Email me if you want to answer some. I figured I was unemployed at the time, had nothing to be stolen. The building housed a playground on its roof, a respite for myself and many neighborhood kids. Re: I stay away from the South West corner of W. 71st Street as rowdy teenagers hang around in front of MacDonalds and create a nuisance.. I lived on W 73rd b/ Columbus & CPW from 1974-1987 and saw SO many changes the gentrification got to be too much, so I moved up to 108th Street. "Ever since I moved out of my parents' house in Astoria to live in the city, I've always lived within the same two or three blocks of the Upper West Side. Email me if youd like to answer some more questions about life on the UWS. Huge packs of kids just playing in the park after school or even at lunch (with a letter you could leave 87 or 44 and go get a slice somewhere). Ive ben on 76th since 1978. I so miss living there and am trying to now come back from CT where I moved to be closer to Yale for medical purposes. Email me if you want to answer a few questions. There were loads of movie theaterstwo on one block between 96 & 97 street called Riverside and Riviera, and the Thalia, Symphony, Beacon (ALL local movie theaters), the Midtown, Loews 83rd street, the Edison, Nemo (both in the 100s) and of course, the New Yorker! I grew up Several times a year the 79th Block Association shut down the street and organized a street fair. The broken windows theory propounded by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling in 1983 has entered into the realm of clichthe idea that if you dont replace a broken window on an abandoned building, more of the windows will be broken and the area around them will decay as well. Lets not forget about the orginal frozen cappuccinos on Columbus Avenue before Starbucks. But in 1961, 84th Street was a nightmare, and something had to be done. )Lantern (78th and Amsterdam, where Planet Sushi is now). Yes, Jeannine, there have been major changes in the neighborhood mostly for the better but, alas, I truly miss some of the stores that have fallen by the wayside. Hey, Scooter Stan, they are often a pain in the neck. It feels sort of like a big, slightly divey rec room, with brick walls, a shuffleboard table, and photos of various people named Bob up on the wall. All the small stores have had to vacate once their leases were up and the rents were jacked up to unaffordable rents. Kelly Ramos: Favorite wings in the entire city. Japanese. A fine and forgotten 1975 book by Barbara Gelb called On the Track of Murder it reads like a nonfiction version of Ed McBain's glorious 49-year series of police procedurals about the 87thPrecinct, a lightly disguised version of the real-life 24th Precinct on the Upper West Sidetells the story of the homicide squad formed to catch Charlie Nostalgia can be a treacherous mistress, because she glamorizes the past and downgrades the present in a way that threatens to make them both intolerable. In part that was because the then-senescent New York Post hadnt brought new life to tabloid journalism and forced the fat and happy and rich New York Daily News to follow it, which is what happened in the summer of 1977, when the Son of Sam went on his rampage. I miss the 88 Noodle House, Woolworths, and Sloans. He murdered and castrated four boys. I live on W 71 myself. He struck on 106th between Broadway and Amsterdam, a block from my building. From melees to muggings to serial killers to a spiritual revival. Pretty good ice cream place in the early 80s. Best upper east side bars 80\\\'s in New York, NY. A couple of additions (please forgive any repetitions from other comments I havent read every single one.). The Upper West Side has plenty of drinking options. How Biden Intends to Misuse the CHIPS Act, About that African-American Studies Course. It is the 19th-most populous city in the United States and the fifth most populous state capital. Retroclubnyc is NYC's top dance club and nightclub playing the best dance music from the 70s, 80s, and 90s thru today including classic disco, freestyle and house music. Hanging out with kids from the projects as well as kids from riverside drive and Central Park westwas all one nice big mix. I grew up in. . never went in but loved that name was there til the 80s. I have lots of memories of specific shops, and just as many holes in my memory! was racking my brain trying to come up with the name of the pub/restaurant on west side of Columbus b/ 70th & 71st when I came upon your posting. The owner was bought out by the Love Store chain, then the pharmacist went to work at a Duane Reade. Today the Upper West Side is cleaner with higher rents and upwardly mobile folk who seem to rent for a couple of years before buying big houses in Montclair or Maplewood. 06/27/16. I well remember when the wrecking ball destroyed the beautiful and historic Episcopal Church on W. 71st Street at the corner of Broadway. Caledonia is, above all, a whiskey bar. Some memories: Would it be meaningful to a visitor in 2010 to know that Isaac Bashevis Singer lived in the Belnord on 86th and Broadway; that Singers brother Israel Joshua set the final section of his magnificent novel of German Jewry, The Family Carnovsky, at 94th and West End; that the composer Sergei Rachmaninoff spent his final years at 84th and West End? Three conservative synagogues in a 15-block radius from 100th Street to 86th Street had fallen into decrepitude and near-dormancy. A rush hour scene at the New York City subway. Tags: Big Nick's Burger and Pizza Joint, East Village Eye, East Village in the 1980s, Lou Reed, New York City 1984, old pizza parlors New York City, Upper West Side in the 1980s, Velvet Underground Tuesday's - you could get a rack of ribs, big salad with lots of fresh blue cheese, and a baked potato for $9.99. From our award-winning Vine Burger to our Cobb Salad, Roasted Cornish Hen, Seafood and Steaks, Madison & Vine satisfies the cravings of the city's most discerning diners. In the late 1980s, many of New York's megaclubs closed down as a result of the economic crash of 1987. You will receive a link to create a new password via email. The cavalcade included. Italian $$$$ Upper West Side. Those rowdy kids are just young high school students who have just finished a full day of behaving properly in a boring, tedious, and often frustrating environment where their every move is monitored by unsmiling adults at least 10 or 20 years older (if not more) and most often NOT people of color like themselves. My sister and I used to walk down the street and try to remember what was there before. My father, and then my mother ran the Thalia Theatre from the 1930s to the 1970s, so I guess I would qualify as someone who know what the Upper West Side was like before 1976, when no one would live above 72nd street if they could avoid it. I remember way before Charivari when the drugstore was on the corner of 72nd and Columbus, across the street from Merit Farms. Get there early (around 9:00 p.m.) to experience it because it gets a bit crowded near the stage later in the evening. I was mugged four times before I was 14. POWERED BY. Maybe before you retired you might have offered a no-credit seminar on at-large behavior and minding ones own business. Upper West Side seen from Top of the Rock. Outdoors at Noz Market. Madison & Vine, an American Bistro and International Wine Bar, has a menu that captures the diversity of America's culinary regions. Some favorite places included Ruskays and Rouelles. Over the course of the next four years, 20 houses on the block would be demolished and replaced with a high school named for Louis Brandeis and a relocated elementary school. I have lived on 111 street since 1975. If you dont feel like staring into pint glasses and wondering about fermentation processes, you can play darts or foosball instead. Rescued Estates, before the "Crazy Landlord" rented the place to The Bean coffee shop. You dont even need to go to municipal archives. at least up until the 90s. I now live on the upper east side, but will always remain true to my rootsthe West side is the best side! The character of this area has changed dramatically as it has become an influx of new luxury and converted-to-luxury Mitchell-Lama buildings, over-priced coffee franchises and domestic employees. I miss them! Please enter your email address. If you visit Hi-Life Bar and Grill on your birthday, you get the usual complimentary dessert and a t-shirt with "NY" set in a martini glass graphic. Use them in commercial designs under lifetime, perpetual & worldwide rights. The infamous Upper East Side murder has yet to fade from public memory. jeannine.j@gmail.com. Its a big French wine bar, and even on weeknights it gets pretty full of couples talking about their siblings and where they went to college. You want to watch sports with some friends, and maybe share a couple pitchers of beer - ideally something other than Hoegaarden or Goose Island. I also remember the food of the neighborhood . a kosher restauran Josephs, thats just a few. Tiny place, sweet lady from down south. They took my empty wallet and the little folder containing the invaluable pass that afforded me free access that month to that bus line. But Malachy's a fixture on West 72nd Street off Columbus Ave. since the late '80s is the kind of place people like "because it's old and ugly," insisted Mike Mishkin, owner of . The big open room is filled with tables, and the service is about as friendly as we imagine it would be in a neighborhood pub in Ireland. Friday's location on the Upper East Side. Because The Smith is always there when you need it to be. When the mental institutions disgorged their populations, the UWS got more than our share. I have been thinking about this since it was originally posted a couple of years ago. The business I miss? 4. The reclamation of New York City from the forces of criminal chaos and social decay is a familiar tale by now. I've always been a pretty good cook, and I could make these very good dinners in this tiny kitchen. And The New Yorker theater. more proof that you dont have to be that old to look back on the past with rose colored glasses. And the bakery that was on 72nd between Bway and West End. What they will not have to learn, as my sisters and I and our wealthier friends did, is how to accommodate and make normal an ever-present sense of everyday menace. One could argue either side, and that inspired me to write about it. The Cozy Bar (The Dead Poet) Thanks! People were afraid to ride the graffiti-streaked, crime soaked subways. This has always been a congenial neighborhood. Probably the first high-end shop on Amsterdam Ave. Upper West Sider here. Fancy. It was bummy but it was awesome. (There have been times when police had to be called around 3:30 PM.) You should know to never start a sentence with but. As an 80s kid, the name cracked me up, it sounded so dated, and even then I could see they where from another time, and I appreciated that. Upper West Side march protest, circa 1980. Bear Bar (west side) 2156 Broadway (between 74th & 75th St.) Beer Hall. And every effort to cure them through large-scale government action only made matters worse, in one of the most potent demonstrations of the law of unintended consequences. Today: About 90% of the mom and pop stores on Broadway between 91st and 85th St. have closed. I also take issue with your line that says no one in Manhattan lived above 72nd street if they could avoid it. I was born in 1963 and my parents moved to CPW and 92nd street a couple of years later. Caribbean Restaurants Restaurants. A short-lived club in the 1980s East Village. Theres solid bar food, you can get a good cocktail, and the space feels kind of like a long clubhouse with booths, darts, and board games. It's just happening. Memories of the old days. My first date with my husband was in November 1984, at Teachers, on Broadway in the mid-80s. But I had to wear my old prescriptions and couldnt see very well. i graduated college in 1988 and came back to NYC, and i couldnt believe that my friends that went to work in investment banking all lived in a new building (the westmont) at 96th and columbus. I think the owner of Trio Dinner lived in my building I thought it was called Joes?. I was even blessed to attend LaGuardia high school on 135th & Convent Avenue in its glorious Gothic, castle-like home before it moved to its prison-like building at Lincoln Center. Finally, the kind of restaurant the Upper West Side has long been starved for. (I hope this continues . A little more than a decade later, my sisters shared an apartment in a midrise next door to what had been Lyfords brownstone. It went badly. Theres a bar in the middle of the room, some banquette seating, and a few tables - plus floor-to-ceiling windows looking out on 72nd Street. Fast forward to 2013. Back in the days prostitues freely roamed Broadway, drug addicts shot up in our basement, wed look out our living room window And see prostitues making their deals. It is bounded by Central Park on the east and the . I would recommend the author talk to some parents at the local schools to get a sense for the community now. Also The Golden Pan restaurant, Levy Bros Stationers, Universal Health Center, the New Yorker Theater and, upstairs, the New Yorker Bookshop. Ive lived as far north as 110th street and as south at 80th. The Dakota Bar - Upper West Side Romance is definitely in the air at the trendy Dakota Bar which is located on Manhattans' chic Upper West Side. Over 25 years, we lived in 3 apartments, none more than 4 blocks from Fairway. Good luck with your project and I would be happy to talk if you like. Delicious, homey. Lecters was a tiny linen shop on the west side of Broadway owned my Mel Lecters parents till he inherited it and turned it into a yuppies dream shop! if youre going to criticize Historian, maybe it would be for being snarky. Like Caledonia, the Hamilton has a very serious whiskey selection - although the focus here is more on American whiskey. The Nickel Bar all the pre-AIDS era gay bars that made the UWS a gay mecca to rival the Village, and that drew lots of interracial couples to move in and renovate buildings. I live in a small city in the midst of a great city. Another one had South American clothes but the name has vanished from mind. We were giving up so much of our city, Myron Magnet has written in a beautiful essay on Saul Bellows great 1970 novel of Upper West Side (and Western civilizational) decline, Mr. Sammlers Planet, and how it spoke to his experience as a neighborhood resident. Theres also a big stack of board games in one corner, and, with its giant fish tank and mismatched wall decor, the space feels almost exactly like the common area of an off-campus house where six college seniors live. I was born (1976) and raised on 92nd St. Btwn Broadway and West End and lived in the same apartment until I was 23 years old. My building paid for our own doorman out of our own pockets to try to secure our building. The whole theater got kicked out of Lowes 84th on opening night for Friday The 13th: Jason Takes Manhattan, it was so rowdy, but Id been seeing movies there since it was the Lowes 83rd st, twin. Sadly, the older residents are slowly dying off and being replaced by younger couples who only stay two or three years. I shopped at Red Apple Market on 100 st, which then became C Town and now is yet another bank. With a drink in one hand, a cigar in the other, and various critical parts of his body glued to a dark-haired woman with whom he is ostensibly dancing, Michael Barrett looks . This was my dads favorite hangout, as they were a rival of Rizzolis in art books and such. A) become playgrounds for East Village New Wavers. The destruction and construction took years, leaving behind rubble that became at-hand weaponry for kids and gangsters and boarded-up tenements that became crime sites and drug dens. Only in Honolulu, wrote the journalist Joseph P. Lyford, is there a greater confusion of blood, ancestry, language, and culture in as small a space. But though there were racial and ethnic tensions aplenty, and these would grow exponentially as the years passed, the division in the neighborhood was primarily one of classa division between the middle class and the lower class. You can walk down the street . And the new projects that rose up on the Upper West Side became breeding grounds of concentrated disorder, causing thousands of disintegrating and disintegrated families to fall under the sway of an even more destructive lawlessness easier to ignore, perhaps, precisely because it was so concentrated and because so much of what was awful went on indoors. The Upper . So pleaseif youre going to write something about this neighborhood that means so much to so many of us, please dont generalize and please check your facts! Bear Bar (east side) 1770 Second Ave. (between 92nd & 93rd St.) Manny's on Second. Im trying to write it into a book, and I cannot find anything about it anywhere. Big flat-screen TVs behind the bar show lists of what theyre currently pouring - and there are also a few other TVs for watching sports. Let me correct myself for Sarabeths Kitchen was between 79th and 80th Streets on Amsterdam across from Macs. And Silk Road. By signing up, I agree to the .css-bwwgd3{transition-property:var(--chakra-transition-property-common);transition-duration:var(--chakra-transition-duration-fast);transition-timing-function:var(--chakra-transition-easing-ease-out);cursor:pointer;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;outline:2px solid transparent;outline-offset:2px;color:currentColor;font-size:inherit;line-height:160%;}.css-bwwgd3:hover,.css-bwwgd3[data-hover]{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;}.css-bwwgd3:focus,.css-bwwgd3[data-focus]{box-shadow:var(--chakra-shadows-outline);}Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy. Apologies for coming to this conversation rather late but felt compelled to share my experience of the UWS. What sets it apart is the fact that there are so many hard-to-find beers on tap. Further back, in the 50s and 60s there was food-o-Rama, Daitch Shopwell, Nedicks, Orange Julius, and so many mom and pop shops. 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