streets of new york

September 26, 2017 7:22 AM

Street View of '80s NYC
posted by the man of twists and turns (15 comments total)

Was hoping to find a clear shot of Fluffy Donuts (RIP). No dice.
posted by grumpybear69 at 7:32 AM on September 26, 2017

There's a shot of my apartment building in the ass end of Queens. It looks pretty much exactly the same. None of the other buildings on the block survive, though.
posted by SansPoint at 7:54 AM on September 26, 2017

Man, my block had a lot of work done to it. Also my laundromat used to be a Chinese restaurant.
posted by codacorolla at 8:21 AM on September 26, 2017

"Forty-one False Starts" by Janet Malcolm, The New Yorker, July 11, 1994

To get to the painter David Salle’s studio, walking west on White Street, you have to traverse one of these disquieting intersections—that of White and Church Streets and an interloping Sixth Avenue—which has created an unpleasantly wide expanse of street to cross, interrupted by a wedge-shaped island on which a commercial plant nursery has taken up forlorn and edgy residence, surrounding itself with a high wire fence and keeping truculently irregular hours.
posted by otherchaz at 9:05 AM on September 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Ray's Pizza (slw)

Ralph Cuomo opened the first Ray's Pizza, at 27 Prince Street in Little Italy
posted by otherchaz at 9:24 AM on September 26, 2017

A lot of stuff looks similar, apart from the signage, at least in the areas I frequented this summer.

The Karate Kid Part II and Rodney Dangerfield in Back to School were playing!
posted by limeonaire at 9:56 AM on September 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

One street I happened to find parking on last year must have planted trees. Big difference! Perhaps the 80's photos were in the winter but it seemed like a very comfortable street now.

Tree population is growing but what a huge difference it makes.
posted by sammyo at 10:20 AM on September 26, 2017

I found the house my mom grew up in, with a picture taken probably right before my parents got married while she was still living there, which is kind of amazing. It was torn down by the ultraorthodox rabbi who bought it from my grandma when she retired and moved to North Carolina. He apparently joined with the lot behind it in a terrfying monstrosity of a brick mansion that spans the width of the entire block, literally right up to the sidewalk on both blocks. It is a very big house now.
posted by ChuraChura at 10:30 AM on September 26, 2017

Alas, not mobile compatible :(
posted by Hermione Granger at 11:23 AM on September 26, 2017

One time I was in Portland and they where having a show of the hyperrealist NYC painters of the 70s and at one point I yelped “that’s our building!”and “oh hey that McDonald’s has been there for 40 years?”

Same feeling as this.
posted by The Whelk at 11:25 AM on September 26, 2017

So, uh, my building apparently used to have a fire escape. No longer. I, uh, wonder how that was accomplished.
posted by praemunire at 1:23 PM on September 26, 2017

So, uh, my building apparently used to have a fire escape. No longer. I, uh, wonder how that was accomplished.

rust
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 3:56 PM on September 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Corner of South Portland and DeKalb, Ft Greene, Brooklyn, Superior Market REPRESENT!

(The Palestinian immigrant owner of the Superior was my landlord, and I lived in that same building, my first year in NY, 1983/84. What a cool pad it was, and good god amighty sweet jeebus, the nabe done CHANGED since then.)
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:06 AM on September 27, 2017

"rust"
posted by praemunire at 8:29 AM on September 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

The apartment I lived in in 1984 is pictured and I am pretty sure that is my flag in the window. It was very near the Palladium. I used to walk home from work past the Palladium every day. I got to know the Palladium staffers pretty well. They would be outside smoking or sweeping up the debris from the previous night's revelry.

I never went at night as I was not into that scene. But, one night I was walking past at around 11:00pm on a Saturday, walking my date home from a first date when we passed a long, long line trying to get in. I looked at the front of the line and saw one of my worker friends manning the door. My date said, "One day we should get dressed up and go dancing here." No sooner had she finished the sentence when my "friend" saw me and called out, "Hey Augie, what you doing here so late?" So we walked up to say hello and next thing I know we are in. Date was stunned silent for about 10 minutes. Needless to say, the rest of that night worked out better than I could have expected on a first date, but, alas, L-T, the girl and I were not meant to be.

Loved living in the area pre-Zechendorf Towers and pre-NYU expansion. Going to the Old Towne for cheap beer and great burgers, Pete;s Tavern, etc. 17th Street in the 80s. Those were the days.
posted by AugustWest at 10:41 AM on September 27, 2017 [3 favorites]