And today you have to be a millionaire to live there.

As a small child growing up in Chicago in the 70's and 80's, I was tired of all the gang fights, shootings, robberies!! I asked my parents if we could just move!!! They asked me where do I want to move to! I said let's move to New York!! They both started laughing really loud!!!

"New York, New York ,so bad they had to name it twice" love that 👌😂

“I liked the bleakness because you could dream in that...” Really struck a chord with me

"You can't be in it, and not of it"

Shoutout to my old teachers that said I would work at McDonalds - I start tomorrow..

Born in Brooklyn in 1980. I remember being a small child and my mother was raising us two boys all by herself. She got fed up with all the bullshit and became a guardian angel in the mid 80’s. They would have these meetings during the week and we would go with her. She was so strong and loved the city and just wanted to do something positive. All the angels treated us like family and Curtis was really awesome back then. He told me a story years later about how my mother saved a girls life that was overdosed on heroin. I never knew she did that until I heard the story. She wouldn’t talk about the shit she would see to us kids. I can only imagine the stories I haven’t heard. Strongest woman I have ever known, my mother. She did brag about how she was certain that Prince named the song ‘Raspberry Beret’ after her because the angels patrolled one of his concerts in NY and then he came out with the song later that year haha. It was pretty much a shithole growing up there in the 80’s, but as a kid it was my playground and I wouldn’t have changed those experiences and lessons I learned for anything.

I was in those streets in 1981. There wasn't a word of exaggeration in this documentary. Thank God we all lived to tell the story.

The 70's through the mid 90's were horrible in NYC but technically the worst year for homicides and violent crime rate for NYC was 1990 the height of the crack epidemic !

People in the comments are really complaining that New York is no longer like this.

NYC was a very dangerous place, back in the 70s & 80s, and the Guardian Angels made the citizens of New York feel a lot safer by patroling the streets and subways. They were courageous and the real hero's. Curtis Sliwa is a prime example of what it means to be a humanitarian. He got involved in his community and made the streets of New York better. We owe him and all the Guardian Angels our utmost respect and gratitude.

Marvin Gaye - Inner City Blues

"You can't be in it and not of it." 4:29 Deep on so many levels.

I am a Manhattan native. Born in 1970. Yes, the city was a dump and we had over 2,000 murders a year in the early 90's. But the soul of the city has been erased. I still live here. But it sure was nice when artists could still afford to live here. It's basically a playground for the rich these days. Yes it's safer. But it's also very vanilla now. C'est la vie - Sunrise, sunset. NYC has always been about constant change....................

Shout out to the guardian angels they save me from getting robbed

I was in NY in 1989 as an exchange student from another country. The violence and drugs reminded me of a movie set and I was an extra.

The real life Gotham

"At this moment, I decided you can't be in it and not of it" ! The realness.

I moved to NYC in 1983. It was truly brutal. Sometimes I don't know how I survived it.

The next Grand Theft Auto theme. All these are main characters.

3:08. So true. My father was a sanitation worker during the 1970’s in Brownsville/East New York. He carried a gun strapped above his ankle everyday with knives strapped around his other leg

A really interesting documentary I like that it was shot on film and looked like it was from the 80s.

I lived in NY in the 90´s and, despite I was coming from a violent country like Colombia, I felt afraid of walking alone in some parts of NY. Back in the 90´s Brooklyn had real shitholes were there was no law at all. I also lived in the Bronx, near Tremont Av, and the place just looked like a war zone, with abandoned buildings that were burned from bottom to top and gangs around ready to kill you because you were white or latin or whatever... Anyway, despite all the bad things I cannot recall those days without feeling a bit nostalgic.

What a fantastic piece. I’m absolutely fascinated by NY in that time period

this mini doc gives me chills! I had always heard about NYC in those decades it sounded so scary but intriguing

"There was also an incredible kind of positivity, that there's something very important about being in a culture of authenticity."

I love the color grading and visuals when they show the guardian angels

NYC is safe now but it's very hard to find affordable apartments. It's almost impossible. Many people spent almost the whole salary just for rent. It's insane.

I moved to NYC in September of 1981 and thought the streets were made of gold. By the time I left in 1991 the "Disney-fication" of Times Square was beginning, and I knew I was ready to move on. There's an old saying that you never step into the same river twice. NY is like that, always in a state of being created, constantly adopting the mood and the dynamics of the people who innovate there. Maybe that's the saddest thing about what's happening now, as only the ultra-wealthy can afford to move there. The young and the inspired need access to low-income housing in order to realize their dreams and contribute to the culture.

crybabies, kevin mccalister went by himself and was just fine

Sometimes chaotic places are diamonds in the rough, Dapper Dan is visionary because he stuck it out and became a millionaire when things got better

Curtis Silwa is a real one. He’s about as New York as you can get. Dapper Dan too

I love how she says, the bleakness made it possible to dream. Amen. I'll take a gray backdrop over a mall, any day of the week.

y’all really complaining bout crime like spider-man don’t live there😐😐

@2:21..."I like the bleakness, 'cause you could dream in that..." I understand that. And that was the vibe, absolutely.

NY native my entire life. Born in Brooklyn in 1960 and lived Queens in the 60s-80s. It was a really tough town to live in at the time. You always needed to be on guard for your own safety. Scary thing was that half (or more) of the people were armed when you went to a bar or club in the evenings. It was a gritty place to live in, but certainly more colorful than today.

Arthritis from dialing 911? Now there’s a union guy if I ever heard one.

I actually like that the footage for this documentary was shot present day, because it shows how gritty a lot of NYC still is. I live here in NY, and this documentary was shot over the Winter of 2013/2014, which was a brutal, cold, vicious winter, one of the worst in recent NY history. So watching this documentary always reminds me of that winter....I would take the J train over the East River into Lower Manhattan, I worked off Canal Street by Chinatown...the wind, snow and ice blew straight down Canal St from the Hudson River. Obviously New York is a bit safer nowdays, but it's still a very exciting and sometimes dangerous place. Just ride the AC line any night of the week between 11 PM and 5 AM, you'll see plenty of exciting NY life.

Back then it was millionaires, murderers, and stunning ladies walking the same blocks. Now it's got more of a mall feeling.

I'd rather watch a full length version of this documentary than the movie

props to A24. from a filmmaking perspective its difficult to make a great compelling short.... and a great documentary for that matter... but a compelling short documentary? fantastic job.

Curtis is truly an American hero who deserves the Medal of Freedom. Hope he's elected NYC's next mayor.

Still a walk in the park compared to some of the war zone cities in Mexico and Brazil, those place are a nightmare

It's a few years earlier, but the movie Taxi Driver epitomizes a lot of the tensions felt in the city at that time.

It still amazes me to this to how nyc shifted from one of the most dangerous cities in the us, to now one of the safest cities in the world. During the 90s, 2000 people were murdered a year, in 2019 at least 200 people were murdered. It is actually quite amazing how much New York has changed.

A24 I‘m not joking, you’re one of the BEST movie production companies out there and I hope you gonna stay there!!!

Beautiful cinematography.

Amazing story, incredible lighting and production... superb!

Thank you Bill Deblasio for bringing 1981 back to NYC

I remember the chaos in nyc as a kid in the 80's. I loved it! My Dad would bring me around and teach me about this and that how to avoid getting robbed about hustlers pimps all that shit. He's an enormous dude with a giant knife so I guess I never felt scared.

This is of very high quality. Wow, thank you.

New York during the crack epidemic was a super scary place. There were 150,000 robberies one year

Who remembers pulling through the tunnel or coming over Brooklyn bridge and they’d damn near jump on your hood and through the window to wash it with used crappy newspaper and dirty water.

Yo... Is that Dapper Dan??

THANK YOU Curtis and all your Angels!

Really liked that! ...beautifully photographed....gritty, honest & engaging!

NYC has definitely lost its edge and grittiness.

Penny Arcade is a very real person. Has a ton of amazing stories. It is crazy to think that New York is so different now

Great documentary ! Thanks

That’s the spirit of America right there: “in the bleakness it made it possible to dream”. The whole world needs this kind of spirit now.

Some will rob you with a six-gun, and some with a fountain pen. There's more crime then ever before in NYC although you wouldn't know it, the ones breaking the law settle out of court on Wall Street.

Goosebumps! I remember going to NYC in 1990 when I was 14 years old and this is the way that I thought of the city. Even so, I fell in love with the city and to this day I wish I lived there at least for a period of time. I've only been back a couple of times since then, the last time in 2017, and I can see how much it has changed.

Really a good video I keep coming back to it, love the cinematography.

Superb documentary.

I spent a week in the Y on 34th in May 1981, walked all around Manhattan. Day and night. I had zero problems. It was an amazing week of art, music, boxing and i saw Raging Bull.

Old nyc was dangerous but a lot more fun than it is now

Great documentary!

This is so well edited and filmed amazing

Man, some of those trap house brownstones in Harlem back in those days are worth millions now.

Talked to someone that grew up in NYC during 70s~80s, he said everyday you would see bodies floating down the East River. I was like WTF, and asked "Why didn't you call the police?" He said "Sure you can, if you want to end up there yourself" LOL

Great video

It's coming back! Thanks diblasio

I was 15 in 1981,and my life was so sheltered that looking back on it I am shocked at how sheltered I actually was while growing up..I know this has nothing to do with this documentary other than the fact that I am reminded how blessed I truly was growing up in the middle of nowhere Virginia..

The mob was also very violent in those days compared to today.. You had killers like Gravano, Tommy Karate and the whole DeMeo crew out on the streets, they were responsible for hundreds of murders..

sad, authentic, deep human documentary . Love real authentic people faces, opinions, moods. thanks for the upload.

Great mini doc. Feature was great too. Saw it when it first opened.

NY was wild, exciting and had a lot of beauty about it back then as far as the people..... Even the air felt like it was electric... FACTS

people really have no idea how shitty life was in the 1980s

I found this short amazing! I grew up in the period that NYC at the time was violent and had a scary reputation!

Awesome video

NY was pretty bad in the 80's. I grew up in Jamaica, Queens, but I would hang out all over the boros. As bad as it was, there was a freedom and adventurous atmosphere about NY. Nowadays crime is down(at least in the open), but it's such a police state in NY that it ruins what NY is all about.

My father's and older brother's business was trucking and delivering produce starting from the Hunts Point Market in the South Bronx and then unloading to stores throughout the Bronx, Harlem and mostly northern Manhattan. I was already working summers on my Pop's truck from the late 1970's and into the 1980's. In 1981, I was in my second year at NYU. Working during this time was interesting to say the least. Crack had taken over the streets, and good guys that worked for my Pop and brother could turn into different people overnight once crack entered their lives. A homie one day and a thief/thug the next steeling even from my Pop's business. Waking up in the dark each day to start loading and many times getting done in the dark, those long summer days were filled with great and sometimes scary memories of how gritty and dangerous NYC was at that time. Both my Pop and brother carried guns for protection. I know my father's was not registered and I also know he did not have the best vision, so I'm happy he never had to use it! My brother had a gun shoved up under his back ribs one day just after collecting money at a stop. He had his gun on him but could not pull it, which thankfully never happened when you look back on all the bad consequences that could have occurred. One thing that was a constant that summer was the "Three Louie's". Little Louie, Big Louie and "Light Finger" Louie who were the street hispanic guys that worked on the trucks with us. There was also an old school black gentleman named John who knew me since I was a baby and worked with my Pop for years. All of these guys took me under their wings to guide me from getting into any bad situations. I was only 19 that summer and had a trigger temper of a crazy Italian kid, so I am grateful to this day of all of their street savvy and lessons they taught to me! The Louie’s were characters to say the least! Little Louie always had a cheshire grin and some smooth talking ammunition to get us out of sticky situations. Big Louie had huge hands and large shoulders with a small waist and a man of not too many words, but he was the kind of dude you would want on your side and got respect simply by his presence and ultimate actions if needed. "Light Finger" Louie had something called an exotropia (I'm an eye doc now!), which means that one of his eyes was always pointing outwards so it was hard to see where he was looking! One eye on you... the other looking at what he could steal!! At the end of the day, after all the produce was emptied from the truck, there might be someone's bike or boombox or whatever now part of his day’s booty. …And who knew what would happen the next day?? Well, I’m sure I could come up with some funny stories and some sad ones too from those days on the truck. Maybe one day I will… Both my father and brother made sure that I stayed in school to get off of those streets, but I would never trade one moment of those times because of all that I learned. As a matter of fact, the summer education on the truck in NYC during 1981 taught me more than anything that NYU tried to push at me!! I am forever grateful for living there in that time and to all the hard work and experience gained! I am also thankful to that moment in history which had such a gritty background and such colorful characters who played their parts perfectly… Cheers to my real life professors: My Pop, my older brother, John, and of course the Three Louie’s!!

Bring back so much memories

wow... this definitely should be a full length doc.

I miss the New York of the 80's and 90's.

I remember every day asking as young boy who got killed last night it was as normal as riding bike mind you I was only 7 years old. I knew some always got killed in my hood . A crying shame

Bad Lieutenant with Harvey Keitel, French Connection...two of my favourite movies.

This documentary looks dope!

I was THERE for a few weeks in the summer of 1981. NYC had a reputation for violence, seediness, open air crime, etc. All true. What struck me was the folks all working and NOT engaged in gambling/prostitution/drugs/scams but who were right there among those who were. There were many more crazy people than I had expected. SF (where I hailed from then) had more than a few as well, but New York had them beat by a mile.

ppl tend to forget how extremyl violent the 80s was, now they only focus on how good the 80s music was to somehow distract you from the truth

I left new york 17 ago years and these are the days I miss 80s. Nice documentary short

It's amazing the story you can tell in 6 minutes.

In the early-1980's Eddie Murphy said that even he was afraid to go to Harlem. By 1987 he was doing a comedy special at the Apollo Theater.

I loved New York in the eighties. The theater scene was wonderful and so was the party scene. I was a kid. Had some scary experiences but the people were great, the friends I made and have to this day.

My first visit to NYC was in 1980. I had a blast!!!

excellent!

Rasin in the sun huh high school memories hitting hard

Born in the Bronx( Lincoln Hospital) lived on 189th Grand Concourse raised in Corona Queens NYC. NEW YORK NEW YORK AINT NO OTHER PLACE LIKE IT. GOTTA LUV IT

It’s amazing how different it is. So clean and rich. Every neighborhood seems to be gentrified.

I wanna see more like this ! everything about it was dope.