[Daffynition]

This NYC photographer, Steven Siegel, would agree with you.

I’ve been photographing the streets and subways of New York for the past 30 years. When young people today look at my shots from the 1980’s, they are aghast. To them, New York of the 1980’s is almost unrecognizable. And they are right. Some older people are nostalgic for “the good old days.” For example, they remember the Times Square of the 80’s… And what they remember is not so much the danger but the grittiness and (for lack of a better word) the authenticity. Yes, there was sleaze, but there were also video arcades, cheap movies, restaurants, and weird places. These same people resent the “Disney-ification” of Times Square and the gentrification of virtually all of Manhattan and many areas of the boroughs, and the loss of cheap housing and local stores everywhere.

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

Thanks for linking that site, which I will have to check out later.

Let me just say that as one who grew up in New Jersey about 12 mi outside of NYC (and a 55 cent bus ride away for most of my youth, it was not even an issue busing into NYC for an 11 year old at the time) there some times in the early 70’s where NYC was in absolutely crumbling shape, just horrible. I actually kind of liked it because I could hop back on my bus and go to where it was safe, plus I was an ignorant yout’ at the time.

let’s just say that I have a small appreciation for very serious urban decay, LOL.