New York City, Circa 1930

This old New Yorker wishes to remind

you that most heating here was made by someone

shoveling coal into a furnace ,The East River

had slums amongst the city animal slaughter houses

and gas works now the fancy UN area.

Many apartments shared bathrooms,Some we lived

in did not have hot water,i.e."coldwater" flats.

The cop on the beat on your block was a self

employed worker,supreme court and jailer.

Neighborhoods were segregated by nationality

and race until the idea of public housing projects

came about.



Yeah! we did all go to Central Park at night

to sleep when it was hot as it was safe.

A cheap thrill was walking to Times Square just

to see the lights.

Wow - - and to think this guy holds the copyrights to all these phenomenal photos! Even Margaret Bourke-White's stuff!

#21 Future Taliban, Sorry taliban boy but cult leader Obama is top dog now.

Welcome to Barack HUSSEIN Obama's Amerikka where the president is liberal and open minded but against gay marriage.

Who doesn't love this stuff! Thanx Jen and a thousand more!

And babyhitler, there was air conditioning back then and for two+ decades before, but for most ordinary NYers, the only place to enjoy AC was at the movie palace. That's why movies got so big: it was the AC!

Great photos!

weird, now they are back.

... hey, where did the photos go??

Also, Future Taliban: not sure who you mean by "you azzholes" -- but it's really a stretch to New Yorkers for Bush. I don't have the stats for 2000 on hand, but the city voted 81% for Kerry in 2004 and has been a solidly Democratic city for a long time.

The economic crash was not Bush's fault (he did exacerbated with his idiocy though).

It was the Bankers and The Federal Reserve that are responsible for what's coming.

Bush was a puppet, the Presidential position is a puppet position for the Bankers.

Hoovervilles, breadlines, massive unemployment. Good article to help get NY'ers psychologically ready to relive those days all over again.

Courtesy of GW Bush, whom most of you azzholes voted for not once but twice.

SUCK ON THAT NOW.

Especially love the first photo with all of those fresh Art Deco skyscrapers. The Chrysler building, the Daily Plan... er News building and all.... now that's architecture!

people don't realize that if you went back in time there would be no goddamn air conditioning! that's the deal breaker. I think I could live without internet but no air conditioning would kill me.

matty: you are such a n00b. personally, I long for gay NY of the 1890's.

Man, I love old new york! Great pictures!

I hope that straatis has permission to post those or that they're in the public domain. There might be some disgruntled people out there.

There's a really good website for all types of olde timey pictures. Here is a link to the New York section.

http://www.old-picture.com/new-york-index-001.htm

My man in pic #6... has a serious pair.

so that's what were headed for? that looks quaint, bring on the crash!

PS will the pitbulls all have a ring around one eye and only bite the cops and lanldords?

didn't people used to throw garbage out their windows back then? that's the reason why woman walked near the curb as to not get hit by garbage.

by "people" I don't mean what's referred to as those people nowadays. I think they called them the "n" word back then.

If you could go back in time to see how it was back then, you wouldn't want to really live there... I would buy some real estate, but other than that, no thank you...

nice shots. thanks for posting.

amazing town. I see king kong in the background

Yeah, people call it classy just because it was a different age.

People want to look back at the 30's (or several other eras), look at the graphics on signs, architecture, the old cars, and the fedoras, and call it classy. That's all a nostalgic perception of a long gone age...But I'm sure there were sewage problems, camps of impoverished people (as gothamist says), trash everywhere, racism, etc...And I don't think those things equal classy.

I'm sure that in 50 years people will look back at the 2000 NYC as some sort of classy New York utopia.

Awesome pictures-- thank you!

great photos, but i don't see the great depression in them. also, i wish the city still had streetcars.

Great pictures. From that picture of c-town, it appears that men were required to wear hats...

The city is starting to look sepia again.

Now we live in "fake" classless New York. What that means, I don't know.

That is the city my father was a child in. He used to shine shoes in front of Katz's Deli.

Beautiful Pictures... thx Gotham!

THis was back when new york was "real" and "gritty" not like today.

Man I wish I could go back to the three-oh

this city used to have class