It’s human nature to be nostalgic about the past and the “good times”, but then you see videos like this and you’re snapped back into the reality that the past was not necessarily better than the present.
It depends from the "when" and from "where", there are some beautifull Times in the past in the right Place and there Is also shit in other times in other places
I’d LOVE to go back to this time. A time with only 5 or 6 channels that were not owned by big corporations . Where smoking wasn’t a crime . You had a record in your hand or a cassette . You had a pay phone . And no computer controlling the world. You did things by hand. Yes !! I want to go back... just a few. I in Jesus Sacred heart . I want to go back !!
@ Rosa LOL !! Iam STILL blessed by the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Thanks for the heads up my friend . Gotta look sometimes at the blessings of now ! Amen !
@@seensaw7339 that's democrats and their socialism for you. Subsidizing bums and making it hard to kick them out for not paying up with their bullshit laws
In this particular area, that's not true. There are still many abandoned lots in the area surrounding Charlotte Street, which President Carter famously paid to rehabilitate. The houses in that area are like an oasis surrounded by apartment buildings, empty lots, and perpetual unemployment.
+Derek Davidson- You are right. I know someone who lives in an an apt building by Crotona park that was renovated this year and the rent is only $330 a month for a two bedroom apt. I didn't even know rent like that existed anymore. I don't know of the $500,000 apts.
+brass nucks I used to work in a building in Soho. 2 million dollar condos. Tyra Banks and John Mayer lived there. The closest to the South Bronx you could find half million dollar condos I think would be the new ones that have gone up in recent years in Harlem. But Harlem has been undergoing changes that realtors have been trying to push on "SoBro" for years, without any real success. So the rents can stay as low as $330 because not even the hippie artists that start the gentrifying are ready to think of moving into that neighborhood.
+Tamarau A In the long run I think you are right. Eventually there's gonna be a tipping point and even these poor neighborhoods in the Bronx are going to change. There's one thing that I wonder about though that is a potential problem for total gentrification: public housing, AKA the projects. There's plenty of private buildings that can change, and empty lots where new buildings can spring up. But the public housing for low income residents: what's the end game there? I don't know if that was an issue in Williamsburg for example, but I know it's there in Harlem. You have these very wealthy residents living right next to the projects. You know that there's going to be pressure building from those new residents to get rid of the poorer residents in the projects. Anyone who thinks they won't try at some point is very naive. If they'll make "poor doors" for low income residents in the same building, they will definitely try to move eliminate entire buildings of poor people.
This was back then, the Bronx is not like this anymore. Come visit the Bronx sometimes.,we have beautiful hospitals, schools, new street lights, new sidewalks, new apartment buildings, lots of businesses, retail stores, new restaurant, renovated apartment buildings, renovated parks, police officers and street surveillance camera just about everywhere. It's safe here guys, visit our new Yankee stadium, bay plaza mall, city island, the Bronx zoo. These are all touristic areas.
Reggie Rodriguez The FUCK it's SAFE! The Bronx STILL SUCKS!! Definitely not at all like shown in this video, but come on. It's still a shitty GHETTO!! Only place in the world that the Bronx is better than is Newark NJ!
When my unit first rolled into Baghdad back in 2003, I remember telling my colleagues that it looked like the Bronx when I was a kid. I grew up in the Bronx in the 80s. My colleagues thought I was exaggerating. They were right, Baghdad didn't look this bad.
I don't miss the good old days this was horrible to look at .I used to walk to school through these areas. I am so grateful that the Bronx has been rebuilt.
In the old days, they used to say, when someone would ask, after a building was burnt down, that it got hit by "jewish lightning" in reference to the predominantly jewish landlords who would pay to have said buildings torched for insurance $$.. antisemitic; but a reality at the time
@Salvete a USA No. All it took was inequality. Bring us to a country as slaves and through us away as paper plates. You treat people worst than mutts and expect them all to be civilized. Yeah good way to push off the true destroyers responsibility to at least provide a fair chance. But I will say it is getting more leveled out these days. In today's world our downfall that's holding us back is ourselves. It's so hard to crack through the mentality of the destroyed people. Our youth are falling on purpose. But artist like jayz, meek mill,Kendrick, jcole, are trying to battle the drug user mentality artist like juice wrld, xxx, lil uzi vert,. Dont forget that fuckboy 69. Dude literally about to sink a million minds with his useless music. I fear the worse is turning back around. We will witness destruction throughout the country once again.
@Salvete a USA these abadoned buildings existed before black people could north in droves the north had factories and manufacturing slaves biggest human trafficking event in the world took place in the usa. One day you'll come to terms with it instead of blaming the victims. The first stage of mourning is shock then anger. ..just saying.
This is raw footage from an ABC news story. They did a story on this particular area because it was exceptionally bad. Not all of NYC looked like this in the '80s. People say they miss old NYC because it really was once a city of lower middle-class neighborhoods and a character to match it. Now NYC is just rich and poor, with many of the businesses owned and managed by people who aren't even from NY.
Damn things sure have changed. RIP to all of those that didnt make it out. The addiction , crime , poverty . The struggle was real. I grew up at 1860 grand concourse
The planners of the Bronx had high hopes, the Grand Concourse was meant to be even better than Park Avenue; they would correct every mistake made with Manhattan. They had great expectations...
It looks horrible now but somehow as a kid it didn’t bother me lol. I used to have mad fun all over the Bronx. No bills, no worries. Now I live in Connecticut in a much nicer area and I am always stressed out lol
@@ursulasmith6402 Not sure how you blame Reagan when most of the worst of this happened in the 70s, especially under the clown, Carter. Besides any of that, there is no excuse for this and for the people there to do this and live like this, none. American blacks even in the Bronx were still wealthier with more opportunity than most of the whites in eastern Europe at the time.
My grandparents bought a 2 1/2 story Duplex in Queens after moving out of Manhattan in 1977 and paid around $62,000. Now it is valued at $1.3M. My parents, my two brothers and I lived in a rent controlled 3 bedroom apartment in Morningside Heights, blocks away from Colombia University and paid $667 a month from 1987 until 2010. My parents divorced in the late 90's and my mom kept it until all us kids moved out and she was illegally evicted in 2010 by Jared Kushner type bully developers who bought the building and began pushing people out illegally. She sued and won $50,000. That apartment now rents for over $5500.00 a month. Renovated of course but still. My mom took the settlement money and moved to Philadelphia and my father could not afford to buy anything until after 9/11 when prices went down. He bought a two bedroom apt in Midtown right by the 59th St bridge. Bought it really cheap in 2002, $185,000 because the lady had lived there 60 years prior with no remodeling. My father put some money into it slowly throughout the years, fixing and changing some things and now it's valued at $895,000.
@@cactaceous you just showing how capitalism is bad and unhuman. You are just prospectors, that use the situation, while others are dying in powerty because of it, or ends homeless. The thing is, you wrote it the way, like it is victory, while, it's complete loss.
I will never forget it. My family came to the Bronx back in 84 an we lived on 170st on grand concourse. Everywhere was abandoned. I won't forget Grant ave on 169st where the whole block was a mountain of rubbles. I hated it back then but it made me a man. I won't forget it
Damn that's when New York was New York, looks like berlin after ww2, I remember we lived out there for like 3 months and we use to rush to get home before dark, at night it was gunshots and people screaming and cops never came
Lived in the Bronx all my life! Moved upstate a few years ago. 1978-2010. I was living in the south Bronx morrisania section. I remember the abandoned buildings and playing in the bricks and stuff. This was not the entire Bronx only certain parts. And it wasn't only the south Bronx! I also lived on university Ave by the Bronx job corps! There was several abandoned buildings there too! I watched them rebuild too! Growing up there made me what I am today! I'm not ashamed! It's life some have and some don't.
Terrance Mitchell Facts ! & heard you I was born & raised here & I grew up on Harrison 176st on west Tremont... Block right under university ... This area was a rough place haha especially when I was growing up ... seen a lot of homicides, & dead bodies in abandon buildings smh
That attitude is why we call the generation that grew up in WWI; came of age in great depression ;fought WWII then built the nation to what it became "The greatest generation". One only has to see the slums of past to appreciate so little now existing.
@@MelodyLovesMusic It's pretty grim, but human beings adapt and survive, and kids don't notice it as much as adults. Tbh, it looks more rundown and dangerous than some war zones and third world cities. Some English cities looked like that, years after the war, but not on such a large scale, and not as dangerous either. But if you grow up in rundown backstreets like this, it does affect you.
My name is Johnny. I’m from Montreal, Canada. I remember going to the Bronx, for the very first time, in 1982. In those days, I was only 14 years of age and in fact, my sister and i came to visit the city of New York during the weekend, in order to commemorate the second anniversary of the passing of John Lennon, next to the Dakota House, near Central Park in Manhattan. Since we didn’t have so much money back then, during those days, we both had decided to spend the weekend at the Salvation Army in the Bronx. If my memory serves me right, the location itself was situated, on Jackson Avenue, or Prospect Avenue. In my recollection, i could still remember seeing those runned down buildings, that were half demolished and those devastating dark alleys, where some people were hanging out. I was so mesmerized by the look of that subway, that was coming up in the air. For a long minute there, i thought it looked more like a Roller Coaster ride with all the graffitis on it. It was terrifying! What a real culture shock, i had. Lol! Thank you!
This is fascinating. I really love the unique atmosphere coming from New York in the 70s and early 80s, gritty and bleak. When I was a kid in the 80s we used to say (in french) "C'est le Bronx" to describe a situation where things got terribly wrong. Now I understand why !
Wayne Galindo I was born and raised there. I'm 51 years old now. At 17 in 1984 I joined the Army and I put my 20 years in. Best thing I ever did. The Army took me out and kept me out!
Abram Rivera I was a language typist for my medical unit in Germany and Spain. Learning those languages came easy to me and I was lucky to work in hospitals typing up supply orders for us in Berlin, Stuttgart, and Madrid. Nothing is perfect but I'll say the Army does take care of its own. I retired at 37 as a Lieutenant. Received full pension and retirement package. I want you to enlist and try it for a time so at least you'll have the CREDIBILITY of a military background, something that says you were there. You can sign on for 6 years, 4 years, or as little as 2 years. All veterans say the same thing: I don't know if I'd do it again but I'm not sorry I did it!
I'm from Glasgow Scotland, we in 70s, 80s,used to have this type problem too. Thankfully, most of it's gone now, just as it is now, I hope, in the Bronx.I would love to visit New York more than any other city. I feel we have so much in common in Glasgow. I think that all the different cultures you have there is amazing. All the very best to you all.
These images should be shown more frequently too the generations of young folks today so that they can appreciate what they have now . because this kind of thing can repeat itself at a larger scale.. A true reminder of what America thinks about poor minority residents...in the inner city.
Soak it in. This is what Robert Moses did. This was a clean, safe working class neighborhood before that racist classist rerouted all the traffic away & destroyed all the local business. To give you an idea of what this used to be, The Honeymooners was set here. Almost forgot, Robert Moses is why Brooklyn doesn’t have the Dodgers anymore.
@D Maxson You mean a true reminder that jobs left the inner city and nobody couldn't pay for shit. Landlords as a last resort to dig themselves out of poverty had purposefully burned down these buildings for insurance money. That's how bad it was. Trickle down economics is a sham.
Broken glass everywhere, People pissin' on the stairs, you know they just don't care. I can't take the smell, can't take the noise, Got no money to move out, I guess I got no choice. Rats in the front room, roaches in the back, Junkies in the alley with a baseball bat. I tried to get away but I couldn't get far, 'Cause a man with a tow truck repossessed my car. Don't - push - me - ‘cause - I'm - close- to - the - edge, I'm tryin’ - not - to - lose - my - head. Haha Huh huh hah! It's like a jungle sometimes, It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under.
To those that aren't from here, especially at that time, it might look like an unlivable place. But for those of us FORTUNATE enough to grow up here, it's HOME. We learned lessons that CANNOT be taught in a classroom, or any other place in the world for that matter and became better people for it. Exploring those abandoned buildings, sometimes finding bodies, rock fights in the rubble, sponge ball, handball, street football, skellies in the middle of the street, fire hydrants on blast during the summer heat waves, until the street lights came on and we knew it was time to start heading up. Ma dukes would be out looking for you in a few and would have absolutely no issues with whipping your ass all the way home for making her come out during the novela. We played, fought with the hands, made up, and played again the next day as if nothing happened. We didn't shoot each other over a lost fight. It's Da Bronx that I grew up in, and wouldn't trade that childhood experience for anything in the world. Strong Bronx love, always.
Growing up in the Bronx during this time I always remember the packs of stray dogs running around. The dogs that used to belong to the families that were kicked out of these buildings before being burned down.
It is amazing to think that all those buildings were at one time brand new. It would be interesting to see pictures of what they had once looked like in the late 19th, early 20th century.
+CaptainCrape I prefer the look and style of 19th century buildings. They seem to have more character and be less bland. Many of these buildings have deteriorated and you get used to seeing them in this decrepit condition but if you lived 100 + years ago these buildings would appear fresh and gleaming new and the contrast would be fascinating.
@Almighty God George Soros #420 #GetRekd hmm.. that's funny stating that this kinda looks like Detroit now in days.. Detroit, land of the far left and unions, just like NYC..crazy how the most devastated areas are ran by democratic governers, mayor's etc.. show me a "alt right Western whitey" city that has ever looked like this.. the funny thing is that the services provided to this place (police, ambulance, fire, and the infrastructure like roads, schools, and electrical/telephone wire) most african countries dream of this still to this day.. this neighborhood was handed to the residents used but in good shape, they trashed it, now the great restorer of gentrification comes along and fixes it all new, only for one day for it to be destoryed again.. you need to learn a lot because you sound stupid with your catch phrases like "alt right".. #GetRekd
hey, thanks for uploading these film pans... summer of 82, I had started working on 1545 Vyse Avenue, a 2 story rowhouse built about 1909 a few years after the el was built along Southern Blvd.... started work on the outside cuz I had to take a job away for the 9 months starting in September and figured with neighbors watching (homeowners were all that was left) and nothing yet inside, the place was secure. Patched the roof for leaks, started the long process of rebuilding the masonry on the parapet, cleaning and priming the cornice which featured false beams and grape wreaths, and taking down the rotten wood addition in back.... got rid of stuff by putting it in the abandoned city owned house next door, water came from the hydrant and a pipe wrench. Anyone remember Bud "ponies"? good people on that block, eventually I even started teaching at PS 50 across the street. Would love to hear from anyone, especially a local, from the area.... Bill
@@fnihp30 I remember taking the train into Chicago in the 80's and going through the Austin neighborhood reminded me of this, but more buildings were standing, just abandoned though.
Fun Fact: The landlords of apartments had legal permission to burn down their buildings whenever they wanted, therefore people had to move and they had no choice whether to stay or not; which is why there's a bunch of debris.
They did not have legal right to burn down the building... they did it to claim insurance because they were too torn up to sell. They'd pay junkies to do it or kids, or whoever would be willing. It's all well documented.
Lydia Hernandez You can easily look up 70s bronx which was 10x worse than 80s era bronx. President Jimmy Carter and president Reagan both went to the bronx in their respective times... both eras have the same background of rubble, kids playing in building, and grandmaster flash said "broken glass everywhere, people pissing on the stairs know they just dont care, cant take the smell, cant take the noise, got no money to move out, guess I got no choice, rats in the front room, roaches in the back, junkies in the alleyway with a baseball bat, I tried to get away, but I couldn't get far, because a man with a tow truck repossessed my car." That's why hip hop is held in high esteem to old heads... it spoke the truth not many American knew about, or cared about, unless seen with their own eyes.
damn what with all this hate for the bronx, it does not even look bad at all, of corse its based on your neightborhood. Makes ne wonder wether any of the people talking smack about it have really ever been there.
This is where I grew up. We did not know any better and thought the world was just this way. On a lighter side, those empty lots filled with debris and those abandoned buildings were the best playground we ever had. Breaking windows in abandoned buildings using the broken bricks all around the lot was just plain fun.
charles j No. I had a hard time identifying where exactly this was because the Bronx no longer looks like this. When I saw PS 61 realized where it was. This area is a bit further up than Intervale Ave. This is on a street called Crotona Park East.
nisbt Rodriguez Thanks for identifying the area as it had me puzzled. It has changed quite a bit. The Crotona area is near the 174th st. station and is a bit of walk north from the Intervale station area (about 1 and 1/2 miles, I think).
Yeah man, they were fun. The structure of those buildings and the fire escapes we played on were compromised by the fire though. I'm glad me and my friends never got seriously injured.
I've been to Philly recently, and it does remind me of the Bronx a little bit. I was in the South Central Philly area and I did get Bronx vibes from it.
Musashi Yao. According to google, the Bronx is not listed in the top 100 most dangerous city. The Bronx population is at 1.5 million people. Please I would implore you to visit the Bronx. I guarantee that absolutely nothing won't happen to you. Unless you begin to act like a dickhead, but that's anywhere. This isn't the 1980's anymore. Central Park is dangerous at night and that's in manhattan. A woman was attacked at Central Park last week. The Bronx was burnt by white land lords in the 1979's and 80's it wasn't burnt by blacks or Hispanics.
This is exactly how it was those lots used to have matress in them and kids would just bounce On them and the abandoned bldgs always had drug addicts and homeless ppl it was just like the movies I remember these days
I remember walking through all these dead blocks...even survived the 77 black out. South Bronx was desolate and I'm still here. Supreme Wales Crew, Young Bachelors.
Man that’s crazy, I used to live there a couple years ago, I could never imagined it looked like this before... just a pile of rubble... honestly it looks like a nuke when off there
@@robertklone8437 just finished watching that one the other day. I already had some idea of how bad it was, but my god it made me realize that it was way worse than I previously thought. I was stunned to say the least.
Funny during the filming you can hear one of the residents speaking to the cameraman. With his Jamaican accent telling the cameraman that all the way from Burnside and 174th. To 176th streets nothing but vacant lots and crumbling buildings.
It's like year zero in the South Bronx, wow... incredible footage. Truly, the only way was up! At 9:00 the filmmaker is walking along Charlotte st. The red PS 61 building is still standing after all these years and now faces a leafy, very suburban and nice neighborhood of single family houses, each worth around $500 000 today. It's called Charlotte Gardens and they began building it in 1983 so only a year after this footage was shot, believe it or not. Such an amazing transformation! How I would love to walk there myself... and visit the Bronx in general! Thanks for uploading! =)
***** Yes, gentrification. The real estate whores pushed out the poor and made for upper middle class. They took advantage of a poor decaying area and cashed in.
***** I actually find this more real and human to look at than gentrification, overpriced real estate and the yuppie scum who live their in their Mercedes, BMWs and Audis.
Music For The People What are you talking about! Charlotte Gardens has nothing to do with gentrification, it was built for working-class people who already resided in the nearby neighborhoods or other low-income areas in NYC, and the houses were heavily subsidized so the house buyers only had to take a mortgage of around $45 000 for their homes. The city government and the local grass root neighborhood organizations all worked together to make the transformation possible. The original residents were all Puerto ricans and blacks, and many of the original residents still reside in the area. It's not an upper-class neighborhood by any means, lol. Educate yourself on the matter before you comment, thank you.
Music For The People Stop making yourself sound like an angry idiot. My reading comprehension is perfectly fine (even in English, which is my third language) but the problem is, you at no point in your reply to me clarified that you were talking about something else in terms of gentrification while I was specifically talking about Charlotte Gardens and The South Bronx in general. As for the the working class people who in your words "lucked out"... Very few believed the ranch houses would ever be able to even stay intact in the area, considering how the neighborhood looked like when they were moved there over the course of several years, pre-built from Pennsylvania. But these urban pioneers took the chance in a dangerous area with horrible reputation, poor service and infrastructure, and did the best they could while settling in and eventually helped make the neighborhood as stable as it is today. I tip my hat instead of begrudging them their currently quite valuable real-estate property.
***** Yeah right. What the fuck do you know other than what you read in a book?! You know nothing. Keep reading your history books on the Bronx with your delusional view. You can stop the self righteous & condescending bullshit. I am a native New Yorker and don't need a history lesson from someone who has never even been there. I worked and walked the streets of the South Bronx such as Westchester Ave, Prospect Ave, Willis Ave, Hunt's Point, 161ST area and much more after this time when everything was so-called much better and I saw no improvement...plenty of crime, drugs, poverty. So don't preach your stupid shit to me lady from another country. I will tell YOU about America and the Bronx
Wow, just wow. That's in an American city during modern times. Unbelievable. My dad grew up in the North Bronx and his family left for the suburbs at the first opportunity. I can only imagine what people living in the South Bronx must've gone through on a regular basis.
When i saw footage of the bronx in a documentary on tv in the early eighties, i was both shocked and kinda fell in love with the culture of break dance and bands like Rock Steady Crew.. first graffiti artists were being looked up to by European kids in the mid 80s.
The vacant buildings seen at 5:38 are on Fulton Ave., and the buildings are the ones which were often seen to travelers on Cross Bronx Expressway, which later had wood panels in the windows with drawings of flower pots and curtains (the Cross Bronx is all that traffic in the distance). What is less known is that row of buildings, consisting of about six or eight buildings, actually burned down THREE TIMES during the notorious "War Years" (circa 1968-1977). They burned down, were rebuilt, occupied, and burned down again, etc. At the time of their first "burning," those buildings were about 60 years old, if not younger. An attack by a military enemy could not have done worse damage to a city.
Imagine, through all of this came HIP HOP (the most popular music ever), which gave many who lived in conditions like this an opportunity and a better life for themselves and their families...
Was a rough time. Interesting point is that many people seem to think that this area was all minority in population, when in fact many middle and low income whites lived in the area as well.
I know most folks would find this strange, but i MISS this time. I grew up in the Bronx, and currently live in what was once labeled by Jimmy Carter as the worst slum in America back in the late 70's. You can see the block i'm CURRENTLY living at @9:00. This was my childhood, and i really miss all the graffiti. Ironically, the graffiti many found offensive on the trains have since been replaced with advertisements that sometimes cover the ENTIRE train, and yet NO ONE complains about it.
dcaseng Wow, you live in Charlotte Gardens on Seabury pl. or thereabout?? That's the very street at 9:00 if I'm not mistaken. The person filming is on Charlotte street, close to the spot where parts of Wolfen was filmed and where that "church" construction was built for the film (at the corner of E172nd st. and Seabury pl.) I tried to look for it here, but I guess two years after the film was made this construction - already deliberately burned for the actual film, oh the irony - no longer existed. Did you attend P.S 61 yourself as a kid? I'm in Finland, but this area and its history just fascinates me to no end, I'm a Charlotte street geek, lol...
***** I actually live on Minford Place, which is on the other side of Charlotte St. I can see Charlotte St. from my backyard, but I did NOT attend P.S.61. It's great to see someone from another country who actually knows about this historic area of the south Bronx.
dcaseng Got ya! Yeah, I was trying to figure out if the street in the video clip was Seabury pl. or Minford pl. thanks for letting me know =) I'm actually currently reading a book on the history of The Bronx written by Evelyn Gonzalez, but for the past two years I've read many many articles and book excerpts online, particularly about Crotona Park East. The one thing that I would really like to find is old photos of the area's original housing before the urban blight, but no luck so far... I know that it was a very densely built neighborhood with tenement housing mostly built at the beginning of last century. I swear, were I ever to actually visit NYC The Bronx would be my #1 place to see! It's nice to be able to take street view "tours" in Google Map but still nowhere near the same thing as being there in person. I could easily spend several days in the borough, lol. Maybe one day! =D
+Fritha71 how can you write a book about the Bronx if you never visited it and talk to the people that grew up in that hell hole..are u writing about the south bx or the whole bx ..you know its a total different place now..
Jhon Krasnovskiy I am aware that there are people who live like this that’s why I’m saying thank god that those of us who are privileged enough to not have to don’t
@Jhon Krasnovskiy thats true, but this city was plagued by disease, drugs and violence. some cities or in other countries can be poor but not live like animals
To those complaining about the length of the post -- ????!!!! Have you ever, in your entire life, read a book? Damn. It's your loss. +brass nucks ~ You captured the heart of 80s Bronx with your honest and moving story. You have a gift with words, and you write with economy - right to the gut! Don't stop. Please. I'm from the Lower East Side of New York City, and Coney Island later in my childhood but I was born at Beth Israel in 1969. Alphabet City was an open air drug market (along with Houston St & more) and the cops were filthy. I can relate in many ways. I now live off White Plains Road, a block or two from the Gun Hill Rd subway station. It's amazing, the South Bronx is now desirable! The insidious process of gentrification has started. As much as I want a nicer neighborhood & better quality of life, I don't want to have to watch the city lose its soul. I witnessed it downtown in the LES, in Brooklyn, and so it goes until there's no space for the "working poor" or whoever is down in their luck at the time. I'm thinking of leaving NYC... Anyway, thanks for the story, I really enjoyed it. ✌🏿✌🏽✌️✌🏼
As bad as it looked back then I felt safer than I would now in the Bronx. I miss it will forever be my home. The 80’s was the best time growing up in the Bronx home sweet home❤️
A few years later during the crack epidemic came the invention of the Benzi box. If you didn't have one, most likely you'd eventually come out and see that someone helped themselves to your car radio. For those of you who don't know, the benzi box was a removable car radio that you took with you when you left your car.
Lived two years in Da' Bronx, 81 and 82, from Belfast originally and I have to say the old neighborhoods brought a lump to my throat. Great times were had on those streets by them lucky enough to have been there.
you got that right,as a Teenager growing up in Australia this is what America was portrayed to us throughout the late 70's into the mid 80's..DANGER DANGER DANGER all done thru movies & music,it was spell binding to us over here
Things were most definitely worse back then. The murder rate was much higher, and just look at this video. People always talk about how bad it is or how bad things have gotten, but we actually have it much better in most ways (maybe not all ways, depending on the place and time period) than people did in the past.
Moved to Las Vegas in 97’ and would tell em stories about South B’ no one used to believe me . Thanks for this Video.. To most it looks like. Hell n it wasn’t too far from the truth but it was always home to me.. 89’ was not too different from what you see here..
NYC was not doing well in the 70's and early 80's. The south Bronx had the worst of it. It was the forgotten borough. The Bronx was a no mans land. I grew up in down town Brooklyn not far from the Gowanus housing projects. Shoot outs as they were called were very common as were chain snatching as flashy gold rope chains and gold name plates & rings were all the rage. You had to be careful about flashing your gold on the subway as that is where most of the chain snatching and muggings occured. Kangol hats and adidas sneakers with fat laces were also popular. I remember smelling crack for the first time in a movie theatre called The Duffield which was off Fulton Street. The movie Fort Apache the Bronx upset a lot of people. I think it was too real for some - later New Jack City also captured some of the crime that was going on. This was not a good time if you were on the lower rung of the socio economic ladder. Most of those people were minorities. Everything was stacked against you. Things got better, though it took a long time.
Walter van der Wahl I remember viewing "Fort Apache the Bronx" starring Paul Newman in a theater in upscale neighboring Westchester County New York. Many in the audience wept, and there were comments like "look, its Poppa's old store" or "OMG, its Momma's apartment building" as the suburbanite yuppies were former Bronxites who had moved on, lost contact with their roots, and were rudely astonished to see what bad had become of where they came from.
Yup. Through the 70's the city was bankrupt it was fucked up everywhere. By the early 80's the city started to come out of it and then crack hit. This destroyed progress being made in the worst neighborhoods. The better ones were able to maintain and rebound from the 70's some never had a chance to come back. Not until the mid 90's did thi vs start to get better. So basically late 60's to mid 90's, 30 years of urban blight.
I remember when Amtrak had train service from Grand Central north bound (late 1970's/ early 80's). The train ran underground awhile but emerged to an elevated line. You got this view of The Bronx. I saw a school building surrounded by several blocks of rubble and wondered how the kids learned and what they must have thought in that environment. It looked like photos of Nagasaki after the bomb. I really appreciated living in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn and not the South Bronx. I will never forget these images.
@@randomyankee8923- when I lived there in 1970's population of Bay Ridge was almost exclusively Norwegian, Italian and Greek. It was one of the safest neighborhoods in Fun City. Sadly, Bay Ridge ain't the same. TV news and publications now show my old stomping grounds to have serious crime issues. TFB, rest in peace, Bay Ridge.
As a kid, growing up there seemed normal. It was what it was... that part of the Bronx was just like that. I didn't see it the way it was before all the ruin. Funny how of all places, the politicians of NYC at the time did nothing to rehabilitate or stop the kaos. It was like they gave up on it and didn't care. What a shame!
I have lived in the Bronx from. 1982 to2012 I remembered how horrifying it was back then, but people still looked out for their neighbors.I use to hate the stigmatism people had of the Bronx.you tell someone back then you live in the Bronx and the reply was sometimes with annoying comments but all and all I love the Bronx and the boogie down is back in a beautiful and better way , God bless the Bronx. 🙏🌟💪✌🙌
This makes Detroit look like Beverly Hills.
😫😣😔
How u doing Axle ?🤣
Urban removal. Lol
@@hudsonhawk0016 No lol. U know that lame joke didnt even make u laugh so why'd u lol it. F***N NERD!
@@paul.theeightiesluvr.1980s Dude you talk like something trying to sound human.
It’s human nature to be nostalgic about the past and the “good times”, but then you see videos like this and you’re snapped back into the reality that the past was not necessarily better than the present.
It depends from the "when" and from "where", there are some beautifull Times in the past in the right Place and there Is also shit in other times in other places
I’d LOVE to go back to this time. A time with only 5 or 6 channels that were not owned by big corporations . Where smoking wasn’t a crime . You had a record in your hand or a cassette . You had a pay phone . And no computer controlling the world. You did things by hand. Yes !! I want to go back... just a few. I in Jesus Sacred heart . I want to go back !!
Mordecai Esther Can’t you still use a cassette and do things with your hands?
@ Rosa LOL !! Iam STILL blessed by the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Thanks for the heads up my friend . Gotta look sometimes at the blessings of now ! Amen !
and as always everything is cyclical, things will look similar to this in the not so distant future
This place looks like Germany after world war ll.
More like Iraq if you ask me.
Yeah and now half the half the states in the US have major cities that look like this and it grows every year.
Kris Valenti no shit. Just look at big chunks of Detroit, which is all nothing more than Little Iraq.
I saw this for myself in 1984.. and yes... that is what I thought too...
More like Warsaw after II WW. Fuck germany
The camera man was impressed with the zoom option on his camera lol
Haha I 💭 the same thing,.
Its literally the 80s how could he not be LMAO
😂😂
I blame camcorders
When did we nuke the Bronx???
My high school history class never covered it.
Professor Time we had to it was just getting to out of hand!
I was there but I lived in a nice neighborhood in the northern Bronx. Too bad for these fools living there!
did the soviet union nuke u?
@@seensaw7339 that's democrats and their socialism for you.
Subsidizing bums and making it hard to kick them out for not paying up with their bullshit laws
Over in LA there was an apocalypse of some sort because the Hollywood sign was in shambles
And now the average apartment is $500,000.
In this particular area, that's not true. There are still many abandoned lots in the area surrounding Charlotte Street, which President Carter famously paid to rehabilitate. The houses in that area are like an oasis surrounded by apartment buildings, empty lots, and perpetual unemployment.
+Derek Davidson- You are right. I know someone who lives in an an apt building by Crotona park that was renovated this year and the rent is only $330 a month for a two bedroom apt. I didn't even know rent like that existed anymore. I don't know of the $500,000 apts.
+brass nucks I used to work in a building in Soho. 2 million dollar condos. Tyra Banks and John Mayer lived there. The closest to the South Bronx you could find half million dollar condos I think would be the new ones that have gone up in recent years in Harlem. But Harlem has been undergoing changes that realtors have been trying to push on "SoBro" for years, without any real success. So the rents can stay as low as $330 because not even the hippie artists that start the gentrifying are ready to think of moving into that neighborhood.
+Tamarau A In the long run I think you are right. Eventually there's gonna be a tipping point and even these poor neighborhoods in the Bronx are going to change. There's one thing that I wonder about though that is a potential problem for total gentrification: public housing, AKA the projects. There's plenty of private buildings that can change, and empty lots where new buildings can spring up. But the public housing for low income residents: what's the end game there? I don't know if that was an issue in Williamsburg for example, but I know it's there in Harlem. You have these very wealthy residents living right next to the projects. You know that there's going to be pressure building from those new residents to get rid of the poorer residents in the projects. Anyone who thinks they won't try at some point is very naive. If they'll make "poor doors" for low income residents in the same building, they will definitely try to move eliminate entire buildings of poor people.
in manhatten, not the bronx
looks like a war zone
It is a war zone, super rich against poor!
really??? How so???
This was back then, the Bronx is not like this anymore. Come visit the Bronx sometimes.,we have beautiful hospitals, schools, new street lights, new sidewalks, new apartment buildings, lots of businesses, retail stores, new restaurant, renovated apartment buildings, renovated parks, police officers and street surveillance camera just about everywhere. It's safe here guys, visit our new Yankee stadium, bay plaza mall, city island, the Bronx zoo. These are all touristic areas.
Even Fordham university has been renovated
Reggie Rodriguez The FUCK it's SAFE! The Bronx STILL SUCKS!! Definitely not at all like shown in this video, but come on. It's still a shitty GHETTO!! Only place in the world that the Bronx is better than is Newark NJ!
When my unit first rolled into Baghdad back in 2003, I remember telling my colleagues that it looked like the Bronx when I was a kid. I grew up in the Bronx in the 80s. My colleagues thought I was exaggerating. They were right, Baghdad didn't look this bad.
8:10 pigeons back then really had that accent?
Lmfaooooooo 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣
Street knowledge.
😒
Yeah the pigeons name was Miguel..a Puerto Rican junkie
Must pick it up when they shoot south for winter.
I don't miss the good old days this was horrible to look at .I used to walk to school through these areas. I am so grateful that the Bronx has been rebuilt.
bronx looks like it had a war there
I am too! But, my old building Now, I can’t even Afford now! They have Cleaned up wonderfully! I’m Happy, I am, it’s just…
@@MTC008 It was indeed a warzone back in the day
In the old days, they used to say, when someone would ask, after a building was burnt down, that it got hit by "jewish lightning" in reference to the predominantly jewish landlords who would pay to have said buildings torched for insurance $$.. antisemitic; but a reality at the time
Simply scary... almost like pictures of Berlin after the Second World War.
@Enter This Moment what caused all this destruction?
similar to stalingrad when it was bombed by the Nazis, after the battle of stalingrad
@Salvete a USA No. All it took was inequality. Bring us to a country as slaves and through us away as paper plates. You treat people worst than mutts and expect them all to be civilized. Yeah good way to push off the true destroyers responsibility to at least provide a fair chance.
But I will say it is getting more leveled out these days. In today's world our downfall that's holding us back is ourselves. It's so hard to crack through the mentality of the destroyed people. Our youth are falling on purpose. But artist like jayz, meek mill,Kendrick, jcole, are trying to battle the drug user mentality artist like juice wrld, xxx, lil uzi vert,. Dont forget that fuckboy 69. Dude literally about to sink a million minds with his useless music. I fear the worse is turning back around. We will witness destruction throughout the country once again.
@@recepterconnector7022 it was never developed. the governments of the world all hate black or natives everybody knows it.
@Salvete a USA these abadoned buildings existed before black people could north in droves the north had factories and manufacturing slaves biggest human trafficking event in the world took place in the usa. One day you'll come to terms with it instead of blaming the victims.
The first stage of mourning is shock then anger. ..just saying.
It was that rough the rats used to throw themselves on the traps
😆
Ade H it was so tough the rats used to catch people.
😂😂😂
The rats stood in line at the airport to fly out.
Lived in the South Bronx during this time as a kid, never saw rats and hardly any mice
Sure it´s not Germany 1945?
Pripyat or Zaire
Looks like its been bombed
Or Syria 2019
Yep we are sure. It's in good ole USA lol. "The greatest nation on Earth" 😂😂😂
😂
I don't understand how some people can say..."I wish New York was the way it used to be"
Really?
Please, think twice.
Was a lot more fun back then, everybody is a robot now
Depends how long ago the mean and where they’re coming from, though the 70s and the 80s were indisputably low points in the city’s history
This is raw footage from an ABC news story. They did a story on this particular area because it was exceptionally bad. Not all of NYC looked like this in the '80s. People say they miss old NYC because it really was once a city of lower middle-class neighborhoods and a character to match it. Now NYC is just rich and poor, with many of the businesses owned and managed by people who aren't even from NY.
I wish NY was still like this. It had character back then.
To be fair, new york did change alot
Damn things sure have changed. RIP to all of those that didnt make it out. The addiction , crime , poverty . The struggle was real. I grew up at 1860 grand concourse
aye how’s life? I live down by the 4 train on 176st
Who caused it?
The planners of the Bronx had high hopes, the Grand Concourse was meant to be even better than Park Avenue; they would correct every mistake made with Manhattan. They had great expectations...
Tony Chambers The drug addicts? You mean the residents of the actual neighborhood who sold such drugs. Fucking dumbass.
Albanian Mob still there still with CIA They still still got eliot engel on a payroll still pushing heroin not just in bronx !
Now that's a real ghetto, not straight out of Compton. Compton looks like Disneyland with palm trees
Compton may look better, but it's just as dangerous, and is very poverty-stricken.
nativetexanful yea but that was back in the 80s and 90s its not like that anymore
@@nativetexanful Growing up in Compton you have the wrong information most of Compton is gentrified and safe get you're facts correct.
Yeah I agree although I think that’s what made Compton worse. Many families thought it was a safe haven because of how “pretty” everything was.
Lol
It looks horrible now but somehow as a kid it didn’t bother me lol. I used to have mad fun all over the Bronx. No bills, no worries. Now I live in Connecticut in a much nicer area and I am always stressed out lol
dude, fuck off. @Safe 234
Safe 234 why you so mad ? 😂
That's UA-cam lol @@firstclaims30
Wilson W 😂
@@firstclaims30 I'm for real tho ...
I bet the night time was terrifying!
Day time
It’s probably like dying light
liveyourlife1777 IT WAS SPOOKY EXCEPT FRIDAY AND SAT.NIGHTS WERE HILARIOUS.PIMPS AND DRUG DEALERS
Anytime
Not for Snake Plissken
Berlin, circa May, 1945.
Mark that’s what my wife just said as well. We’re very blessed to live in Germany
not even japan after a 9.1 earthquake
Emanuel Riquelme amazing how Japan and Germany quickly sprung back and was ready for business...
Colorized.
@@Mark-yy2py en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan
It is absolutely mind blowing that this was allowed to happen.
Absolutely right
That was under Reagan.
What happened?
@@ursulasmith6402 Not sure how you blame Reagan when most of the worst of this happened in the 70s, especially under the clown, Carter. Besides any of that, there is no excuse for this and for the people there to do this and live like this, none. American blacks even in the Bronx were still wealthier with more opportunity than most of the whites in eastern Europe at the time.
It will happen again...and it will be even worse.
One of the very first scenes I saw coming into New York City looking from a Greyhound bus window.
The landscape was haunting.
not central park eh?
Imagine buying a piece of land there by 1982 and then sell it at 2019 prices
*STONKS*
My grandparents bought a 2 1/2 story Duplex in Queens after moving out of Manhattan in 1977 and paid around $62,000. Now it is valued at $1.3M. My parents, my two brothers and I lived in a rent controlled 3 bedroom apartment in Morningside Heights, blocks away from Colombia University and paid $667 a month from 1987 until 2010. My parents divorced in the late 90's and my mom kept it until all us kids moved out and she was illegally evicted in 2010 by Jared Kushner type bully developers who bought the building and began pushing people out illegally. She sued and won $50,000. That apartment now rents for over $5500.00 a month. Renovated of course but still. My mom took the settlement money and moved to Philadelphia and my father could not afford to buy anything until after 9/11 when prices went down. He bought a two bedroom apt in Midtown right by the 59th St bridge. Bought it really cheap in 2002, $185,000 because the lady had lived there 60 years prior with no remodeling. My father put some money into it slowly throughout the years, fixing and changing some things and now it's valued at $895,000.
@@cactaceous k
@@cactaceous you just showing how capitalism is bad and unhuman. You are just prospectors, that use the situation, while others are dying in powerty because of it, or ends homeless. The thing is, you wrote it the way, like it is victory, while, it's complete loss.
The city practically gave them the property with the promise they would make repairs. Instead they would insure and then burn it down.
I will never forget it. My family came to the Bronx back in 84 an we lived on 170st on grand concourse. Everywhere was abandoned. I won't forget Grant ave on 169st where the whole block was a mountain of rubbles. I hated it back then but it made me a man. I won't forget it
amazingdph my mom is from the Bronx she lived there since 69 before she moved to Georgia when she was pregnant with me
amazingdph is crazy cuz I'm from 170 Grand Concourse to I'm from Elliot Place between the D an4,
170 and college ave😁
Diane Jay niceeeeee.......
Hubby Flores I’m from 170th street, Plimpton ave, I’m 14 growing up now, the Bronx is NOT like this anymore, it is so beautiful and full of life now
Damn that's when New York was New York, looks like berlin after ww2, I remember we lived out there for like 3 months and we use to rush to get home before dark, at night it was gunshots and people screaming and cops never came
Sounds like what you'd see in a zombie movie.
What happened can any one please tell me (I'm not from USA)
@@ameyawagh3200 what do you mean " what happened ? " The 7Os and 80s were just really bad years for bronx.
@@Leo-qp5ew and why is that ?
People screaming and no cops? sounds like de blasio's ny.
Lived in the Bronx all my life! Moved upstate a few years ago. 1978-2010. I was living in the south Bronx morrisania section. I remember the abandoned buildings and playing in the bricks and stuff. This was not the entire Bronx only certain parts. And it wasn't only the south Bronx! I also lived on university Ave by the Bronx job corps! There was several abandoned buildings there too! I watched them rebuild too! Growing up there made me what I am today! I'm not ashamed! It's life some have and some don't.
Terrance Mitchell
Facts ! & heard you I was born & raised here & I grew up on Harrison 176st on west Tremont... Block right under university ... This area was a rough place haha especially when I was growing up ... seen a lot of homicides, & dead bodies in abandon buildings smh
That attitude is why we call the generation that grew up in WWI; came of age in great depression ;fought WWII then built the nation to what it became "The greatest generation". One only has to see the slums of past to appreciate so little now existing.
@@Bleek17Six 322 east 173rd Street. 1968-1975 i hear you guys.
Im jealous bro, wish i grew up in the south bronx.
@@MelodyLovesMusic It's pretty grim, but human beings adapt and survive, and kids don't notice it as much as adults. Tbh, it looks more rundown and dangerous than some war zones and third world cities. Some English cities looked like that, years after the war, but not on such a large scale, and not as dangerous either. But if you grow up in rundown backstreets like this, it does affect you.
My name is Johnny. I’m from Montreal, Canada. I remember going to the Bronx, for the very first time, in 1982. In those days, I was only 14 years of age and in fact, my sister and i came to visit the city of New York during the weekend, in order to commemorate the second anniversary of the passing of John Lennon, next to the Dakota House, near Central Park in Manhattan. Since we didn’t have so much money back then, during those days, we both had decided to spend the weekend at the Salvation Army in the Bronx. If my memory serves me right, the location itself was situated, on Jackson Avenue, or Prospect Avenue. In my recollection, i could still remember seeing those runned down buildings, that were half demolished and those devastating dark alleys, where some people were hanging out. I was so mesmerized by the look of that subway, that was coming up in the air. For a long minute there, i thought it looked more like a Roller Coaster ride with all the graffitis on it. It was terrifying! What a real culture shock, i had. Lol! Thank you!
Nice story, Jean.
Come to Vancouver BC. You will have another culture shock 😂. Have a good day sir.
Lol???
Jean Tetreault o
Good story, but I had The Devil Went Down to Georgia playing in my head the whole time for some reason.
This is fascinating. I really love the unique atmosphere coming from New York in the 70s and early 80s, gritty and bleak. When I was a kid in the 80s we used to say (in french) "C'est le Bronx" to describe a situation where things got terribly wrong. Now I understand why !
The 1977 film Taxi Driver showed it rather well as in urban decay, alienation , moral decline and loneliness in the big apple .
this is where i was born, from the bronx,. i had it hard there as a kid,. but that is where everything started,
rap, dj, break dancing,..
Wayne Galindo I was born and raised there. I'm 51 years old now. At 17 in 1984 I joined the Army and I put my 20 years in. Best thing I ever did. The Army took me out and kept me out!
David Lamotta were you an army ranger? Because you actually have the same exact story as my dad!
Abram Rivera I was a language typist for my medical unit in Germany and Spain. Learning those languages came easy to me and I was lucky to work in hospitals typing up supply orders for us in Berlin, Stuttgart, and Madrid.
Nothing is perfect but I'll say the Army does take care of its own. I retired at 37 as a Lieutenant. Received full pension and retirement package.
I want you to enlist and try it for a time so at least you'll have the CREDIBILITY of a military background, something that says you were there. You can sign on for 6 years, 4 years, or as little as 2 years. All veterans say the same thing: I don't know if I'd do it again but I'm not sorry I did it!
David Lamotta verstehst du Deutsch?
Wayne Galindo at 7:20 that’s around the cross Bronx and Webster ave area this buildings remained that way for a long time
They should have been playing that Grandmaster Flash song while filming this.
the message !
Lmmfao
Don’t push me cuz I’m close to the edge. *The Message*
@@stephenheath8465 Yeah, I think that was the point of his comment..
Broken glass everywhere.......!!!
Don't push me, cause i'm close to the edge
i'm trying not to loose my head...
Cool ❤❤❤
I'm from Glasgow Scotland, we in 70s, 80s,used to have this type problem too. Thankfully, most of it's gone now, just as it is now, I hope, in the Bronx.I would love to visit New York more than any other city. I feel we have so much in common in Glasgow. I think that all the different cultures you have there is amazing. All the very best to you all.
rent control kills inner city
Now that's ghetto, not the dudes today with their $1000 iPhones and $500 shoes.
These images should be shown more frequently too the generations of young folks today so that they can appreciate what they have now . because this kind of thing can repeat itself at a larger scale.. A true reminder of what America thinks about poor minority residents...in the inner city.
Socialism in play
.
Soak it in. This is what Robert Moses did. This was a clean, safe working class neighborhood before that racist classist rerouted all the traffic away & destroyed all the local business.
To give you an idea of what this used to be, The Honeymooners was set here.
Almost forgot, Robert Moses is why Brooklyn doesn’t have the Dodgers anymore.
Poor minority residents that bare no responsibility nor accountability who should point their fingers up their ungrateful asses.
@D Maxson You mean a true reminder that jobs left the inner city and nobody couldn't pay for shit. Landlords as a last resort to dig themselves out of poverty had purposefully burned down these buildings for insurance money. That's how bad it was. Trickle down economics is a sham.
@Dat Leever the US never was a third world country
I remember playing hooky in 1981 and a bunch of us left Brooklyn and went to the south Bronx..... first AND last time that happened.
How come!?? First n last time
This is what I remember driving through when going to see my grandparents. Great piece of history. Thanks for sharing this.
The beginning of the video clip looks like a nuke hit the city.
Yeah no kidding this looks like The Day After in real life
Nukes are most likely fake. But I agree. Something awful likely happened there a long time before 1982.
@@coryl6548 Most likely fake? Hahahaha
@@coryl6548 what do you mean, like a resession
@Scouts Honor Subversion is hard to overcome.
Don't push me cause im close to the edge...
I smoke cuz it gives me knowledge!
Thats when tap was ok nursery rymes today THUGGS TOOK OVER
UH HUH HUH HUH HUH......
Broken glass everywhere,
People pissin' on the stairs, you know they just don't care.
I can't take the smell, can't take the noise,
Got no money to move out, I guess I got no choice.
Rats in the front room, roaches in the back,
Junkies in the alley with a baseball bat.
I tried to get away but I couldn't get far,
'Cause a man with a tow truck repossessed my car.
Don't - push - me - ‘cause - I'm - close- to - the - edge,
I'm tryin’ - not - to - lose - my - head. Haha Huh huh hah!
It's like a jungle sometimes,
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under.
Exactly what I was thinking..word
@@magellanmerk5078 Urban poetry at its finest. Rap in those days was good.
Classic!
Lol on point with that comment
Then Puffy came along and completely screwed that song
To those that aren't from here, especially at that time, it might look like an unlivable place. But for those of us FORTUNATE enough to grow up here, it's HOME. We learned lessons that CANNOT be taught in a classroom, or any other place in the world for that matter and became better people for it. Exploring those abandoned buildings, sometimes finding bodies, rock fights in the rubble, sponge ball, handball, street football, skellies in the middle of the street, fire hydrants on blast during the summer heat waves, until the street lights came on and we knew it was time to start heading up. Ma dukes would be out looking for you in a few and would have absolutely no issues with whipping your ass all the way home for making her come out during the novela. We played, fought with the hands, made up, and played again the next day as if nothing happened. We didn't shoot each other over a lost fight. It's Da Bronx that I grew up in, and wouldn't trade that childhood experience for anything in the world. Strong Bronx love, always.
Growing up in the Bronx during this time I always remember the packs of stray dogs running around. The dogs that used to belong to the families that were kicked out of these buildings before being burned down.
It is amazing to think that all those buildings were at one time brand new. It would be interesting to see pictures of what they had once looked like in the late 19th, early 20th century.
Well, look at them nowadays, they are all brand new!
+CaptainCrape I prefer the look and style of 19th century buildings. They seem to have more character and be less bland. Many of these buildings have deteriorated and you get used to seeing them in this decrepit condition but if you lived 100 + years ago these buildings would appear fresh and gleaming new and the contrast would be fascinating.
corey wiley Yeah.
Check out "A Bronx Morning" by Jay Leyda, 1931.
Many of those old burned out buildings in the video have been completely restored.
bronxganistan.
Lol
Lmfao
utopia > dystopia > *_bronxtopia_*
Bronx is 2 soft to afghanistan realtalk
@Almighty God George Soros #420 #GetRekd hmm.. that's funny stating that this kinda looks like Detroit now in days.. Detroit, land of the far left and unions, just like NYC..crazy how the most devastated areas are ran by democratic governers, mayor's etc.. show me a "alt right Western whitey" city that has ever looked like this.. the funny thing is that the services provided to this place (police, ambulance, fire, and the infrastructure like roads, schools, and electrical/telephone wire) most african countries dream of this still to this day.. this neighborhood was handed to the residents used but in good shape, they trashed it, now the great restorer of gentrification comes along and fixes it all new, only for one day for it to be destoryed again.. you need to learn a lot because you sound stupid with your catch phrases like "alt right".. #GetRekd
hey, thanks for uploading these film pans... summer of 82, I had started working on 1545 Vyse Avenue, a 2 story rowhouse built about 1909 a few years after the el was built along Southern
Blvd.... started work on the outside cuz I had to take a job away for the 9 months starting in
September and figured with neighbors watching (homeowners were all that was left) and nothing yet inside, the place was secure.
Patched the roof for leaks, started the long process of rebuilding the masonry on the parapet,
cleaning and priming the cornice which featured false beams and grape wreaths, and taking
down the rotten wood addition in back.... got rid of stuff by putting it in the abandoned city owned house next door, water came from the hydrant and a pipe wrench. Anyone remember
Bud "ponies"?
good people on that block, eventually I even started teaching at PS 50 across the street. Would love to hear from anyone, especially a local, from the area.... Bill
Fun fact this was most inner cities in the late 70’s-90’s and still for Baltimore Phily and Detroit, St. Louis, Chicago, and of course Detroit.
I disagree Tony, they may have been rough but they never had this level of total devestation.
Chicago does not look like this!
Paul Burns There are tons of videos from within the last 3 years of ppl randomly driving though said cities,
@@fnihp30 I remember taking the train into Chicago in the 80's and going through the Austin neighborhood reminded me of this, but more buildings were standing, just abandoned though.
That's not true... leave Philly out your mouth.
Broken glass everywhere, people pissing on the stairs you know they just dont care.
Spin-C TV ASMR I remember seeing crack vials on the sidewalks. Don’t push me cause I’m close to the edge, I’m trying not to lose my head
Don’t forget about sperm and everybody’s hair.
Jergä Botswana-Vekklandęr you’re not familiar with the song The Message by Grandmaster Flash and The Furious 5
That song popped into my head right away while watching this.
Spin-C TV ASMR Can’t take the smell,Can’t take the noise,got no money to move out i guess i got no choice
Fun Fact: The landlords of apartments had legal permission to burn down their buildings whenever they wanted, therefore people had to move and they had no choice whether to stay or not; which is why there's a bunch of debris.
here we go again folks
here we go again folks that explains it ....that's crazy
They did not have legal right to burn down the building... they did it to claim insurance because they were too torn up to sell. They'd pay junkies to do it or kids, or whoever would be willing. It's all well documented.
Spin-C TV ASMR f i believe you ....no one will give landlords legal rights to burn there own building down that sounds ludicrous
Lydia Hernandez You can easily look up 70s bronx which was 10x worse than 80s era bronx. President Jimmy Carter and president Reagan both went to the bronx in their respective times... both eras have the same background of rubble, kids playing in building, and grandmaster flash said "broken glass everywhere, people pissing on the stairs know they just dont care, cant take the smell, cant take the noise, got no money to move out, guess I got no choice, rats in the front room, roaches in the back, junkies in the alleyway with a baseball bat, I tried to get away, but I couldn't get far, because a man with a tow truck repossessed my car."
That's why hip hop is held in high esteem to old heads... it spoke the truth not many American knew about, or cared about, unless seen with their own eyes.
At first I thought this was footage of Warsaw razed to the ground after WW2...
You see the Bronx now, you would think it ever looked like that!
Still look pretty awful actually
AdrinaJohnson yeah they fixed it up but it's still f***** up
damn what with all this hate for the bronx, it does not even look bad at all, of corse its based on your neightborhood. Makes ne wonder wether any of the people talking smack about it have really ever been there.
Still looks like shit
AdrinaJohnson big bucks now
You should of played the terminator theme song in the background 🤖
im gonna do that now
@@jackbauer555 still doing it?
@@CheyButWhy yes for 26 hours straight now
@@jackbauer555 you are the true definition of a soldier
Terminator has a theme song?
This is where I grew up. We did not know any better and thought the world was just this way. On a lighter side, those empty lots filled with debris and those abandoned buildings were the best playground we ever had. Breaking windows in abandoned buildings using the broken bricks all around the lot was just plain fun.
charles j No. I had a hard time identifying where exactly this was because the Bronx no longer looks like this. When I saw PS 61 realized where it was. This area is a bit further up than Intervale Ave. This is on a street called Crotona Park East.
nisbt Rodriguez Thanks for identifying the area as it had me puzzled. It has changed quite a bit. The Crotona area is near the 174th st. station and is a bit of walk north from the Intervale station area (about 1 and 1/2 miles, I think).
Idj - it was common practice for landlords to burn their places down and get the insurance money. That's just one of the reasons.
according to firefighters, a lot of the fires were simply electrical from bad maintenance. And, I think Brook Ave. got pretty much destroyed, too.
Yeah man, they were fun. The structure of those buildings and the fire escapes we played on were compromised by the fire though. I'm glad me and my friends never got seriously injured.
Being from Philly, I've always said that 1980's South Bronx reminds me of 1980's North Philly
North Philly doesnt look like this...
Why only 1980s, philly looks like this even now.
@@christiancintron1222 Yeah some parts. But Gentrification has changed things a lot.
I've been to Philly recently, and it does remind me of the Bronx a little bit. I was in the South Central Philly area and I did get Bronx vibes from it.
@@shaelovebeyonce144 In the 80s, it was a a 3rd world shithole, but so were most most american cities back then
Footage looks like it was a war zone.
Lmao Paris isn't nothing it looks like any ordinary hood in America
Bob, the Bronx looks absolutely nothing like this anymore.
Musashi Yao. According to google, the Bronx is not listed in the top 100 most dangerous city. The Bronx population is at 1.5 million people. Please I would implore you to visit the Bronx. I guarantee that absolutely nothing won't happen to you. Unless you begin to act like a dickhead, but that's anywhere. This isn't the 1980's anymore. Central Park is dangerous at night and that's in manhattan. A woman was attacked at Central Park last week. The Bronx was burnt by white land lords in the 1979's and 80's it wasn't burnt by blacks or Hispanics.
Reggie Rodriguez Preach brother
This is exactly how it was those lots used to have matress in them and kids would just bounce On them and the abandoned bldgs always had drug addicts and homeless ppl it was just like the movies I remember these days
"Warrr-iorrrs! Come out to playyy-ayyy!"
That scene was in Coney Island. I been to New York three times and still haven't got around to visiting.
Can you dig it
Welcome back Cotter
I remember walking through all these dead blocks...even survived the 77 black out. South Bronx was desolate and I'm still here. Supreme Wales Crew, Young Bachelors.
Lived there as a kid. Didn’t know it was bad until I left.
How?
Same
Man that’s crazy, I used to live there a couple years ago, I could never imagined it looked like this before... just a pile of rubble... honestly it looks like a nuke when off there
The documentary called a decade of fire explains what happened.
@@robertklone8437 just finished watching that one the other day. I already had some idea of how bad it was, but my god it made me realize that it was way worse than I previously thought. I was stunned to say the least.
Funny during the filming you can hear one of the residents speaking to the cameraman. With his Jamaican accent telling the cameraman that all the way from Burnside and 174th. To 176th streets nothing but vacant lots and crumbling buildings.
Can't help but seeing the sky actually blue.. that's how I remembered it.. hardly ever looks blue now days
Mattl Port
Maybe you have eye problems
Mattl Port I live in south bronx and now its still blue. Its still the same
because they spray the sky now with chemicals and other dirty shit
Funny how you notice that.
I have also heard this from old people
This is how my cities look like when i play simcity
Same
It's like year zero in the South Bronx, wow... incredible footage. Truly, the only way was up!
At 9:00 the filmmaker is walking along Charlotte st. The red PS 61 building is still standing after all these years and now faces a leafy, very suburban and nice neighborhood of single family houses, each worth around $500 000 today. It's called Charlotte Gardens and they began building it in 1983 so only a year after this footage was shot, believe it or not. Such an amazing transformation! How I would love to walk there myself... and visit the Bronx in general!
Thanks for uploading! =)
***** Yes, gentrification. The real estate whores pushed out the poor and made for upper middle class. They took advantage of a poor decaying area and cashed in.
***** I actually find this more real and human to look at than gentrification, overpriced real estate and the yuppie scum who live their in their Mercedes, BMWs and Audis.
Music For The People What are you talking about! Charlotte Gardens has nothing to do with gentrification, it was built for working-class people who already resided in the nearby neighborhoods or other low-income areas in NYC, and the houses were heavily subsidized so the house buyers only had to take a mortgage of around $45 000 for their homes. The city government and the local grass root neighborhood organizations all worked together to make the transformation possible. The original residents were all Puerto ricans and blacks, and many of the original residents still reside in the area. It's not an upper-class neighborhood by any means, lol.
Educate yourself on the matter before you comment, thank you.
Music For The People Stop making yourself sound like an angry idiot. My reading comprehension is perfectly fine (even in English, which is my third language) but the problem is, you at no point in your reply to me clarified that you were talking about something else in terms of gentrification while I was specifically talking about Charlotte Gardens and The South Bronx in general.
As for the the working class people who in your words "lucked out"... Very few believed the ranch houses would ever be able to even stay intact in the area, considering how the neighborhood looked like when they were moved there over the course of several years, pre-built from Pennsylvania. But these urban pioneers took the chance in a dangerous area with horrible reputation, poor service and infrastructure, and did the best they could while settling in and eventually helped make the neighborhood as stable as it is today. I tip my hat instead of begrudging them their currently quite valuable real-estate property.
***** Yeah right. What the fuck do you know other than what you read in a book?! You know nothing. Keep reading your history books on the Bronx with your delusional view. You can stop the self righteous & condescending bullshit. I am a native New Yorker and don't need a history lesson from someone who has never even been there. I worked and walked the streets of the South Bronx such as Westchester Ave, Prospect Ave, Willis Ave, Hunt's Point, 161ST area and much more after this time when everything was so-called much better and I saw no improvement...plenty of crime, drugs, poverty. So don't preach your stupid shit to me lady from another country. I will tell YOU about America and the Bronx
Wow, just wow. That's in an American city during modern times. Unbelievable. My dad grew up in the North Bronx and his family left for the suburbs at the first opportunity. I can only imagine what people living in the South Bronx must've gone through on a regular basis.
That Nintendo video game called Renegade was a martial arts gang fighting video came based on New York. This is the New York it was.
That will always be my favorite Nintendo fighting game. Double Dragon was more popular but i preferred Renegade
Hiacoma
When i saw footage of the bronx in a documentary on tv in the early eighties, i was both shocked and kinda fell in love with the culture of break dance and bands like Rock Steady Crew.. first graffiti artists were being looked up to by European kids in the mid 80s.
Why does it look so disgusting yet so beautiful
jvckhmr because you’re thinking of it as a movie set
jvckhmr it doesn’t look like this anymore
Nostalgic feeling
jvckhmr
Because you haven’t lived it
jvckhmr old buildings are beautiful
They always showed pictures in the day time of old school new york. I bet the night was menacing over there
Thats because noone dared film it at night.
"The freaks come out at night"
@@jedibattlemasterkos The freaks come out
I didn’t know the US was a third world country back in the 80s
Justin Y. Did you gonna say that on every videos ?
only in the Bronx.......look like Third World Country
Justin Y. Dang you are everywhere!
Some cities did look like this those was the crack years
Justin Y. You’re silly
BROOKLYN NEW YORK, i Remember moving Out of the Bronx When i was About 5yrs old, Those Days Were Really Bad, Crack Epidemic Ruined Alot of Communities
Still amazed how music and culture formed from a place like this...
Ol Skool Trey
Pressure makes diamonds
Respect hip hop culture forever
Respect hip hop culture forever it changed the world
That’s because you are only seeing the abandoned areas.
The vacant buildings seen at 5:38 are on Fulton Ave., and the buildings are the ones which were often seen to travelers on Cross Bronx Expressway, which later had wood panels in the windows with drawings of flower pots and curtains (the Cross Bronx is all that traffic in the distance).
What is less known is that row of buildings, consisting of about six or eight buildings, actually burned down THREE TIMES during the notorious "War Years" (circa 1968-1977). They burned down, were rebuilt, occupied, and burned down again, etc.
At the time of their first "burning," those buildings were about 60 years old, if not younger. An attack by a military enemy could not have done worse damage to a city.
It would be interesting to see the same spots today.
Geoff Waller ya i wonder which of these clips are from the part where i’m from in south bx
Try google street views
Believe me, its unrecognizable in comparison!
It's all rebuilt.
You wouldn't even recognize it today. it's been so built up and gentrified somewhat. It looks very Suburban now.
Imagine, through all of this came HIP HOP (the most popular music ever), which gave many who lived in conditions like this an opportunity and a better life for themselves and their families...
wow..what war was this after?
no war just white flight and landlords burnt their own buildings for insurance money
Danny D It was so frustrating that many of them were able to get away with it.
ACLTony That place looks like war torn Afganistan.
dave black the war on drugs
Was a rough time. Interesting point is that many people seem to think that this area was all minority in population, when in fact many middle and low income whites lived in the area as well.
I remember walking through the Bronx back then. It always creeped me out.
in 2016 I drove through Beirut (Lebanon, Middle East) at night - it creeped me out too
I know most folks would find this strange, but i MISS this time. I grew up in the Bronx, and currently live in what was once labeled by Jimmy Carter as the worst slum in America back in the late 70's. You can see the block i'm CURRENTLY living at @9:00.
This was my childhood, and i really miss all the graffiti. Ironically, the graffiti many found offensive on the trains have since been replaced with advertisements that sometimes cover the ENTIRE train, and yet NO ONE complains about it.
dcaseng Wow, you live in Charlotte Gardens on Seabury pl. or thereabout?? That's the very street at 9:00 if I'm not mistaken. The person filming is on Charlotte street, close to the spot where parts of Wolfen was filmed and where that "church" construction was built for the film (at the corner of E172nd st. and Seabury pl.) I tried to look for it here, but I guess two years after the film was made this construction - already deliberately burned for the actual film, oh the irony - no longer existed. Did you attend P.S 61 yourself as a kid? I'm in Finland, but this area and its history just fascinates me to no end, I'm a Charlotte street geek, lol...
***** I actually live on Minford Place, which is on the other side of Charlotte St.
I can see Charlotte St. from my backyard, but I did NOT attend P.S.61.
It's great to see someone from another country who actually knows about this historic area of the south Bronx.
dcaseng Got ya! Yeah, I was trying to figure out if the street in the video clip was Seabury pl. or Minford pl. thanks for letting me know =) I'm actually currently reading a book on the history of The Bronx written by Evelyn Gonzalez, but for the past two years I've read many many articles and book excerpts online, particularly about Crotona Park East. The one thing that I would really like to find is old photos of the area's original housing before the urban blight, but no luck so far... I know that it was a very densely built neighborhood with tenement housing mostly built at the beginning of last century.
I swear, were I ever to actually visit NYC The Bronx would be my #1 place to see! It's nice to be able to take street view "tours" in Google Map but still nowhere near the same thing as being there in person. I could easily spend several days in the borough, lol.
Maybe one day! =D
+Fritha71 how can you write a book about the Bronx if you never visited it and talk to the people that grew up in that hell hole..are u writing about the south bx or the whole bx ..you know its a total different place now..
I don’t know if you ever saw this Tag. Tony 164! But…
I cannot imagine living in a situation like that.
Neither can I. Let’s thank god we don’t have to
Jhon Krasnovskiy I am aware that there are people who live like this that’s why I’m saying thank god that those of us who are privileged enough to not have to don’t
@Jhon Krasnovskiy thats true, but this city was plagued by disease, drugs and violence. some cities or in other countries can be poor but not live like animals
Rome looks like this now
I lived in and had a great childhood
To those complaining about the length of the post -- ????!!!! Have you ever, in your entire life, read a book? Damn. It's your loss. +brass nucks ~ You captured the heart of 80s Bronx with your honest and moving story. You have a gift with words, and you write with economy - right to the gut! Don't stop. Please.
I'm from the Lower East Side of New York City, and Coney Island later in my childhood but I was born at Beth Israel in 1969. Alphabet City was an open air drug market (along with Houston St & more) and the cops were filthy. I can relate in many ways. I now live off White Plains Road, a block or two from the Gun Hill Rd subway station. It's amazing, the South Bronx is now desirable! The insidious process of gentrification has started. As much as I want a nicer neighborhood & better quality of life, I don't want to have to watch the city lose its soul. I witnessed it downtown in the LES, in Brooklyn, and so it goes until there's no space for the "working poor" or whoever is down in their luck at the time.
I'm thinking of leaving NYC... Anyway, thanks for the story, I really enjoyed it.
✌🏿✌🏽✌️✌🏼
Imagine Ed Koch walking around asking “ how am i doing”
He was a douchebag.
And to wonder why they named a bridge after him
As bad as it looked back then I felt safer than I would now in the Bronx. I miss it will forever be my home. The 80’s was the best time growing up in the Bronx home sweet home❤️
A few years later during the crack epidemic came the invention of the Benzi box. If you didn't have one, most likely you'd eventually come out and see that someone helped themselves to your car radio. For those of you who don't know, the benzi box was a removable car radio that you took with you when you left your car.
Oh i remember those and it was not just over there where they started to be sold . I live in London and i had a car stereo taken out my vehicle once .
The Bronx will forever be my home but thank God that it doesn’t look like this anymore
LIVING JUST ENOUGH, JUST ENOUGH, FOR THE CITYYYYY!
Lived two years in Da' Bronx, 81 and 82, from Belfast originally and I have to say the old neighborhoods brought a lump to my throat. Great times were had on those streets by them lucky enough to have been there.
john mccart romantic Irish fool. It was a shit hole.
South Bronx was safer then Belfast back then.
Now I get where they got the inspiration for all of those '80s post apocalyptic movies.
you got that right,as a Teenager growing up in Australia this is what America was portrayed to us throughout the late 70's into the mid 80's..DANGER DANGER DANGER all done thru movies & music,it was spell binding to us over here
In 1980, I drove 4 hours on my Harley to NYC, took a wrong turn on the highway and drove through here. I was happy my bike didn't break down there.
Damn New York has come a longggggg way!
So sad what they did with all of the historical buildings and homes .....
Cat Parlors Supposedly, most of those old brick buildings were demolished and cleared out because they were too deteriorated to repair and upgrade.
My only childhood motivation, was to get the hell outta NYC.
The only childhood memories I have are of the drugs, crime, filth, and poverty.
I can't blame you. It looks effin' terrifying. Who'd want to bring a family up there?
HAND FUN! And now we got teens wanting to join gangs and live like this while they are already in a cosy house with a good life, Sad.
Spoiled US teens can experience their video game fantasies.
@@ViceCoin Until reality hits.
I remember those days, needles everywhere, drugs, and many abandoned neighborhoods.
This strangely gives me hope. Things were bad if not worse back then.
Things were most definitely worse back then. The murder rate was much higher, and just look at this video. People always talk about how bad it is or how bad things have gotten, but we actually have it much better in most ways (maybe not all ways, depending on the place and time period) than people did in the past.
Its like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder how I keep from going under .
Great memories of my younger days in South Bronx. I live in PR now but those 80’s will live in my memory forever. Nice job brass knucks 💪
Oh my lord!! And to think I was born there in 1975 on 153rd street & third avenue
@Eric Wellman Rick Astley?
Never heard about Lissette, going to listen. Thanks!
Nice piece of history! Be interesting to see then and now images. Amazing just amazing! Thank you for posting!
Moved to Las Vegas in 97’ and would tell em stories about South B’ no one used to believe me . Thanks for this Video.. To most it looks like. Hell n it wasn’t too far from the truth but it was always home to me.. 89’ was not too different from what you see here..
Wow! I remember running around those areas when they looked like that...
NYC was not doing well in the 70's and early 80's. The south Bronx had the worst of it. It was the forgotten borough. The Bronx was a no mans land. I grew up in down town Brooklyn not far from the Gowanus housing projects. Shoot outs as they were called were very common as were chain snatching as flashy gold rope chains and gold name plates & rings were all the rage. You had to be careful about flashing your gold on the subway as that is where most of the chain snatching and muggings occured. Kangol hats and adidas sneakers with fat laces were also popular.
I remember smelling crack for the first time in a movie theatre called The Duffield which was off Fulton Street.
The movie Fort Apache the Bronx upset a lot of people. I think it was too real for some - later New Jack City also captured some of the crime that was going on.
This was not a good time if you were on the lower rung of the socio economic ladder. Most of those people were minorities. Everything was stacked against you.
Things got better, though it took a long time.
Walter van der Wahl I remember viewing "Fort Apache the Bronx" starring Paul Newman in a theater in upscale neighboring Westchester County New York. Many in the audience wept, and there were comments like "look, its Poppa's old store" or "OMG, its Momma's apartment building" as the suburbanite yuppies were former Bronxites who had moved on, lost contact with their roots, and were rudely astonished to see what bad had become of where they came from.
Yup. Through the 70's the city was bankrupt it was fucked up everywhere. By the early 80's the city started to come out of it and then crack hit. This destroyed progress being made in the worst neighborhoods. The better ones were able to maintain and rebound from the 70's some never had a chance to come back. Not until the mid 90's did thi vs start to get better. So basically late 60's to mid 90's, 30 years of urban blight.
@Walter Van der Wahl good synopsis
Staten island is the forgotten borrow
the 80's we're a messy time in the city tbh. i felt so dirty seeing this
Am I the only one who finds places like this appealing, and would love to walk around them? They just have this certain atmosphere.
New York in the 1970’s really rough!!!
Living in the Forest Just like most other older northern US cities in the 70s.
I remember when Amtrak had train service from Grand Central north bound (late 1970's/ early 80's). The train ran underground awhile but emerged to an elevated line. You got this view of The Bronx. I saw a school building surrounded by several blocks of rubble and wondered how the kids learned and what they must have thought in that environment. It looked like photos of Nagasaki after the bomb. I really appreciated living in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn and not the South Bronx. I will never forget these images.
Bay Ridge is amazing, from a former Bensohurst and now a College Point resident
@@randomyankee8923- when I lived there in 1970's population of Bay Ridge was almost exclusively Norwegian, Italian and Greek. It was one of the safest neighborhoods in Fun City. Sadly, Bay Ridge ain't the same. TV news and publications now show my old stomping grounds to have serious crime issues. TFB, rest in peace, Bay Ridge.
As a kid, growing up there seemed normal. It was what it was... that part of the Bronx was just like that. I didn't see it the way it was before all the ruin. Funny how of all places, the politicians of NYC at the time did nothing to rehabilitate or stop the kaos. It was like they gave up on it and didn't care. What a shame!
I have lived in the Bronx from. 1982 to2012 I remembered how horrifying it was back then, but people still looked out for their neighbors.I use to hate the stigmatism people had of the Bronx.you tell someone back then you live in the Bronx and the reply was sometimes with annoying comments but all and all I love the Bronx and the boogie down is back in a beautiful and better way , God bless the Bronx. 🙏🌟💪✌🙌