Interview · moment 6 of 15
Walking Home Through Stabbings: NYC's Violent Past
from Antiseptic New York · #9
Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.
2 minGuest
Ralph describes the real danger of old New York nightlife including stabbings near clubs and a friend faking crazy to avoid being mugged, and they discuss the drop from 3,000 to 350 annual homicides in NYC.
- 16:52Tim describes walking home from NYC clubs in the 1970s-80s, stepping over blood puddles and witnessing stabbings on the F train.
- 17:16The early seventies and late seventies were when this area—where the studio now sits—was a real war zone.
- 17:32Tim recalls being scared to walk the streets at night, particularly around 42nd Street where dancers worked until 4 a.m.
- 17:51His friend in a bad neighborhood would talk to himself on the way home to convince people he was insane and avoid attack.
- 18:04New York had just under 3,000 homicides a year in 1990 compared to 350 today—roughly one murder per day now.
- 18:18Tim emphasizes the stark difference between the violent seventies-eighties and modern NYC crime rates.