Cities, parks, subways not like they are portrayed in movies or TV shows graffiti homeless trash

I've noticed something over the years that I've never been able to explain and that is the discrepancy between what is shown on TV movies and shows, even news, when they film things like the subway or parks in NYC (and boroughs) or even just the streets. Sometimes they show subway stations totally covered in graffiti or litter, sometimes it is the street. I've seen subway trains that are absolutely filthy with trash, graffiti, homeless, etc on the news or TV/movies but I've never seen this in person. I've been through NYC, Philly, LA, San Diego, San Fran, Baltimore, DC and I haven't seen this anywhere to the extent that it is on "the tube". Sure there is some graffiti, sometimes it is artwork and not just tagging, and I see some blocks that are extremely run down that look like a bomb went off, but I don't see miles of homeless or much of what is reported and shown, and I've been around a lot of NYC, LA and Philly over the years, in many parts of the city and am pretty observant of what is around me.

I have seen some parts of the cities where the sidewalks are totally unlevel, cracked, huge potholes in them, some streets I've seen potholes almost 12"+ deep by 12-15" wide (yeah it was bad, lucky it was residential and near a school with 10mph speed). Some houses are boarded up, others run down a lot, some trash on the street, but what I've seen on TV is like an order of magnitude worse than what I have seen, maybe more.

Has anyone else noticed this? Maybe you've lived in NYC and you see a report about the subway and it looks NOTHING like what you use in the city, both in cleanliness and even structure/design (like seat types, colors, etc)? Some of these differences really make me question the reporting and wondering if they use old movie sets for some of the news reports because they look like they came off a movie set as they are nothing like what is being used where I've been.

You know the stuff you see on TV isn't real, right?

Da Troof is not found on TV.
Do not expect to either.

Simple.

a reply to: DigginFoTroof

Many of those TV series were filmed decades ago. That's when NY was really going down the tubes. The liberals wouldn't let the police do their job. Combine restrictions on pollution (banning lead additives), migration, gentrification and those places clean up.

Look at the music video "Unfinished Symphony"



It's a lot different then than now:

goo.gl...

Great Video.......... what was the question ?

a reply to: stormcell

Man I’ve seen a homeless woman squatting against a tree dropping a loaf in broad daylight people everywhere like 2 lights away from Union Station in DC.

I dunno parts of the city I live in are totally covered in graffiti and garbage. There's places with #ed up sidewalks and streets. Homeless people shooting up on benches, #ting in alley ways. I've had countless conversations with random drunks and crazies chilling in back streets.

Wait...

Lol here...this is the way I have to go to work every day...

I remember 70s-80s NY and Chicago-and go to present day Atlanta near GSU-pure filth.

You can thank Giuliani for cleaning alot of NY-poor Chicago and Atlanta just got worse thanks to their great leadership.

I'll dig up some pics and take some screen shots of what I'm talking about. The pic posted above is what I've seen and is nothing like the stuff I've seen on the news where it looks like a hoarder is living on the streets as the trash is so thick, or th graffiti so thick on the subways that it is all that can be seen inside the car.

And yeah, I understand tv shows are not "real" but news stories are supposed to be representational of current "life", unless you are going to say that the school shootings and cop shootings are fake as well.

originally posted by: DigginFoTroof
I'll dig up some pics and take some screen shots of what I'm talking about. The pic posted above is what I've seen and is nothing like the stuff I've seen on the news where it looks like a hoarder is living on the streets as the trash is so thick, or th graffiti so thick on the subways that it is all that can be seen inside the car.

And yeah, I understand tv shows are not "real" but news stories are supposed to be representational of current "life", unless you are going to say that the school shootings and cop shootings are fake as well.

No news stories are bull#. Even in school we had a full day of...how to report science to the media without them taking every word you say and making it a lie. Their advice was...say nothing except for what's on the press release and hope they still don't lie about everything.

A coworker of mine had a fishing video of his picked up by three different news agencies....all three gave entirely false information about even a simple fishing video with all the information fully given to them...

Any and all news is complete and utter bull#.

Also what i didn't add to the picture above was the multiple bags of safe injection site needles, the heroin cooking spoon, the bloody alcohol swabs and the multiple used condoms next to where I was standing. I felt the sunlit graffiti made a more artistic picture.

I used to take alternate routes into downtown Detroit from the suburbs when I went to WSU to avoid freeway tie ups. On one route I took looked like a complete war zone. Far worse that what they would show on the local news.

They wouldn't show the really bad areas on local TV, probably because they wanted to show Detroit in the best light they could to sell it to the suburbs. Not that I ever had to, but I never had to walk in those areas to get a good close look at the conditions though.

Mostly it was sad to see what was left from Detroit's better days. From art deco buildings to the hip 1970s motown era, Detroit must have been a really great place before I went down there in the 1980s and found the decaying remnants of it's glorious past.

a reply to: DigginFoTroof

I see graffiti, trash and decay in any major city I visit in the UK, and it corresponds with any images I see on TV news/programmes etc.
In my corner of England hardly see any graffiti, a few crap 'tags' but they get painted over quickly.
Years ago I worked for the beaches team for the local council. I had a fun job of daily painting over any graffiti with the standard white paint that all concrete surfaces have to look clean and bright. It was funny because I'd even target the areas they would tag which were out of general sight. I even wrote with marker pen one evening finishing my shift "Keep doing it lads, remember I'm being paid to paint over it in the sun!"
Reminds me of this hilarious exchange between a graffiti artist and a local council, it's not even two minutes but worth a watch...

a reply to: DigginFoTroof

There are some places here in Vegas that are so scary that you do not want to travel to. Looking at someone the wrong way can get you killed when you are in the slums. There have been times I am out at the gas station grabbing some beer and I will hear gun shots followed by no sirens. Hell last month I went to a Chevron for some candy and when I walked in the cashier was on the phone with 911 saying a dude just came in threatening to shoot him. I went to my car and did a little check around cause he was pretty shook in up. Funny thing was the first officer to arrive was a buddy of mine.