How was Times Square in the 70s?

How was Times Square in the 70s?

The area was rife with con games, open drug trade, and alcoholism. Despite the large numbers of police officers, crime flourished in the subway and underground passages of the Port Authority Bus Terminal. By the end of the 1970s, the most felony and crime complaints were recorded in Times Square.

What was New York like in 1970?

The New York City of the 1970s was practically bankrupt and hemorrhaging population. Subway trains were covered in graffiti, inside and out. Crime was rampant. Women were warned to remove jewelry while walking the streets for fear that their necklaces would be ripped from their necks.

When was Times Square at its worst?

As early as 1960, 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues was described by The New York Times as “the ‘worst’ [block] in town”.

What did Time Square used to be like?

Originally known as Long Acre (also Longacre) Square after London’s carriage district, Times Square served as the early site for William H. Vanderbilt’s American Horse Exchange. In the late 1880s, Long Acre Square consisted of a large open space surrounded by drab apartments.

When did Time Square clean up?

1993
Under his direction, the group was able to stall the project by filing numerous lawsuits that tied the city up in court for years. But that changed in 1993, when then-mayoral candidate Rudy Giuliani made cleaning up New York, particularly Times Square, a central tenet of his campaign.

Do peep shows still exist?

Still, tucked among the life-sized Spongebobs, Jersey Boys, and a Forever 21 that extends to the high heavens, exists about 10 remaining peep shows in Times Square, bringing the hardened New York old-schoolers (ahem, and yours truly) a taste of NYC’s fabled, folkloric past: naked ladies undulating in tiny, private …

Why was NYC so dirty in the 70s?

How dangerous was NYC in the 70s? In the 1970s, the city faced $10 billion in debt, teetered on the knife’s edge of bankruptcy, and then Mayor Abraham Beame was forced to cut the police, fire and sanitation departments. Every type of crime – robberies, assaults, murders, grand larcenies – was up.

Who cleaned up Times Square in the 70s?

But 15 years ago, the place was considered a cesspool, overrun with crime and home to sex shops and peep shows. Drug addicts shot up on the street. Locals avoided the neighborhood. The man who has taken the credit for revitalizing Times Square is GOP presidential hopeful and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani.