Posted on 08/10/2020 3:04:58 PM PDT by Rummyfan
The true believers who remain are enthusiastic leftists who justify — or welcome — the dissolution of law and order.
New York City must be one of the few places on earth where chaos nostalgia is widespread. Many were the laments, in the Giuliani-Bloomberg era, that the city was “too sanitized,” “too gentrified,” “too boring,” “anodyne,” “suburban.” Often you’d hear people saying, or declaiming, that their ideal vision of the city was the 1970s–1980s one — oh, for the New York of CBGB, of Lou Reed, of the Tompkins Square Park riots. Occasionally people would sneeringly express revulsion that the sidewalks were teeming with strollers. What have we done, we’ve made this place safe enough for babies! And yet the population, which was smaller in 1990 than it was in 1940, boomed. More than a million more New Yorkers squeezed in between 1990 and 2010. It was as if a city the size of Austin grew atop the existing city.
On a return visit this weekend to the Upper West Side neighborhood where I’ve lived for more than a quarter of a century, the fear in the air was palpable. The population seemed to be reduced by about half. New Yorkers steer around each other on the sidewalks, some of them walking in the street to avoid passing near a stranger. A lady declined to ride the elevator with me and my children. People are especially terrified of the subway, whose ridership is down 80 percent from normal levels. Friday night, at a time when there would ordinarily be 50 or more people riding on any given car of the 1 train, there were about seven. Downtown was morose, grim, broken. Graffiti (the anarchists’ symbol, “ACAB” for “All Cops Are Bastards”) was much in evidence.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
I feel bad for feeling this but it makes me happy. Another poster child of the Den party on display.
Good article.
I remember telling my kids a year ago that nyc was a dangerous dump when I went there in the 70s. It was a remarkable revival and now it’s being destroyed rapidly. Sad.
Leftists are like a plague. They arrive, destroy, move on.
I just bought a upper west side condo. Traded an old jock strap for it. Got cash back too.
“too ... anodyne ...”
Are there actually people who say things like that? Dear Lord. How can it possibly be illegal to punch someone for saying that?
Driving them out to flip Republican districts
Glad I’m not there. I lived there in the 70s and it was a time you walked down the street as if you lived in Calcutta, looking over your shoulder making sure you were not about to be mugged. Going to bed at night with one ear out for someone breaking in through your window, which did happen to me and thankfully I got out into the hall and asked a neighbor (male) to save me.
Thankfully he did. I had to move and then had to move again and again and finally I left NY.
It sounds worse now though.
All due to poor city leadership.
And one more thing, newspapers flying all over the streets, blackouts with looters breaking store windows and stealing everything they could, rapes, crime soaring and yes, it was under Dem leadership.
Ok. That’s not ‘one more thing’, but I tell you, I could go on and on,
it was pretty bad.
Oh, and homeless guys and crazy homeless guys everywhere sleeping on the streets.
The subway smelled like a toilet.
Dem leadership.
New idea now, defund the police.
What a crackpot idea THAT is.
No one but New Yawkers and the MSM give a damn about the place.
I lived in the upper west side in the 80s. The area was pretty much gentrified by then. I loved living there. The streets were tree lined, historic buildings, museums, Lincoln Center. And you were between 2 great parks Central Pk and Riverside Pk. I know all these hotels, shops restaurants. sad.
My grandparents lived just north of Pelham Pkwy. Even during the 70’s-80’s that neighborhood was one of the few safe areas, could be because of the “alleged” wise guys who lived there? But yeah I got mixed feelings, sad to see NYC turn into a bigger shythole than it’s ever been, but this is what the people voted for.
Meanwhile Chicago is trying to get their 1920s feeling averaging a couple of St. Valentine's Day massacres every week.
Yes, complete Sunday NYTs fluttering down the street.
Kinda nice to see someone else remembers that.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
