"Expansion," a sculpture in NYC by Paige Bradley

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1977 NYC Blackout

By Jack Brummet, NYC Metro Ed.

7/13/1977 during the NYC Blackout. KeeKee, Jan, and I are all down there somewhere.  The fires were to the south of us, in Bushwick, Crown Heights, and Bedford-Stuyvesant.

Embed from Getty Images

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Counting every tree in New York City

From Architecture Daily, 11-28-2016:

New York City's Department of Parks and Recreation has completed its two-year project of assigning ID numbers (with arboreal characteristics) to every one of the 685,781 trees in the city's five boroughs. More than 2,300 volunteers walked the streets, then posted each tree's location, measurements, Google Street View image, and ecological benefits for the surrounding neighborhoods (rainwater retained, air pollution reduced)."

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NYC survival tips from the mid-1970's

By Jack Brummet, NYC Metro Ed.

NYC was a dangerous, dirty, and crazy place in the mid-70s (when I lived there, in Loisaida, in Brooklyn, and the Upper West Side).  In the mid-1970's, the Council for Public Safety (police, firefighters and other unions) published a pamphlet called "Welcome to Fear City: A Survival Guide for Visitors to the City of New York."   Both the Blackout and the arrest of Son of Sam happened during my first two months there (The Summer of Sam as Spike Lee called it). This pamphlet caused a lot of turmoil in the city, and was later renamed "If You Haven't Been Mugged Yet..."  [Ed's note: I was mugged three times over the course of five years.]

The tips are below the video. 

Fear City page 1

Times Square

Fear City page 2

Fear City page 3

garbage burning in the streets, mid-70s

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Bowery & Delancey, NYC at the Bowery BMT Station, ca. 1978

Facing west at Bowery & Delancey ‪#‎NYC‬ in 1978. . .down the block from our loft at 181 Chrystie Street (from Dirty Old 1970's New York City). That's the Bowery BMT Station. Photo by Susan Beallor-Snyder.

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That crazy guy on the bridge

By Jack Brummet

Crazy guy on a bridge in Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas

I saw a photo today of facing apartment buildings today that reminded me of being at a party in NY in about 1978.  It was in Soho, or maybe Tribeca.  A very nearby building contained an attractive, fit couple having sweet and inventive sex on their bed next to a wall to wall window. Naturally many party goers were perched in our own window watching the show. Most people would assume this was just my usual exaggeration...but even KeeKee would vouch for this one. She was there. So--and this is a cool NYC story--this sex scene happened at my friend Tom Farrell's pad. I worked with him at a publisher in the village. Anyhow, we both loved Wim Wenders' An American Friend. And he swore he would get to Wenders somehow and write for him. He split from our job. Like a year and a half later, maybe less, we saw him as the memorable "Crazy fucker on the bridge" in Wenders' Paris, Texas. He was in five other Wenders films I just found out via IMDB.

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Crown Heights Brooklyn's 23rd Regiment Armory

By Jack Brummet, NYC Metro Ed.

A current shot, and one from the 19th century, of The 23rd Regiment Armory in Crown Heights. The building is now used as an NYC men's homeless shelter.

The person--Jim Henderson--who associated a work with this deed has dedicated the work to the public domain by waiving all of his or her rights to the work worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.

via NYC Public Library Digital Collections

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R.I.P. Yogi Berra

By Jack Brummet

Of anyone, ever, in the Yankees organization, he was the sweetest and most memorable. His malapropisms will long survive him. According to Yogi, he only actually said a few of the many phrases attributed to him.

And, how many of us have a cartoon character named after them?  Note: "According to the creators of the character, Hanna-Barbera Productions, the two were not connected."  This is, of course, not believed by anyone.  

And then there his long association with YooHoo.  What a sweet, class act.  You will be missed Yogi Berra. 

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NYC Subway Etiquette Posters

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432 Park Avenue dominates the NYC skyline now

By Jack Brummet, NYC Metro Ed

I am utterly fascinated by 432 Park Avenue.  It's kind of crazy.  The first photo, from Central Park, is by me.  The second is from Wikipedia when it was under construction. 

The building is 1,396 feet tall (96 stories) and measures just 93' x 93'.  It is now the 2nd tallest building here.  The designer Rafael Viñoly based it around "the purest geometric form: the square," inspired by a trash can.

Each face of the tower has six 100-square-foot windows, or, 24 per story.  Many of the stories contain just one condo.

The new building is taller than the Empire State Building by nearly 150 feet.  One World Trade Center is only taller because of its spire.  Wow.  More of these super thin buildings are going up soon.  It's incredible how this one stands out.

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Time Square Grindhouses thirty years ago

By Jack Brummet

Just some of the movie theaters then in Times Square.  On the bill that day:

Cine 42: I: Critters / Deadly Blessing; Theater II:  The Toxic Avenger/ Bloodsucking Freaks
Harris: P.O.W.: The Escape / Exterminator 2/ Delta Force
Liberty: Make Them Die Slowly/Savage Man, Savage Beast / King Dick
Empire: Shaolin Kung Fu/ Shaolin Vs. Lama /Shaolin Red Master 

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Dwight Thompson in the Rolling Stone's video "Waiting for a friend"

By Jack Brummet, Music Ed.

Screen caps from my friend Dwight Thompson's appearance in the Rolling Stone video "Waiting On A Friend" (he's the one wearing the headband).  It was shot on a stoop in the East Village, where we worked and hung out, and where Dwight lived. . .

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Times Square, 1979

By Jack Brummet, NYC Metro Ed.

Times Square, 1979, with Bill Murray, and a working gal. This was the center point of when we lived in NYC. I had to pass through Times Square often (I especially remember going there to the electronics stores, like 47th Street Camera to pick up a tape recorder, camera, or Walkman).

People can't conceive what a toilet Bryant Square Park was back then now that it's been so tidied up. Needles, hookers, bums, street kids, drunks, three card monte, hustlers. . .and the Irish bars and Tad's Steak House. 

We'd pass through TS to go to the theater a/k/a Broadway, or sometimes actually go there to see a film in one of those amazing stadium style theaters (where you could still smoke at a movie) or sometimes even to see a grindhouse movie or a zombie double bill. It never felt scary (well, sometimes), but always felt sleazy. Now it's something more akin to Fisherman's Wharf or the Pike Place Market or The Grove in L.A.--a friendly tourist destination with a colorful past.

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Police decoys in Brookyn, 1969: NYC policeman in drag

By Jack Brummet

Back before there were (m)any women officers on the NYPD, they used Patrolman Wm. R. Winter as a decoy to attract muggers and sex offenders.  The passers by look just about as skeptical as we are. The caption on back of the morgue photo (not clear if this was internal or if it was actually the text printed in the 'paper) describes him as a "voluptuous broad" and,  of course, mentions that he "is married and is the father of one child."

click to enlarge

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NYC Wired — when New York had telephone poles

By Jack Brummet, NYC Metro Ed.

Telephone wires in NYC, in 1887. It had gotten this crazy just seven years after the first wires were strung. In 1888, a massive snowstorm toppled many of the wires, and New York soon decided to put them underground.

I've definitely seen wires like this in numerous cities in India. In Mexico, I mostly hang out in in a fairly small town (Bucerias) and while there are lots of wires running in every direction, the density is nothing like this, although in Mexico, they probably win the wires war by their liberal use of awesome splices using tar, rope, old frayed wires, and, of course, duct tape.

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Photo of Coney Island (circa 1905: Luna Park), colorized by Dana Keller

Coney Island, New York, ca. 1905. "Luna Park, Promenade".  Colorized by Dana Keller.

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Fire hydrants in the summer in NYC

By Jack Brummet, Metro Ed.

One of the most iconic images of New York is seeing children (and adults) running through water shooting out of a fire hydrant. When I lived in NYC (77-82), people cranked open hydrants in the summer. If you went to the local police precinct, they would give you a hydrant sprinkler that you screwed onto the pipe (which helped keep the reservoirs and water pressure high).

From an article, "How To Open Fire Hydrants In NYC And Do It Legally":

"What's the best way to open a fire hydrant? The Department of Environmental Protections reminds New Yorkers that it's technically illegal--unless you have a city-approved spray cap.

"And these are easy to get! Spray caps can be obtained legally by an adult at your local firehouse. A firefighter will even come to your block's fire hydrant (there are 109,000 in New York) and open it for you.

"So get out on the streets New York! It's HOT out."

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Living in Brooklyn, 1977 (The Summer of Sam), when the doctors nearly succeeded in killing me

By Jack Brummet, NYC Metro Ed.

My pal and my gal, Brooklyn, 1978

A shot I took from of our fire escape during a Brooklyn parade. The tall building is the House of Detention.

I shot I took from of our fire escape during a Brooklyn parade. The tall building is the House of Detention.

I moved to Brooklyn in June 1977, (The Summer of Sam), and after a couple of months living in a loft near The Bowery on the Lower East Side, we moved for two years to 324 Atlantic Ave. (between Smith and , right across the street from the Brooklyn House of Detention. On July 5th, I experienced a spontaneous pneumothorax that developed into double pneumonia with a fever of 106 one day (the very day the A/C was shut down due to the blackout).

It was seriously touch and go for a few days as to whether I'd make it or not. On July 13th, from my window in Long Island College Hospital, I watched as the lights on the World Trade Center dimmed and went out. And the great blackout and riots of 1977 began. I got out of the hospital three weeks later, in early August.

On August 10th, after a year of terror, they finally captured Son of Sam, and brought him, yeah, right across the street from our crib, to the House of Detention. It was a heady first couple of months in Brooklyn and NYC, to say the least. They've cleaned the place up a tad since we lived there. Back then, people would look kind of befuddled when you said you lived in Brooklyn. And getting a taxi home from Manhattan was virtually impossible unless you paid a double fare. It was a rude and harrowing introduction, but I loved every minute of it and Brooklyn and Manhattan have been part of my DNA ever since.

KeeKee Brummet and Jan Newberry probably saved my life that summer, and for that I'll be ever grateful to my pal and my gal.

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A most disturbing (and hilarious) prank

By Mona Goldwater, Film Ed.

A hilarious, and disturbing remote-control Devil Baby recently took to the streets of New York as part of a viral marketing campaign for the upcoming horror movie Devil's Due. The movie releases  Friday, January 17th.

 

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The IRT Subway, circa 1978

By Jack Brummet, NYC Metro Ed.


When we lived in NYC (1977-1982), this is what our local subway (the west side IRT, Lines 1, 2, and 3) typically looked like, although most often you couldn't see through the windows due to extensive tagging. . .

[photo marked 1978, provenance unknown]
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