I made a post recently about the changes in Manhattan specifically, and my feelings are mixed. I guess it is a better place for wealthy people to sip their lattes and walk their little dogs around the park, but that tough element is gone. Might sound good to some people, but that toughness used to define NYers. Now I could pop a paper bag in the park and little 21 year old hipsters without a line on their face or a blister on their hands will drop their Starbucks and scream like babies. It might make for a better safer life, but the city doesn't feel like it did when I was younger. I guess it's dumb for me in a way, but NY people seem weak today. It's like u don't even need street smarts to make it anymore. I'm just a nostalgic guy I suppose. I want a piece of that back. But like the old school guys told me in my other thread, you can't go back so you just live in the present.

** before PB kicks my ass for my post, I will clarify that NY changed completely when I was barely out of my teens, so I'm not 100% cut from the old cloth, and I wasn't usually a full time NYC resident, but because of my family, I got to see a lot at an early age. So the old NY left an imprint on me that will probably never go away. I'm making no claims to be more authentic than guys like PB or footreads or the guys who really lived thru old NY in their adult years. It's just nostalgia for me.