
Street View of 80s NYC - mwexler
http://80s.nyc/
======
dmix
The South Bronx really was a war-zone.

[http://80s.nyc/#show/40.8265/-73.9080](http://80s.nyc/#show/40.8265/-73.9080)

[http://80s.nyc/#show/40.8107/-73.9180](http://80s.nyc/#show/40.8107/-73.9180)

[http://80s.nyc/#show/40.8188/-73.9217](http://80s.nyc/#show/40.8188/-73.9217)

[http://80s.nyc/#show/40.8229/-73.9167](http://80s.nyc/#show/40.8229/-73.9167)

[http://80s.nyc/#show/40.8102/-73.9194](http://80s.nyc/#show/40.8102/-73.9194)

[http://80s.nyc/#show/40.8152/-73.9165](http://80s.nyc/#show/40.8152/-73.9165)

All of those rent-control incentivized arsons... empty lots with garbage
everywhere... dogs running around with no owners visible.

Edit: correction, while rent-control played a big role in Brooklyn's housing
abandonment rate, South Bronx faced a variety of factors in addition to rent
control:

> For example, housing abandonment in the South Bronx, probably the most
> devastated area in the entire city, can be plausibly related to the
> economics of an obsolete housing stock. The area was one of the most densely
> populated in the country in the 1940s and 1950s, and the housing stock
> consists almost entirely of five- and six-story walkups. As population
> density decreased, fifth- and sixth-story walkup apartments became
> unrentable at prices sufficient for sound building maintenance, irrespective
> of rent controls. Arson eventually became the owners' only financially
> rewarding alternative.

[http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20100610/BLOGS01/306109...](http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20100610/BLOGS01/306109998/a-history-
lesson-on-rent-regulation-in-the-1970s)

~~~
StanislavPetrov
Have you been there lately? Fewer dogs but still similar.

~~~
pavel_lishin
I know it's fun to be edgy, but it's even more fun to be pedantic and provide
links of what those actual locations look like today:

[https://www.google.com/maps/@40.8265393,-73.9077102,3a,75y,7...](https://www.google.com/maps/@40.8265393,-73.9077102,3a,75y,78.11h,78.55t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sERjgZvX9M5ufLK2zg8LeiQ!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DERjgZvX9M5ufLK2zg8LeiQ%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D126.946075%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656)

[https://www.google.com/maps/@40.8107336,-73.9187274,3a,75y,1...](https://www.google.com/maps/@40.8107336,-73.9187274,3a,75y,154.11h,88.32t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sKHIR-1FTXXzdTptJWawjIQ!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DKHIR-1FTXXzdTptJWawjIQ%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D230.2409%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656)

[https://www.google.com/maps/@40.8187207,-73.921799,3a,75y,13...](https://www.google.com/maps/@40.8187207,-73.921799,3a,75y,133.03h,79.55t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s1X32bT-
zkdxvUPiKO6ZJTw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656)

[https://www.google.com/maps/@40.8228232,-73.9165044,3a,75y,3...](https://www.google.com/maps/@40.8228232,-73.9165044,3a,75y,332.73h,87.26t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sVCKhBWfKhueYZHf_KCyBtw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656)

[https://www.google.com/maps/@40.8104059,-73.9199855,3a,75y,8...](https://www.google.com/maps/@40.8104059,-73.9199855,3a,75y,82.2h,79.54t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sgeF87kwVccVAKVhjR_Y7Qw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656)

[https://www.google.com/maps/@40.8147291,-73.9166855,3a,75y,3...](https://www.google.com/maps/@40.8147291,-73.9166855,3a,75y,343.7h,84.69t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1samU7NWrQqeRLUv-
ERJSj_Q!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DamU7NWrQqeRLUv-
ERJSj_Q%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D233.99023%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656)

~~~
StanislavPetrov
>For Bronx, we found that the violent crime rate is one of the highest in the
nation, across communities of all sizes (both large and small). Violent
offenses tracked included rape, murder and non-negligent manslaughter, armed
robbery, and aggravated assault, including assault with a deadly weapon.
According to NeighborhoodScout's analysis of FBI reported crime data, your
chance of becoming a victim of one of these crimes in Bronx is one in 94.

>NeighborhoodScout's analysis also reveals that Bronx's rate for property
crime is 19 per one thousand population. This makes Bronx a place where there
is an above average chance of becoming a victim of a property crime, when
compared to all other communities in America of all population sizes. Property
crimes are motor vehicle theft, arson, larceny, and burglary. Your chance of
becoming a victim of any of these crimes in Bronx is one in 54.

Take a walk down there some night and tell me what it looks like up close.
Don't bring your wallet.

[https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/ny/bronx/crime](https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/ny/bronx/crime)

~~~
BoiledCabbage
This is what I personally can't stand about internet posters. Posting
forcefully about things they have done no research on.

The borough of the Bronx compared to a number of cities Using total crime as
that's what was used.

Chances of being a victim of property/violent crime Bronx 1 in 95, 1 in 54
Cleveland 1 in 63, 1 in 16 Denver 1 in 148, 1 in 28 San Francisco 1 in 127, 1
in 16

25% more likely to be a affected by violent crime than in San Francisco. And
Less likely to be affected by property crime.

No one is saying all areas of the Bronx are utopias (definitely not), but from
what I've experienced, people posting comments like the above are either made
to disparage, or often are just blindly repeating what someone has read with
zero knowledge of facts.

> With a crime rate of 70 per one thousand residents, San Francisco has one of
> the highest crime rates in America compared to all communities of all sizes
> - from the smallest towns to the very largest cities. One's chance of
> becoming a victim of either violent or property crime here is one in 14.
    
    
      https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/ny/bronx/crime
      https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/mo/st-louis/crime
      https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/oh/cleveland/crime
      https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/co/denver/crime
      https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/ca/san-francisco/crime

~~~
StanislavPetrov
What I personally can't stand are braying internet jackasses who read
statistics and try to tell people who actually live somewhere how things are.

------
colordrops
Seems that there would be quite a bit of historical value to getting everyone
to digitize their personal photos and upload them to a shared repository. Has
there already been such an effort?

~~~
pizzetta
This is similar to this one for SF
[http://www.oldsf.org/](http://www.oldsf.org/)

Looks like the NYC one has more coverage though.

~~~
lonewolf_ninja
They also have a similar site for New York:
[https://www.oldnyc.org/](https://www.oldnyc.org/)

------
apaprocki
From having browsed through the tax lot photos in the municipal archives from
prior generations, it would be fun to see a split view where you browse around
both the 1940s and 1980s at the same time.

If you browse around 80s Williamsburg photos it is not a place you would want
to be. Now every one of those lots would be a _minimum_ of $1M, with
waterfront lots in the tens of millions. Pays to play the long game.

~~~
guelo
In the long game we're all dead.

~~~
volkl48
Not to mention that not everywhere comes back (in said lifetime at least).

The same gamble that paid off in NYC or Boston likely didn't in Baltimore,
Detroit, STL, etc. Playing the long game has given you zero or near zero
returns for decades there.

------
adamzerner
I was expecting a street view like Google Maps. The name seems a bit
misleading to me.

~~~
dogruck
Not hating, but I was underwhelmed.

There must be oodles of old NYC photos sitting in various old home photo
albums out there. I hope some day they're all digitized and compiled into
something like a VR experience. :-)

------
somberi
As interesting as it is to see some rough areas, most of the areas have not
changed much. I looked at the streets where I used to live / currently live -
they largely look the same. Some of the shops are still there.

Since someone mentioned popular culture references, one movie that I thought
"got" the hyper nature of 80s NYC was "Crocodile Dundee". It is of course
exaggerated, being a romantic comedy, but it got some parts of it very well.

------
52-6F-62
Nicely done! This is a great idea! I hope those photos from the 30s are
digitized so they can receive the same treatment

~~~
unclewaltr
From what I've seen of the 1930s/40s tax photos, they're much better quality
as far as framing. Not sure if this is the case across the board, but the
copies I looked up were pretty consistently better. But you have to either go
in to the municipal building to look at them or order them online.

------
largote
New York has really come a long way.

------
Vladv26
Nice project. I was wondering how the street's were back then in 80s and it is
hard to find a photo foe every street. Nice job

------
subdane
There's an AR project in here, I tell ya!

------
martijn_himself
How appropriate. I was just watching Simon and Garfunkel perform 'The Boxer'
in Central Park, 1981 on YouTube.

------
VirtualAirwaves
I miss the old early 80s Times Square! Nice and seedy. (I was born in Brooklyn
in 1962)

------
sotojuan
My building and the pharmacy near me are there and look the same!

------
mttpgn
First thing I noticed was the ReactJS favicon...

~~~
bdon
Good catch, thanks. I use Safari so didn't notice... favicon is updated now.

------
zonotope
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15260897](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15260897)

------
kwoff
I don't know much about NYC, but I've read "The Bonfire of the Vanities" (1987
novel; heard the movie sucked...). Anyone plot key points in that? (for
example: the car scene of Sherman and Maria, the court house in the Bronx, the
Park Avenue apartments). If not, whaddaya whaddaya?

