What was Times Square like in the LCN hey-day?

What was Times Square like in the LCN hey-day? I've heard it's been cleaned up a lot but was more of a red light / adult film area back in the 70s and 80s.

Nothing like it is today. 42nd street used to be a ghetto.

Times Square was sleazy as shit. Bunch of gay bars and porn stores. Matthew Ianniello secretly owned a portion of them and skimmed tons of profits for the Genovese.

It was just like IvyLeague's video says it was...Filthy !!

Giuliani cleaned that all up and brought tourism back to NYC !!

Hookers and dealers galore

Got to say I miss it , had a little bit of lawlessness to it

Heroine and other drugs, especially in the seventies.

More weed in my days in early 90s but then again I wasn't into the hard stuff

But I could buy 40s at 16 with braces for $2 and get a BJ for $20

Dinkins was some mayor , quite a time and site for a young kid like me

Now obviously the open market drug areas in Camden , Newark , Philly and B More must have been some scene but time square was different in that it was a real melting pot from a race standpoint . Hustlers and players didn't discriminate

Today your lucky to be able to smoke a cig

It's sad to say but I miss it , LE had a role but for some reason I appreciate a section that allows vices as that industry will never stop . I doubt many Wire fans here which I think is hands down best show ever made , but commander Bunny was onto something on directing the vices into designated areas that were decriminalized so these gangsters and vices don't bother normal folk . It's a sad state but this ain't ever gonna stop , it's time for a new strategy

Anyway in Newark , the place has become a total warzone , barely any whities except ferry st and the govt had to take over a defunct police dept . I live in area where a river separates me from Nwk ghettos and I hear gun shots regularly . I live on a pretty low crime but a 1/2 mile over has daily murders , go figure . Starting to remind me of the older Newark , except for ferry street which is a lot of fun and i go there often .

But the fact the one go go bar I started to go back just had a double murder on it's parking lot last Sunday, enough said .

Now all dealing had moved inside the bodegas , they adapted , shit ain't ever gonna change until our govt changes up.

Anyone else remember the day when weed was legal at that 4th street park in NYC with the cops surrounding it , lol . Ah back in the day but a police society ain't a long term solution no matter what politicians say , they just say the proper thing instead of the real thing . Govt today is terrible , it all about the party over doing the right thing ever since JFK was offed .

Anyway a rant but some night I like to speak my mind on here lol

The Cosa Nostra heyday of Times Square might go back to the 30's.

Lucky Luciano's office was at 1500 Broadway. That was when he was with the Broadway Mob. Don't think he was mafia at that time. Once Lucky went in with Don Guisseppe, he moved to the Hotel Pennsylvania which I think is still the largest hotel in New York City. It's right across from Madison Square Garden.

Msg not really TS

Msg got a lot of nyu bars that are still fun

Not sure about size but hotel Pennsylvania just average today

The old Penn Station was where MSG is today. So Charlie was at the Hotel Penn across the street from the original Penn Station. Hotel Penn has over 1700 rooms. I don't know of any hotel bigger in NYC and I am in the hotel business myself. But yeah, that's not Times Square. I was just recounting where Luciano went after he left Times Square. His offices/residence in Hotel Penn marked his big promotion. Joe the Boss' headquarters were probably at Hotel Pennsylvania. Appropriate for a guy with such a massive ego.

Ivy League, where's that girl in the red singlet at these days ?!?

To correct my earlier post. Luciano's heyday in Times Square had to be in the 20', since it was before he went in under Joe the Boss.

You must be talking about Kearny or Harrison. I lived in Kearny for a while. I tried to stay on the right side of the Passaic.




Sure do. Soon as David Lee Roth got busted with a dimebag it was all over.



Amen

Times Square featured theaters that ran major dramas and musicals, and had first-run movie theaters, before WWII. Afterward it started a steep decline into sex, sleaze and cheap restaurants and bars. Like much of the rest of NYC it hit bottom in the late Seventies and Eighties. Guiliani did help clean it up, and Disney made a major investment in the area. It's safer and cleaner now, but not as, uh, colorful.

Anyone know how far back Matty Ianniello's control of times square gay bars and porn stores goes back?

Since im not from ny and only 28 when did times square become that sort of vice haven?

@DB- you go to Ferry Street to pick up Brazilian broads too as well?!?!? LOL

Your sure that there broads on ferry street

Lol DM , odega lounge for sure

walk like a bitch, talk like a bitch, look like a bitch, gonna get fucked like one.

DB-

Odega is Great! I usually start at Odega Lounge and then get bottle service at Vivo Lounge- LOVE me those Brazilian girls looking for Green Cards!

I actually found out about Ferry Street from a Brazilian girl I met when I was out in Hoboken years ago, long story short I met her one night at her Apartment in Newark one night and we hit Ferry Street hard with all of her friends-she took me to Odega and Vivo. I showed a couple of my buddies the scene there later on and they have been hooked ever since as well...

Full of whores, skells, and dealers.

Dinkins was a horrible mayor. I didn't like Mario Cuomo one bit (Rest in Peace). He was a terrific speaker but a lousy politician (much like Obama). He was also an overtly liberal, self-hating Italian to the nth degree. But watching them bang heads years ago was always good for shits and giggles. But given today's politically correct climate, when Dinkins dies (the WORST Mayor in the history of this once great city), they'll probably close the schools and name part of Lenox Avenue after him.


The Disney Corporation played a MUCH bigger part in the gentrification of Times Square than law enforcement ever did. The money comes first, the police protection follows.

PM me what you didnt like about Cuomo PB. The guy just died today, showed up on my CNN feed and I feel a little bad I didnt know em.