Trump's Positives So Far:

[Smitty-48]

OK, I'm familiar with the neighborhood around Yankee Stadium, but barely. I'm more familiar with the neighborhoods from Fordham to Morris Park and going over to Castle Hill. Even so they weren't my stomping grounds. It was more like I had reason to go there on occasion. I was much more familiar with the neighborhoods going down Broadway (the 1 and A trains). I used to live on Van Cortlandt Park.

Morris Park, that's on the other side of the zoo, but if you walk from Yankee Stadium over to Grand Concourse, and just walk south from there, you hit Mott Haven down around the Deegan Expressway, south of 149th, Mott Haven is basically the waterfront district of the South Bronx, that's where they are putting up a bunch of luxury condo towers now.

I know the Grand Concourse but mostly just to drive through. Wow, that's pretty amazing that area is gentrifying (although I shouldn't be surprised - I never would have thought Harlem would gentrify as a kid).

About that area around the zoo, many years ago there was a luxury doorman highrise there with razor wire all around the building. That was not a good neighborhood and yet rich people.

Remember the 77' World Series? When they panned back to the helicopter shot of a big building fire, and Cosell famously said "there it is ladies and gentlemen, the Bronx is burning"

I think that fire was down Grand Concourse in Mott Haven. So this was the infamous "Bronx is Burning" neighborhood. It was just falling down, crumbling, burned out buildings, junkies roaming the streets, it was the iconic NYC urban decay nexus.

But when I google it now, it's clear that they are going through there and either making studio condominiums in the old building facades, or just building brand new condo towers.

It's like you say, Harlem is tapped out already, it's gentrified, so they are moving north from there to find new areas to build condos.

[C-Mag]

I didn't remember that

[Smitty-48]

One of the most famous World Series of all time, that was the October for which Reggie Jackson earned the nickname "Mister October"

I remember it well, it was big in my household cause my dad such a huge Dodgers fan, and I was such a huge Reggie Jackson fan.

[MilSpecs]

Remember the 77' World Series? When they panned back to the helicopter shot of a big building fire, and Cosell famously said "there it is ladies and gentlemen, the Bronx is burning"

I think that fire was down Grand Concourse in Mott Haven. So this was the infamous "Bronx is Burning" neighborhood. It was just falling down, crumbling, burned out buildings, junkies roaming the streets, it was the iconic NYC urban decay nexus.

But when I google it now, it's clear that they are going through there and either making studio condominiums in the old building facades, or just building brand new condo towers.

It's like you say, Harlem is tapped out already, it's gentrified, so they are moving north from there to find new areas to build condos.

I barely remember the world series that year but the quote was famous.

Did you ever go to Alphabet City? That was another bad neighborhood that was gentrified. I used to go there a lot, since we had friends who were squatting and we stayed there sometimes instead of going back to the Bronx. Another place that I never would have thought would be nice.

What's sad is that the average person never had a chance at investing or living in any of those gentrified neighborhoods. The abandoned buildings in alphabet city were actually often restored by squatters who then had absolutely no rights even though the buildings were completely abandoned by their owners.

[Martin Hash]

I worked Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx just a couple years ago. Walked north through Harlem across the river, south of Yankee stadium.

Weren't you also at Montefiore?

Yeah. POS hospital in a nice neighborhood. Lincoln is just the opposite.

[Smitty-48]

Remember the 77' World Series? When they panned back to the helicopter shot of a big building fire, and Cosell famously said "there it is ladies and gentlemen, the Bronx is burning"

I think that fire was down Grand Concourse in Mott Haven. So this was the infamous "Bronx is Burning" neighborhood. It was just falling down, crumbling, burned out buildings, junkies roaming the streets, it was the iconic NYC urban decay nexus.

But when I google it now, it's clear that they are going through there and either making studio condominiums in the old building facades, or just building brand new condo towers.

It's like you say, Harlem is tapped out already, it's gentrified, so they are moving north from there to find new areas to build condos.

I barely remember the world series that year but the quote was famous.

Did you ever go to Alphabet City?

Oh yeah, of course, we roamed all over Manhattan, all over the East Village, the East Village was practically the main event.

[Smitty-48]

Here's a good photo montage, this is what it was like, NYC in the seventies.

http://all-that-is-interesting.com/1970 ... k-photos#5

I miss that NYC, is was interesting, it was cool, it was an adventure, that was what NYC was famous for, that's what we came to see.

When you travel now, every place is the same, Starbucks City, but New York City in the seventies, that was something to see.

It was cool in the eighties too, it didn't start losing its personality until the nineties.

Nowadays I have no interest at all, I can get Starbucks anywhere.

[SuburbanFarmer]

Went to NYC as a kid in the 80s. My dad told me not to make eye contact with anyone, so I stared at the pavement the whole time. I remember it being terrifying, and I couldn’t wait to leave.

Next time I went was in 2011 or so. Didn’t really interest me then, either. Wayyyyy too many people.

[Smitty-48]

My dad was the opposite, he said not to buy the hype, it's just people, going about their business, living their lives, just walk around like you belong, and nobody will bother you.

And he was right. Walked all over NYC, nobody ever bothered us, people were nice actually, typical Americans, always up for shooting the breeze, everybody liked sports, you could always talk sports in NYC, it was like the lingua franca.

My dad talked to everybody and anybody, in New York City, you can strike up a conversation on the street, that was normal in NYC, people weren't actually standoffish at all, they all had something to say, New Yorkers are gabby, or at least they were back then. If you didn't strike up a conversation with them, they would strike one up with you.

"Hey, you, let me ask you somethin', what'cho think about that? Is that right or what? See, even he says so, I told you so, listen to this guy, he knows what he's talkin' about. Whaddya mean no? You don't know, get outta here, get outta here I said, you have no idea, I'm telling you, this guy's telling you too, this guy here...what's your name? Ron? Ron is telling you, listen to Ron, you putz..."

Irish, Italians, Blacks and Jews, everybody was yappin at everybody in New York City, and anybody could join or be dragged in at any moment.

[MilSpecs]

Here's a good photo montage, this is what it was like, NYC in the seventies.

http://all-that-is-interesting.com/1970 ... k-photos#5

I miss that NYC, is was interesting, it was cool, it was an adventure, that was what NYC was famous for, that's what we came to see.

When you travel now, every place is the same, Starbucks City, but New York City in the seventies, that was something to see.

It was cool in the eighties too, it didn't start losing its personality until the nineties.

Nowadays I have no interest at all, I can get Starbucks anywhere.

I have a difficult relationship with NYC. It was a city of extremes and I was on the wrong end. True story: there was a dive bar next to my house, the kind you walk down stairs to get into, and it was loaded with alcoholics and junkies. I wasn't allowed far from my stoop because the neighborhood wasn't safe. I could play on the stoop or directly in front of the house. I picked up tuberculosis playing on the sidewalk inches from the stoop - someone with T.B. had spit on the ground and I must have come in contact. My dad used to have to go up to the roof with a bat to chase the junkies off because the noise kept us up at night. It was incredibly hot in the summer (third story walkup) and there were vermin of various types. That was the colorful NYC other people came to see, but it wasn't a good place to grow up. I don't miss it at all. Your posts have got me remembering, Smitty, and it makes me both sad and grateful that we got out. I never would have dreamed to have the life I have now.