going 'woo hoo'.

I meant

I take it you have not been down to Alphabet City or in SoHo recently. It is not a bunch of college kids getting plastered, they are both vibrant neighborhoods with very diverse offerings.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: nOraKat
Yeah, they used to be really interesting places...

I would not classify neighborhoods you could not safely walk through as 'interesting', I would call them unsafe. Now there are much less unsafe places in New York and plenty of locations where you can get your cultural infusion.

It all depends on who you are, and where you come from.

I think the most interesting things that were in NYC was hidden from the upper class because they were not part of it for the reasons you mentioned.

I love New York because it has a vibrant business climate. Trade Fairs in New York and Boston comprise 60% of my yearly income. Plus NY has the best night spots, music and beautiful women I have ever seen. I also love LA for the same reasons. It's a toss up....

originally posted by: Tiamat384
a reply to: Revolution9
Well, maybe I was off with my description as ethnic (a tad busy and very tired). I was waiting for a concert at Saint Vitus, which is in Brooklyn not far from Greenpoint, and the security (one guy) that checked tickets and ID (the place is 21+ so I'm a couple short) when there was some fight/argument across the street, two women. I have no clue what it was about. I could have sworn they were walking friendly just a moment ago. These were two black women, and one got into a fight with the security of the bar where the concert was (he was also black) and from what I gathered she was his ex and lives three buildings away from his work and so he sees her often. Well, she apparently walked into a deli and came out with a knife (I can't confirm where the knife came from, but can confirm there was a large kitchen knife in her hand). He had gone back in and came back with a bar stool. Nothing happened, beyond the wielding of those weapons (the knife is a tad frightening..) and yelling. At that time, when the knife was out, a metalhead (as we all were that were attending for the concert) called the police who did arrive, but not in time to see this display and arrest the woman and so they just stood around and watched mostly. That's one of the experiences I have had, and that was the first time I was in the area at that hour and length of time (previously I was during daylight and for a shorter period). Of course that is just one location, one incident. But still every incident creates the image.

That's great. Thanks. Like a scene out of an Al Pacino or Robert De Nero movie for sure.

Somehow I have really latched on over the years to the NYC creative vibe. My very favourite actors of all time are the New York Italians and Jews; Al Pacino, Robert De Nero, Dustin Hoffman (though he was born in LA). Music it is Bob Dylan, Lou Reed and Leonard Cohen. Authors like Jack Kerouac and the poet Alan Ginsberg. This is some serious quality to come out of pretty much a single generation. I have a great love of this generation's cultural vibe.

If you consider how many movies have been made to the atmospheres and backdrops of NYC. I think creativity will change as a result of the loss of these individual cultural eccentricities of the world's cities. It was very often the eccentricity that made the art and the artists. I don't see anything like the quality in modern creativity. There is the odd exception I guess.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

Sir I go there everyday and work all over the city. Alphabet City mostly is on the evening weekends. Ave D, is still sort of a "bad" neighborhood, and SoHo is mostly fashion and art snobs, with some good shopping.

I speak relative to the old days of New York City. You had to live it to understand what I am talking about. You may think what you see now is 'diverse' or whatever..