It's absolutely incredible that this area went from destitute to one of the most expensive zip codes in the country in 15 years.

When I was a youngster growing up in Queens, I used to play hooky with my friends and jump the train and we would head downtown to see how much mischief we can get into.. Good thing we were fast runners.. NYC was so different back in those days

For those who wanna retrace these steps on Google Street View today... 00:00 - East on East Houston Street, turning north on Avenue D 00:21 - North on Avenue D, turning west on East 3rd Street 00:31 - North on Avenue C, turning east on East 4th Street 01:24 - East 5th Street @ Avenue D, traveling west 01:45 - East 8th Street @ Avenue C, traveling east (unrecognizable today) 02:40 - Avenue D north @ East 9th Street (Jacob Riis Houses) 03:01 - @ 390 East 8th Street, traveling east The only way I was able to ID the completely demolished East 8th Street section was by the smoke stacks from the Con Ed 14th Street Substation and 411 East 10th Street (the tall apartment building) in the distance around 02:18 What a difference 25 years makes!!

I remember driving my cab around that time. what a time it was.

At 1:10 in the video is a shot of "executive", a dope spot right across the street from P.S. 15. The dealers used to make the junkies wait a short distance away from the entrance to this burned out building, which used to have a hole smashed out of the cinder blocks. The dealer/minders would then control the flow of customers by shouting commands at them as they crawled into the hole to make their purchases inside the building. Next to that building is a vacant lot which in 1987 started to become a huge shantytown during the Dinkens administration. I remember trucks unloading building materials there instead of having to pay for a dumpster. The NY Times wrote an article about the "casitas" and the place was dubbed Bushville because this was during George HW ,Bush's reign. The shot of 5th and 6th street, wide open lots, used to be the destination for stolen cars which were stripped of parts and abandoned on those streets. I remember on the Forth of July part of the festivities included blowing up with M-80's and burning the stripped hulks. The school yard at 1:43 used to be a late night hip-hop party scene. Huge portable sound systems would show up and people would dance all night or until chased away. The echoing of the music across the wide open lots was haunting.

I was mesmerized by all the available parking..

There has to be a happy medium between dangerous desolation, and unaffordable Yuppieville. A lot of people look back on NYC in the 70s and 80s through rose-tinted glasses, focusing on the "authenticity" and glossing over the danger, crime, filth, and desperation that people there actually experienced at the time. Perhaps the happy medium is the time when it first starts getting "nicer" but before it gets expensive - perhaps when the artists make their appearance - but that is fleeting.

Thanks for the memories. My first place to bed down after arrival from Australia in Feb 1986 was on seventh between C & D. The neighbourhood kept your nerves in a state of hyper-sensitivity when on the street.

This must have been early in the morning. It looks crazy, I know, but it was a lot of fun. East Village was where everybody was hangin out.

I am a 90s baby, but why am I obsessed with the 80s like I know that era.

as children we used to play in those abandoned buildings and rubble strewn lots.. crazy right? watch out don't step on a hyperdermic needle. hear the crunch of the colorful crack vials under your feet

sure the city was dangerous, and dirty and gritty... but we also had a lot of freedom back in those days..

new york used to be a cool place to live. I miss the real city.

Oh wow!!!! You took me back to my youth!!! I lived in Jacob Riis NYCHA. It's grimy but it's home. Thank you!

When people visit NY now, they expect to see a little bit of the Koolness left there from before.. It's gone because the majority populations of African Americans and Puerto Ricans are not dominant like before and are replaced by brand new immigrants... When I say that NY now is completely different than the 80's - mid 90's, I wish I could put it in 20 feet letters !!!! The generations of Italian people in NY also contributed to the Koolness of NY back then too, along with the other whites there ( there for generations) and it created a very interesting city with multiple layers and types of neighborhoods back then

When I try to tell people they filmed "Fort Apache: The Bronx" in my neighborhood. 10th street and Szold Pl. more specifically, they never believe me. Look at this video clip. This was the 80's it was getting better believe it or not. I could walk from 9th St. & Ave C to 4th St. & Ave D. crossing empty lots street by street. 1977 thru the mid 80's. Burned out buildings, empty lots, stray dogs and cats everywhere, drug dens, junkies lined up around corners buying dope, open air drug markets on Ave D. 9th Street to 2nd St. Gun battles from Maymees and Marvins Bar. If you know then you know. Daily shootings, stabbings, muggings, armed robberies, gang violence of all sorts, Hells Angels rolling thru 3AM, NewComers on Ave B 12 St., this was common for me growing up.

A perfect example of the human capacity for adaptation and the ever changing definition of normal. I remember a half block long line of junkies waiting patiently for their dope. Cops and citizens moved past as if it were a legit business selling slices of pizza. It was thrilling and disturbing at the same time.

This old footage is amazing,from a unique time and place in history which was 1980s NYC,dark and gritty and dangerous it was like the Wild Wild West,and a lot of what made it so authentic was bad like the drugs,gangs,crime,corrupt cops,mafia,murders,prostitution,pimps,seedy bars,strip joints,graffiti,corruption,economic collapse,etc etc but even though much of it was bad it all created a very strange unique atmosphere which was a total one off...very hard to describe in words unless you witnessed it.

I remember all of this. I just published a book called New Your City Junky Days about my time living in the East Village in the 1980s

its nothing like that now lol

A literal hell of urban decay.

The true and original LES

reminds me of the South Bronx

Thank you so much for posting this.

Hipster hellhole now, this area

Now the LES is a playground for transplanted hipsters from the Midwest.

Sonic Youth and Swans were probably living around there at that point.

I grew up on East 4th and A in the 1970s. When I hear people lamenting a "crime wave" in NYC nowadays I just shake my head, chuckle inwardly, and say to myself "oh, honey, you have no idea".

I would love to go back to the 1980's and visit New York City. I did not visit there until the mid to late 90's.

Love these videos of the gritty but real New York

Fckng awesome footage. Some of those shots of the derelict buildings reminds me of that Star Trek episode where they land on that barren planet; empty save for that gang of youths that were alot like The Warriors (great movie). I know that the Lower East Side is safer now ... but I would've preferred to live there back when rents were affordable, people were real, drugs were good & plentiful, CBGB's was a brand new outlet for bands like the Dead Boys, Ramones, Iggy Pop, Jim Carroll, etc. Great short film.

I had that garage between Houston St and 2nd St 0:17

Ahhhh yes Lillian ward projects, Baruch, junior high school 22, east river park, pit street swimming pool, night outs towards east village while carrying a boom box, hip hop jams at the park, gangs like P.H.O., M.M.C., D.S.B. etc. Great mid 80's memories.

I miss my old les.

This was NOT the Lower East Side on this video. This area around East 4th street was called in the 1980s Alphabet City. Anything BELOW Houston Street, East of Christie Street, North of Canal Street and all the way to the East River is what is called The Lower East Side. Somehow the only people with Camcorders in those days recording downtown NYC all think that the area on this video was the LES. smh.

Alphaville! I'll take this any day over the watered down hipster shit of today

Reminds me of the south Bronx when it was abandoned and then renovated!

It's hard to believe that it still doesn't look this way

Some beautiful buildings. Look like old brownstones.

Great footage. The lower east side when it was really the LES!!! Ave. D & 4th Street!!! huah!!!

Weird to see this, drove around this area at that time in a big old car myself...

If NY can turn around like this than so can Detroit

Aaaand, now there's dog yoga at 13th and B.

In the late 80's this area was New Yorks most dangerous and had a murder rate of 118 to 100k

Old memories from the hood where I grew up, Wow!

This is the lower East side Manhattan holy shit. I was there in 1989 didn't remember it so bad. Gritty it was always, run down I forgot!

When I see scenes like this I always think it's the Bronx, harlem or parts of brooklyn. But the fact that even the LES looked like this goes to show that this was just how NYC looked in the 70s and 80s. A completely different city then today its hard to believe the transformation that took place. And no wonder the mafia made so much money on construction in the late 80s cuz they were rebuilding the whole city lmao. Even though it was prolly extremely dangerous, it looked like an insanely fun time and place to grow up.

Saw the Dodge Omni and Hyundai Excel parked with those bigger cars from the 1970s. You don't see cars like that no more

I was born in the late 1980s on the Lower east side

I wish I could have bought a place there back when it looked like this.. And if I wasn’t 8 years old it’d prob help

That was a whole different beast back in them days. Yeah boy

My mother lived in one of those LES tenements..she described the horrors.a, joys and just The Life. .it;s shame that the history of NY gets washed away .

Amazing footage. Looks like late 70s early 80s. Until I saw my friends transam in the end of the video. Lost opportunities to buy land / buildings etc.

nice video

Im positive that guy at the end there used to pick his feet in Poughkeepsie.

Grew up in 10013 and I never felt like it was dangerous

You could tell its summer, real early in the morning. That's my old stomping grounds. 4th & D, P.S 15 I remember like it was yesterday. Thanks for this video...L.E.S

hey where is avenue d ? i was told that was the worst on the lower eastside

Awesome to see a slice of time and then to read the comments of people who lived it. Great stories...I remember hearing about New York on the news and what a hell hole, dangerous place it was. Being 11 or 12 in my mind if u stepped into the city u would most likely be murdered lol. Also seen the movie Alphabet City right around that time too. A REAL horror action movie.

Love the Corvette at 0:13.

Very sad looking area. I grew up not that far from the streets shown in this video. What's even sadder is the number of people displaced by the new buildings which have been built in the insuing years. And the rents which have doubled (at least) in the buildings which were renovated, causing more displacement. The area looks prettier and is probably safer. But at what cost? Most of Manhattan has become too expensive to live in for many people (including myself) who used to live there. Affordable housing is a great campaign slogan. Unfortunately, for many people in need of it, there is far from enough of it.

L:arge sections of this video are not the lower east side . I have live here one 1970 and I know th area very well. There were no large empty lots or windowless apartment houses.

The days of Alpo rich and AZ

Just like I remembered wish you has sound

I lived here as a child east 2nd street between aves a and b...

Rooftops bought me here

it really doesn't look like the LES. More like the South Bronx maybe. I work down there and I don't recognize anything. Where are all of those burned out apartments? What streets are these?

Was this shot on a weekend?

one of the few places that you could get smack in the 80s, they had lines of people waiting to cop, and they also had an express line for a dollar.

Gentrification ruined the LES. This was my stomping ground in the 1980s. Best times of my life. It used to be filled with all different cultures. Yes it was poverty stricken but it was an awesome neighborhood. I lived On Orchard Street and then on 6th between 1st and Ave A. What a great time this was. Now it’s filled with a bunch of hipsters with $$$. Rents are thru the roof. It’s no longer the old New York I remember. I have not been back to visit since 2005. It’s dead to me

Great work with the video, Thanks! Are you sure there is not some footage from the So. Bronx mixed in at the end? I believe East New York should be renamed "NYC's Toughest !" Never in my life have I seen such heartwrenching poverty and violent crime. Not even East NY or the South Bronx, although it was not paradise there by a long shot ! But East NY seemed even more neglected and forgotten by NYC government AND society at the time... But never in my life have I seen the human products of such an environment rise from the ashes and filth to become so successful in life. For me, that is such inspiration! So many Puerto Ricans, Polish, Chinese, Irish, Ukrainian and Italian went on to become, and gave birth to those who would become, the very heart and soul of this nation. They would eventually become the heads of fortune 500 companies and rise to the highest levels of government. And this could only happen in the U.S. and I'M SOOOOOO PROUD TO BE AMERICAN!

I wish it was still like this

This looks 1980 to 1985 at best.

Damn, I miss my old area, Alphabet City. Its a shame that people with money are coming in and forcing out people that have been there for decades..... New York City is no longer New york city... now its just a city named New york.

You used to be able to buy the best heroin in the city right there back in the 80s. Now all you can buy is a vegan-latte.

Are you sure that was the lower East side. I lived near that area during the 80s. Was blight, but nothing like that. That looks more like Brownsville or the Bronx

Why are the streets so enpty?

I love this place. Vladecks in the house.

kzfaq.info/get/bejne/Z9BdZqeps8rOYoE.html Remember this lot, the view from my kitchen window on Ave. C. Lots of memories.. I threw my couch out here and the neighborhood dogs loved it, sleeping and lying in the sun. The film Batteries Not Included was also filmed on this lot. They recreated a 5 story building using visual elements from around the neighborhood. Unfortunately little spaceships didn't help in my fight against the evil developer. Now it is filled with new buildings and a large police station.

The place looks abandoned; big empty lots, vacant. Yet the streets are lined with parked cars??? Where's everyone at?

its a giant ghetto ..looks terrible like South Bronx in these years,are there still places like that in NY ?

Need to change the caption on this one! That was the Bronx, not the Lower East Side!

I never lived past 1st Ave no.way. We're I lived was full.of life people it was 🏡 home 1st and 1st 10th and 1st.2nd street between 1st and 2nd really nice block.

how come theres so many abandoned apartment buildings at the time? parts of the city i live in looks alot like NY back then

I'm not used to the open skies.

I lived in LES for a few years from 2015-17 down off Madison. Shit's way different than it was in the 80-90's when we'd come from Jersey to cop drugs. It's been gentrified to the point only the rich can live there or the ppl who've had rent controled apartments for a few generations.

Brokedown Palace Americano, coming soon to a reality near you!

they turned it into disneyland!

Damn i miss the old LES. Now you cant even afford to live there no more with the ridiculous rent and all them rich white hipster people taking over. Ave D and Madison Street is all what remains of the old neighborhood. And they just built a Dunkin Donuts over at the pizza place on Madison I used to eat at since i was a kid. Sucks watching the neighborhood die little by little..

What would you all say is the most dangerous neighborhood of all time in New York City history?

*Salute all my 80s Babys!!!*

NYC was pretty rough in the 1980s.

It’s crazy how empty the streets were.

oh boy ... the ave 2:53

damn i miss those days //// life was exiting now its robotic existence

The city was at a tipping point. Decay and sleaze, or gentrification.

Alphabet City?? BUT...I forget. Did they knock most of it down, or gentrify the tenements??

These areas were deliberately left like that.

I don't think this is from the LES - I think it's from the Bronx. I don't think the LES had the space to have huge vacant tracks of land, even in the 80s - the block sizes just aren't that big. Also has wider boulevards + more visibility down long avenues than LES. In LES this visibility isn't possible because the neighborhood is ringed by public housing that was built before the 1980s. I could be wrong, though. New York was a different place then.