Traffic is horrendous with bottlenecks everywhere. You go out on the streets today and nobody can park. They would get maybe three or four cents for alerting them.Ĭars were invented in the 1880s but, of course, it was nothing like it is today. I remember that if somebody wanted to call you on the telephone, they would call a candy store three blocks away and there were kids hanging around there because somebody would call the number, somebody else would answer and tell everyone who they wanted to speak to and where they lived and the kids would go running up two, three blocks to tell that person. I remember our first radio, our first telephone-those kinds of things. I lived in Borough Park, which is now where a lot of religious Jews live but it was not like that when I was there. You never saw an Asian person unless you went to a Chinese restaurant and you didn't know any Hispanic people. When I was growing up in Brooklyn, you'd never see a person who wasn't white unless it was a housekeeper going to somebody's home to clean or do things. My favorite thing about New York at the moment is probably the diversity. “I was born in 1924 on 61st Street around Amsterdam Avenue and I live four or five blocks from there now. This #ElectionDay ♬ Moonlight Serenade - Glenn Miller If Trump takes over, we should get our National Guard and declare ourselves independent.” Si Spiegel, 99 years My 99-year-old Jewish grandfather was a WWII bomber pilot and has never missed an opportunity to #vote. I think they are the wittiest people in the country. I guess it's kind of mixed in with the Irish but there's a quality to the voice that is quintessential New York. I was out alone last night and the man opened the door for me and helped me up the stoop. When I was a kid I would think, 'Wouldn't it be wonderful to have your own chauffeur?' It's a real help, especially at my age. I love the Uber! It's my own private chauffeur. I will tell you one thing that is a huge improvement: the Uber! A lot of the Mayors don’t do anything I liked Bloomberg. I also don’t like the mayor, I don’t think Adams is doing anything. But I think Hudson Yards is ugly, dreadful, a mall that doesn’t belong in New York. I used to shop in the meat market there when it was an actual meat market. I think that whoever did Chelsea Market did a great thing, it improved the area. Down the street, a Wall Street guy bought my type of building and, when his girlfriend broke up with him, he sold it after having removed all the moldings. It has all the moldings and beauty of the original. I live in a brownstone that has only had three owners since it was built in 1865. I live in the one place that they can’t destroy: the West Village, a landmark that they can’t change. It’s the city of destruction and Philistines. The city was a wonderful place with wonderful cocktails, piano bars where we’d sing. I live in the West Village and have to allow an hour to go to the theater because the streets are so clogged. Then, it got to a point where you could still drive but couldn’t park anywhere. When I was really young, I could drive around the city and actually park on the streets and there weren't any meters. Dorothy Wiggins, 98 years oldĪ post shared by Dorothy Wiggins my opinion, New York has changed much for the worse. While we prepare for the start of a new year, we speak to three 90-somethings about our favorite topic, New York City, specifically delving into how the city has kicked and screamed its way into the 21st century. They’ve seen first-hand the soul of our town morph time and time again.Īccording to some of these wise nonagenarians, unfortunately, New York is no longer the vibrant, diverse destination worthy of all the praise it still gets-and there’s not much we can do to change that. Talking to them is a humbling experience-one that reminds even the staunchest New Yorker that there are issues we could solve to improve everyday life here. Whether they immigrated from other countries or are life-long New Yorkers, members of this generation have one thing in common: they have lived in New York for nearly 10 decades, playing witness to the city’s transformation over time and living through the consequences of change. As different generations and populations clamor for ownership of New York City-arguing its similarities to Los Angeles and discussing just how immigrants are shaping the character of the town- one demographic quietly retains the keys to the city’s history: its oldest residents.Īs of 2019, New York was home to 153,488 nonagenarians (people between 90 and 99 years old) and 5,780 centenarians (those over 100 years old), according to Boston University’s Chobania and Avedisian School of Medicine.
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