Very interesting. I just began riding the subway as I had just started high school in Sept of 1980. I was 14 and had no issues with safety at all. My beginning point was taking the #4 train from Newkirk avenue to Brooklyn Bridge where Murry Bergtraum HS was located. Footnote: In 1984 the #3 & #4 trains were rerouted to New Lots avenue and the #2 & #5 started going to Flatbush Ave.
Wow when Koch is interviewed it’s 2 weeks before John Lennon got shot outside The Dakota. That was a headline that made it around the world. I was 19 it was an awful day.
I was a transit worker from 1982 to 2018.in the eighties people used thr subway to go to and from work and that was it. After rush hour, by 9:15 am the place was a ghost town and you literally took your life in your hands. It has come around were the subway is packed with people 24 hrs a day . Nice to see post pandemic we are right back to were we were 30 years ago
You are so right. In the 80s I always hated taking the subway after 9am to about 3pm because that's well all the teens cutting school and stick up thugs .
People went out at night to the clubs, etc. Manhattan trains at night were not ghost towns. Maybe the trains going the other boroughs. I used to ride the trains to go the clubs, theaters, out to eat, etc.
I was also a Transit worker from 1999 to 2009. Everyone paid their way in or risk getting an expensive ticket. Today in 2022, only a small percentage pays their fare. The Transit Police are no longer seen giving tickets to farebeaters. It's out of control and the corrupt MTA is loosing billions in unpaid fares.
The crooks are collecting the money in a different way though by charging the Yellow taxi 🚕 or Ride-share riders an “MTA surcharge” and not to mention the Bus-lane tickets 🎟 as well. The whole thing is a lazy criminal sham.
I wanted Curtis Sliwa for mayor. What an irony it would have been if he won. Mayor Koch used to call the Guardian Angel's vigilantes. What a hoot it would have been if Sliwa won. I do however see it in his future. Koch must be rolling in his grave! 😅🤣😅 And 43 years later the Guardian Angel's are still around!!! Thus is life.
Many people think Manhattan has always been the sleek and shiny place that it is today. But I remember when there were strips clubs and peep shows in Times Square. The good and bad of gentrification.
The host said to keep your wallet in the rear pocket but the NYC police said otherwise to put your wallet in the front pockets so to prevent from being pickpocket from pickpocketers and thieves.
I rode the subway all the time and never had any serious problems. Once every week or two some creep would get on and ask for money, reminding you that they could be robbing your mother on the streets, but they're not...so give them money...or else.
I remember growing up in Harlem from 1981 to 1990. Seeing it go from this to what it's like today is ridiculously impressive. No more crack viles everywhere. No more junkies sitting outside my door. 80's NYC was a battleground for real.
100 percent. At least now there is some semblance of law and order, back then it was anything goes, Wild West kinda. Cops were equal thugs as the criminals. Regular citizens just closed the blinds, triple locked their doors and put the gates down and the criminals owned the streets.
It's because it is more media today than ever before. Let there be the same amount of media back then, the NYC subway would look like Disneyland today compare to back then.
Koch was so dismissive and defensive about crime and Sliwa took it seriously during a time when crime was definitely serious. That's how Republicans won the perception war on crime in the last half century.
What the late mayor said is exactly what's going on today. About 2 million daily riders. And people don't expect 💩 to happen? Also be aware of your surroundings !!!
