I just read that some group is trying to get rid of the San Gennaro feast. Does anyone know anything about this?

I miss the old Canal street.

I don't think things have changed all that much outside of Manhattan, which, it is true, has been bleached out by incoming gentry. The interesting stuff has moved towards the periphery. What I don't get about the gentry is why they destroy everything they touch. It's like the curse of Midas. Why move to the city if you want it to look and feel just like the dumb Midwestern suburb you escaped from?

Job Lot! And what about that weird place on Broadway near 72nd...Bazaar or something like that? It was two crammed floors' worth of totally fell-off-truck merchandise.

Here's a few more for ya: Fowad, Pandemonium, the Woolworth's lunch counter near Lincoln Towers.

But of course it wasn't all about shopping. I miss NYC before everything was a Thing, a Trend, The Next Big Burger, Cupcake, Espresso, Artisan Cocktail, Starchitect-renovated museum or historic site. I remember being taken on a school trip in the 80's to Ellis Island when it was a haunting wreck of peeling paint and dusty sunlight. Amazing. I will not forget it.

I say all that as a person who loves good espresso and local products and all that, by the way. I'm just tired of the Next Big Thingness of it all. I don't know how else to put it. Not really able to articulate that point very well.

Webers? That was the store I remember near 72nd st. As a sign of the times, it is now a Fidelity brokerage.

I grew up in the 100's on the West Side in the 70's and 80's, and that photo of the UWS stirs my heart a little. What I miss about NYC in that time was the way things still felt local. Banks, department stores, businesses small, medium, and large, were New York businesses, not chains and big-box stores. The latter have their place, too, and sure, some of them were here before, but they hadn't yet replaced so much other business.

Everyone who lives here, native or newcomer, should be required to read Luc Sante's "Low Life", so that they will understand the fundamental truth of this city: it changes every decade or so. I don't love what it's become, but I don't hate it, either; there are pros and cons. Still, I miss what it was. Probably because it's easy to miss your childhood. Even if your childhood featured a lot of crackwhores on your street.

I miss Wetson's, John's Bargain Stores, Job Lot.

great post - thanks!!

fantastic! I moved to NYC in '75 and yes, the city was a shithole, but that's what made it interesting. it had lots of colorful characters and plenty of places to unearth. these days, it's so whitewashed, I can go weeks with hearing a real NY accent. sad...

Love the Woodhaven photos. My mother's family lived there in the mid-80s (still do) and I have fond memories of visiting. Coming from NJ it seemed like a different world.

Now what's a vintage collection of Times Square pix without the requisite hooker and hustler shot?

$36,000 for 2 family house in Woodhaven in 1979 shows you how out of control real estate has gotten even in this depressed period.

www.forgotten-ny.com

How did those big-ass American cars ever make it through the streets after a snowstorm?

Because people knew how to drive back then.

They're smaller than the monster SUVs that infest the streets today.

That was before climate change. It didn't snow in the winter back then.

Look at these fucking hipsters

Those shady Canal Street junk shops lasted well into the 90s. They had extension shacks extending out into the sidewalk practically made out of hubcaps. Fun times (not really).

As a native ny'er, having lived here through the late 70's till now. I do not miss the crime and grime at all. I loved that Guliani cleaned up NY in the 90's so that all the midwest transplants could move here and make it a nicer place. Sure these midwest hipsters may be douchebags, but they are well mannered, not rude and definitely will not mug your ass. Native new yorkers are assholes.

Seriously - there's nothing more annoying than native new yorkers who long for the "bad ol days"

My neighbor in Williamsburg is a 90 yr old italian dude who was born in the same building he still lives and has absolutely no problem with the "hipsters" who have infested the neighborhood. I love listening to his stories about what a shithole NYC used to be.