Fancy. 210 W 94th St, New . The block in question was 84th Street between Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues. Contentsshow 1The Mermaid Inn 2Prohibition 3The Owl's Tail 4Bodega 88 5E's Bar 6Vin Sur Vingt 7Dive Bar 8Jacob's Pickles I was mugged four times before I was 14. 133 E. 65th St, New York. My father was the first tenant of the building and moved in in 1929. The Loft sounds right. The Upper West Side of my youth was in no way a fabled or especially notable area. 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. and the Pyramid Club (101 Ave. A) become playgrounds for East Village New Wavers. By the early 1970s, 20 to 25 percent of American couples had met at a bar, according to Stanford University research. Lyford then dumped the refuse over his fence onto the concrete apron outside the offending tenements so that their superintendent could collect it, bag it, and leave it for the garbage men. 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. They might have called it the airmail theory. But it was also due to middle-class flight, to people who chose to live free of the menace. I moved onto W. 71st Street, from W. 113th St. in 1968, so I could walk to the NY State Theatre, where I was a singer with the NYC Opera. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. A couple of additions (please forgive any repetitions from other comments I havent read every single one.). The Upper . That mugging was nothing unusual. Address: 322 Columbus Ave, New York, NY 10023 Image Courtesy Da Capo #6. My grandparents used to call the UWS a slum and would never sleep over instead theyd sleep in a room at the Greystone on 91st and Bwayha! In 1983, a sociologist named Richard Shafer told the New York Times, The West Side is a neighborhood that always seems to embarrass the fashionable. Its most attractive streets were and are no match architecturally or decoratively for the boulevards of the East Side, Fifth and Park Avenues. My high school boyfriend lived on 82nd and Broadway. Its a good spot to day drink with a big group, but theres no table service - youll be notified by a buzzer when your order is ready at the counter. Others would doubtless claim that because the victims were black and Hispanic, there was less interest than there would have been had the victims been white; more likely, there was newsroom concern about stigmatizing thesebeaten-down povertystricken populations. A map was created of all gay bars and gay spaces from 1859 to now. 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. Several times a year the 79th Block Association shut down the street and organized a street fair. I was also hailed from second story windows in Times Square by topless prostitutes. Williamsburg is like New York in the 70s. UPPER WEST SIDE Upper West Siders have long known that if they want a good drink and a hopping nightlife scene free of college students and sports bars, they'd have to head below 59th. He murdered and castrated four boys. And The House of Games. Shakespeare and Co. followed suit a few years later due to the same pressure from Barnes and Noble. 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. DSNY 'Snow Alert' Runs From Monday at 4PM to Tuesday at 9AM; Here's What it Means Dog Slips From Collar and Runs 34 Blocks in Traffic; Wait Till You See Where She Ends Up This article is so one-side. Is that what a Harvard education gets you these days? So a volleyball net was erected. The rental apartment upstairs from my mother, with the same layout was recently listed for $9900.00 a month. You couldnt walk down my side street without seeing at least one car window smashed. 1) Frusen Gldj. But not to know when a store closed? gallery. Its a good spot to eat some bangers and mash, and its perfect for when you want to sit on a barstool and watch sports with a Guinness. at least up until the 90s. A little more than a decade later, my sisters shared an apartment in a midrise next door to what had been Lyfords brownstone. What about doing a simple Lexis-Nexis search? Finally, the kind of restaurant the Upper West Side has long been starved for. Explore the scintillating March 2023 issue of Commentary. The Netherlands consists of twelve provinces; it borders Germany to the east, and Belgium to the south, with a North Sea coastline to the north and west. Girl Scout's Cookies Are a Hit at West Hollywood Gay Bars February 16 2023 5:27 PM. I was just talking about Winnifred Frocks yesterday! Thanks! (212) 861-2290. 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. Yellow Rose of Texas. Not how it was for me, my friends, and their families. There were great clothes stores also on Columbus on the same street, Parachute was one. Its a great spot for a big group hang, and if you live in the area, youll probably wind up knowing at least one bartender by name. Even 50 years ago, its leftism was a lived-in leftism, a legacy leftism, dull and humorless and orthodox, inherited from parents and grandparents and already growing threadbare around the elbows like an old tweed jacket whose patches were themselves worn out from use. Does anyone remember a clothing store on Amsterdam Avenue around 75th Street that was huge, with floor-to-ceiling windows, that catered mainly to gay men back in the 1980s? Blondies Sports at 212 W. 79th St. earned a spot on Eater NY's recent list of the "15 . 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. (There have been times when police had to be called around 3:30 PM.) When I come to NYC now, I stay in the Endicott (on Columb and 81, around the corner from my old apartment). For more photos of UWS storefronts in 1982, click here. I loved visiting the pet dept downstairs there and often dreamt of freeing all the fish and parakeets to Central Park down the block. The circle of progress. But I had to wear my old prescriptions and couldnt see very well. Apologies for coming to this conversation rather late but felt compelled to share my experience of the UWS. I remember The Jaunting Car Inn next to the Ritzs deli between 71 and 70th on Columbus. Go to George Keeley. I remember The Red Baron and Food City and Victors Cafe Always had a good meal there. I was born and raised on same block, in same building since 1969. 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've always been a pretty good cook, and I could make these very good dinners in this tiny kitchen. Neighborhood volunteers took turns watching out their windows, reporting any crimes to the well-meaning, over-worked and understaffed local police precinct. Some favorite places included Ruskays and Rouelles. And there was also the simple fact that the small city and the larger city had both grown pessimistic about the ability of authorities to do much of anything to prevent these horrors, so it seemed almost churlish to report on them. I think my brother got his first ever job scooping ice cream there. I dont understand the folks who insist the 70s werent terrible. Bring a few relatives you havent seen in a while. The cavalcade included. Despite the name, Dive 75 isnt actually that divey. My favorite dart bar in 1982. The Upper West Side has plenty of drinking options. They have an enormous scotch selection, a large number of snifters, and plenty of Irish and American whiskey as well. It is bounded by Central Park on the east and the . I live on 80th and Columbus, and 79th and Amsterdam was the most dangerous corner in the precinct. For the reclamation of the neighborhood proved to have a spiritual component as well. I remember The Broadway Nut Shop, outside of which I shook hands with Bobby Kennedy while he was campaigning for Abe Beame in 1965, Steinbergs Dairy Restaurant, next to Irvings Candy store, the Pizza parlor and Serooties? He didn't take studio photography or anything like that.". Silly me. According to a 1966 study, out of 150,000 residents, 105,000 were white (of whom 40,000 were Jews); 26,000 came from Spanish-speaking homes; and 18,000 were black. I have been unable to confirm the closing date in my research. I would love more stories. This reminds me that the loan sharks and drug dealers never left the city, only they now dress in corporate suits and lobby for loopholes in D.C. instead of paying off morally corrupt citizens in dilapidated buildings. I well remember the Woolworths on Amsterdam, but am at a loss to recall just when it was demolished. Homeless? Chloe 81 Night Clubs Dance Clubs Bars 6.7 Website Amenities: (212) 677-0067 Working there I was held up at gun point at the 85th street location and the 99th street location. Conservatives sometimes invoke the Upper West Side in their lists of petri-dish-like leftist enclaves along with Cambridge and Berkeley, but despite its homogeneous radicalism, it didnt then and doesnt now offer much in the way of interesting, unexpected, or comical ideological excess. Kyle: When I moved here, the hotspot was 8 th Avenue between 14 th and 23rd. Gone were the days when people indulged in a nice restaurant dinner only when traveling or celebrating a birthday or anniversary. People have bidding wars over apartments that cost millions of dollars. That room and the first-come first-served bar area both have lots of TVs playing games at high volume, but what really sets Blondies apart from other sports bars is the food. MacAliers Pub was across the avenue. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. In order to reduce traffic congestion in . What else. Although the company liquidated in 1991, there are a handful of independently owned stores left around the United States. If you're heading to the Upper West Side to see a Humperdinck fairy tale opera at Lincoln Center, you might just need a drink beforehand. I grew up on riverside drive at 104 street. Named after the famous landmark apartment building nearby, The Dakota Bar possesses a vibrant energy all of its' own. They had delicious burgers. I remember Marcys deli on Broadway, the barbershop next door with its old -fashioned spinning stripe pole. Which makes sense, seeing as the space is decorated like an 18th-century tavern, complete with a portrait of Alexander Hamilton. Email me if you want to answer a few questions. 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. 2) Endicott Book Store. I remember when Eeyores Children bookstore, around the corner from my apartment building, closed due to declining sales from competition with the newly opened Barnes and Noble megastore on 83rdand Broadway. Before wine bars, bank branches, and sushi restaurants took over the East Village, there were hole-in-the-wall clubs like 8BC, a gallery and performance space on Eighth Street between Avenues B and C. Opened in 1983, the place was over by the end of 1985. In 1981, I lived on 79th and West End; it was tiny but very comfortable. 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 always saw it as culturally vital and architecturally beautiful. Lifelong UWSer, born 1970 and raised on 81st between CPW and Columbus. If you are interested in answering a few questions email me at: jeannine.j@gmail.com. Now its a zoo. Secondly, the food is more exciting than what youll find at other spots nearby (the fries come with chimichurri and manchego cheese, and the fried calamari is glazed with Dominican honey). Restaurants. The Cozy Bar (The Dead Poet) Today the Upper West Side is considered one of the richest, cleanest, and most expensive places to live in New York City. Broadway and West End. That is the ambiguous power of nostalgia, as the jagged recollection of hitting a tiny child with a bicycle still has the power to catch like a rusted nail four decades later and open a fresh wound. The free outdoor summer concerts at Lincoln Center were wonderful. That said, it isnt a gimmicky spot where you pretend to be an early American settler. Get some house cocktails at the bar, and if you end up wanting a break from the music (or you come before the music starts), hang out at one of the sidewalk tables out front. A fellow life-long UWSer and Harvard doctoral student. Yorkville, Manhattan photos from the 1980s. I won a Halloween story writing contest at Eeyores ($25 gift certificate) and was a delivery boy for Video Connection. This is exactly what I am looking for. Lets not forget about the orginal frozen cappuccinos on Columbus Avenue before Starbucks. 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