New York City has changed a lot just in the last few years, let alone the last thirty. Still, many New Yorkers often find themselves wondering whatever happened to what used to be. Even scarier, many others don’t.
Gotham is nothing if not packed with history.
Whether we realize it or not, taking account of how things change is important. By honoring the past, we gain new appreciation for the present, along with hope for the future.
Here are 13 iconic NYC things you (sadly) don’t see very much of anymore.
1. Arcades
Had you told 12-year-old me that arcades would one day die out, I’d have laughed in your face. Hell, if you’d told 23-year-old me that, I’d have done the same. But it’s a fact; video game arcades are now a big rarity in NYC.
Times Square alone featured an awesome arcade, Playland, dingy and dank, providing the perfect atmosphere for Pac-Man or Street Fighter. There were a few more just in the immediate vicinity too. All gone now.
[anad]
2. Wooden phone booths
The classic, old sturdy wooden phone booths, featured in a jillion movies, have become nearly extinct in NYC. You might be able to find one in the Wall Street area, but you’d be hard pressed to come up with many more.
3. Phone booths (in general)
And wooden phone booths aren’t alone. Never mind the old standing booths that Superman could change clothes in, just those phones on a pole under a hood thing are disappearing.
There’s still a few left, but there used to be a forest of them on every corner. They were essential to any New Yorker’s life, and their disappearance speaks to how our lives have changed. There are plans for them to become free WiFi kiosks, however. Oh, how the times have changed.
4. Telephone wires
May as well continue the theme. There were days, not long ago, when no matter where you were in the city, whenever you looked up, you saw highways of telephone wire. Not to mention all the dangling shoes. These days, not so much.
5. Peep shows
Okay, many people think New York is better off without them, but peep shows did dot the city in the old days. Like it or not, they were a big part of the Big Apple’s identity, especially in Hell’s Kitchen.
Yet another testament to how technology has changed all of our lives. No need to go to a peep show now, when everybody has the internet. Oh, like you don’t know what we're talking about.
6. A lot of iconic spots
I've covered this topic before here. And here.
CBGB. The old Yankee Stadium. Shakespeare & Co. Every day, New Yorkers wake up to another lost icon. Yaffa Café. Café Edison. 5 Pointz.
To catalog everything we’ve lost is an impossible task, but Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York is trying to, at least. Bookmark that site (and ours), if you haven’t already.
7. Laser tag
Lazer Park in Times Square was a regular hangout back in the nineties. They were the last and greatest hurrah of New York’s arcades. They started a brief craze for laser tag, which died out way too soon.
Besides the standard video games, they had huge pods in the back, where you could get in and simulate piloting giant Mechwarrior robots, kicking each other’s butts. How can you not love that?
But the centerpiece was the laser tag arena, flooded with dry ice and black light, as you and your friends fought a pitched battle against the other team. It was the closest anyone’s gotten to being in a Star Wars battle.
Ask me about the time my friends and I absolutely dismantled the Wu Tang Clan in laser tag. That's right Ghostface Killah, I said it! PEW PEW PEW!
,8. Theme restaurants
With the success of the Hard Rock Café and Planet Hollywood, everyone jumped on board the theme restaurant craze of the 90s. New York was soon sporting restaurants of every possible themed tie-in.
Jekyll & Hyde got a big scary one going on 5th Avenue. A sci-fi place, Mars 2112, opened on Broadway. Caroline’s Comedy Club joined the fray with probably the best of all of them, Comedy Nation, where servers popped out of the walls, and the dining area centered around a gigantic couch.
There was even the Fashion Café, where I guess they’d just serve you salad greens and a bottle of water? Really, this one made no sense.
But it was too much too soon, and the theme restaurant bubble burst sometime around 1999-2000. Jekyll & Hyde retreated back to its Village location, Caroline’s sold the Comedy Nation space to a Chinese restaurant, Ruby’s, and the others just plain faded away.
[anad]
9. Photo booths
They’re just a curio these days.
I mean, who needs a photo booth with the all purpose tri-corders that have become our phones?
You generally only see them at weddings or special events now.
10. Cheap movie theaters
Just west of 8th Avenue on 50th street, behind The Worldwide Plaza, there used to be movie theaters showing films that had been out for a long time. Chances were good you’d seen them already, but if you hadn’t, tickets were only two or three bucks.
Independent films that didn’t get wide release were shown there too, giving them much needed exposure alongside proven blockbusters. This was a thing throughout the city, and was a lifesaver for broke kids wanting to go on a date.
11. Shoe shine stands
You can still find them on Wall Street, the Marriot Hotel in Times Square, Grand Central Station, and a few other places, but shoe shine stands used to be everywhere. And we don’t just mean like in those old film noir days, they were on a lot of corners in the 90s.
Now? Not so much.
12. Record and video stores
No genre has been hit harder by society’s technological advances than record and video stores. And we don’t just mean the little stores like Bleecker Bob’s, either. Tower Records. Blockbuster Video. The Virgin Megastore. All gone.
13. Comic book & sports card stores
There are still plenty of comic stores still in New York, don’t get us wrong, but they’re a dying breed. Years ago, there’d be a comic book store, or a place selling baseball cards, in just about every neighborhood.
But a bad market crash in the early nineties brought both hobbies to their knees. The transition of superheroes from comics to movies has also hobbled the industry, while keeping it alive at the same time.
The sports card hobby never recovered.
Nowadays, comic book shops need to be big, and preferably franchised. Midtown Comics has grown from one Times Square store to a worldwide corporation, with branches and warehouses throughout NYC.
Just don’t forget the little guys that are still hanging on. Places like St Mark’s Comics are few and far between. It may seem trite to mention, but the fact is, New York City originated the genre of the superhero comic book. We should take care of that piece of Americana.
Look, progress isn’t going to stop. Change is the way of the world. This isn’t a bad thing. But it’s important for New Yorkers to remember where they came from; otherwise they can’t know where they’re going.
So the next time you’re passing a phone booth, stop for a minute. Even if you don’t put any money in, just take a good look at it. Then smile, and carry on with your day.