Lyric HiFi In NYC Is Gone

New York is a great city. Getting your sense of the current situation from watching crime clips on tv or the internet is as misleading as it always has been. You could not pay me to live in Florida for more than two weeks at a time. Born and raised in Queens. Lived in Manhattan for decades. Now live in an older suburb so I can take a train in to Manhattan in no more than 45 minutes. I have never felt at all unsafe in any part
of the City I have been in for business or pleasure.

 

This is a ridiculous exaggeration. Was there some chaos when the NYPD ran roughshod over peaceful protestors last summer? Yep, the city can only take so much abuse before they push back. But that short period has passed and it eas mostly Soho and other places that we don’t giove a crap about. There isn’t a single street or neighborhood in the city that feels unsafe to me these days.

And I have never heard of any employer buying lunches b/c they didn’t feel lke it was safe to go out for lunch.

 

I’ve been to Tokyo several times. I think Japan is it’s own thing, there are lots of things there that have no counterpart in other places in the world. That said Akihabara has been changing quite a lot over the past 20 years, I haven’t been there in over a decade but from what I hear it is very different, And nowhere near as cool.

 

I still have family and friends there. Larchmont? You’re so far removed from what went on in Manhattan over the summer it isn’t funny.
Florida? I like living in Naples. Might not be good for you but it’s certainly good for my wife and I. Enjoy!

 

New York City, at least the parts of the city that evoke the imagery and reactions akin to fairy tale and fantasy, is a place with millions of people. Every single person of which has their own story as to how and why they are here along with how they may sacrifice and struggle to stay here. No one lives in this town without the expressed desire and the will to do so - to live here doesn’t come easy enough that anyone could be ambivalent or indifferent enough about either the concept or the reality of NYC that they remain here out of laziness or convenience.

So I view the prevailing attitudes of NYC exchanged by those that have voiced negativism in this thread as a reflection of how one feels about the Big Apple and thereby shades their perceptions. I love this town but I’d never blow smoke that it was safe if it were not. New York City, at least the parts of the city that evoke the imagery and reactions akin to fairy tale and fantasy, is safe. Very safe. Those who believe otherwise are free to see it as they interpret and visit when they are more comfortable doing. Or not. No one need be sold on NYC - it’s not for everyone. As a New Yorker I’d prefer less fear-talk-and-perception some of seems as bordering on myth. And yes, maybe less schadenfreude too but that comes as a reaction towards the virtue of being a great city.

NYC is a metropolis that has all the travails, dangers and issues that a place which is the largest city in the United States will inherently possess. Those qualities however do not typically overlap upon to the places that a visitor to NYC will go. Instead visitors come for the experience of a great city. And that is NYC.

 

I guess I'll chime in on the safety of NYC my GF got a job offer in Manhattan she couldn't refuse and we decided to do the bi-city thing. Other than Covid it's worked great and I've spent tons of time in NYC, she lives in the East Village, and I've not once felt less than safe there. Also to me the overall vibe in NYC has changed but for the better, I find folks overall more friendly and less attitude than on forays to the city in my youth. Though of course it could be me that's changed the city is much less intimidating being older and making a good living then when I was young and broke.

As far as hifi shops go I've been in one once I forget the name it was around Astor Place. I popped in just to take a look around one guy asked if I needed help I said no and no one bothered me after that.

 

The murder rate today is literally a fraction of what it was in 1991. People need to turn off the news

 

The difference now is that everyone has phones and there are more security cameras, so people can see the ugliness of crimes as they are committed. Yes, it's horrifying to see people beating up Asians for no reason, or gangs of teenagers carrying backpacks worth of things out of a pharmacy without a care in the world, but in the 1990s, these were just statistics on a blotter. Not only were they nevertheless still happening, they were happening way more than they are now. But now, you can easily capture the acts on phones, which are then brought into your living rooms for the evening news. You can see the faces, and it all seems much scarier than when it's just a number.

 

I too have friends and family who live in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens whom I have visited over the last year taking appropriate COVID precautions prior to everyone receiving vaccinations. Nobody has been afraid of crime in their neighborhoods as you would like everyone to believe ,including last summer. I assume your repeated references to a fantasy crime wave are a veiled reference to political /social protests but perhaps you are simply referring to your Florida tv news stories about crime in New York. By the way, I have close family in Naples, as well.

 

Mine did, but not because of street crime - it was COVID. For the first wave of back-to-the-office people who started in March, they wanted employees to not be using the elevators in our very large building, except for into and out of the office daily. They also had to pledge that they wouldn't take public transportation. Lunch was provided daily because employees were not supposed to leave the floor, except for personal emergencies.

 

It's like we're viewing the same movie but seeing two different screens. People who are plugged in really know what's going on in NYC. The people who were shot in Times Square know what's going on. The people attacked in broad daylight for no reason know what's going on. The businesses permanently leaving the city who had their businesses destroyed because of rioters know what's going on in the city. People fleeing the city for other states know what's going on in the city. The cops resigning from the police force know what's going on in the city.

 

I have only visited NYC once. I walked the whole island of Manhattan, twice, once in the daytime and once at night. Nobody bothered me. Also 'the city that never sleeps' is BS. It does sleep. Apart from Times Square the place is dead in the small hours. Now Paris, that IS a city that never sleeps! I can stroll into quite a few places in Paris at 4am and get dinner.

If I had done the same walk in London or even Oxford there are parts I would never venture as they are too unsafe.

I would move to NY in an instant if I could. Maybe one day...

 

Paris is very unsafe as well, especially if you're a woman, even in broad daylight. Paris crime is skyrocketing.

 

Paris is urban sprawl and it depends where you are and where you walk.

I have walked all the way from Notre Dame to Neuilly at about 3am and again nobody bothered me. In fact one night I spent the whole night walking around Paris whilst waiting for a connecting flight. One of the best nights I have had in any City.

 

There have been a lot of reports online about women being attacked at the Eiffel Tower or directly in that area.

 

You could end up indoors your whole life if you think everywhere is potentially deadly, life is not without risk, all I can say is NYC felt like one of the safest cities I've ever been in, things might have got a bit dodgy during the pandemic but that's opportunist when only a few are around when the crowds come back I'm sure all will be fine again.

 

The Eiffel Tower is a cesspit of eastern European pick-pockets. Yes, that is true! I went there once and there were police constantly chasing thieves.

 

You would care if it was your home or business that was destroyed.

 

Thank you. Some here act like Ive been watching computer generated clips on the news of what has been happening in NYC. It was a great city. I used to love visiting stereo, record, and book shops all over. As others have said and I don’t disagree, there has always been crime there.
It’s just that for the first time, there’s a feeling by those doing it that there will be no punishment and have a sense of impunity. Shame.
On another note, is that stereo shop still there in the upper 50’s near 3rd Avenue (it was underground) as well as the one on Park Avenue South in the 20’s or 30’s? I don’t remember.

 

My daughter went to school in NYC and now lives there full time. I've visited her many times since 2016 and felt safe in the many areas night and day that we went to. If I didn't feel she was safe there I would try to convince her to move back to Maine. But I feel she is just as safe there as many other places. In all honesty bad things can happen anywhere that's the unfortunate truth.

 

Let me assume I can safely walk or take the subway from Grand Central to one of the still extant HiFi stores in Manhattan. Has anyone had a recent good shopping/sales experience they can share?

 

You shoulda seen 42nd Street in 1977. I'd walk in circles to avoid the mayhem. Going into the subway arcade at 6th to Downstairs Records was a problem sometimes stepping over the bums. The walk to Madison Square Garden that year for Led Zeppelin was scarey...lotta yoke artists. The worst was around '82 there for The Jacksons concert.....every gang in NYC was there.

 

The news also makes Florida sound like a crocodile-infested meth circus that’s going to be submerged by global warming any minute now.

But I thought we were talking about NYC hi-fi stores?