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Duchock t1_iubcyiz wrote

Isn't that park super iconic for being a junkie hangout, even before "our modern troubles"? If I were looking to find publicly discarded needles anywhere in Manhattan, Tompkins Square would be the first place I'd check.

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pk10534 t1_iubkdjm wrote

I think it’s had that rep since at the very least the 80s lol

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InterPunct t1_iubme5d wrote

There was a homeless city there at one point. Before that it was really a shit hole, IIRC there was a sad, old bandshell there that was depressing to think how it must once have been a nice place. By the 90's when they built a playground and I started seeing baby carriages, it was obvious things were changing for the better.

Sad to hear it's sliding backwards again.

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pk10534 t1_iubocaa wrote

There was a riot there in the late 80s right?

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eekamuse t1_iubowlg wrote

A police riot

" Patterson’s videotape from that night of Aug. 6, 1988, resulted in the indictment of six police officers."

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SuffrnSuccotash t1_iud2m12 wrote

I had just moved to NY and my parents were visiting. I wanted to take them to a cafe on St.Marks. Rounded the bend and there was some huge riot turned them around and steered them to was it the Time cafe on Ave B and 10th?

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flyerhell t1_iudnp52 wrote

Pretty sure that this was the inspiration for the riot in Rent.

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iliveoffofbagels t1_iubq34h wrote

Yes siree... that whole Alphabet City Area was had the old junkie scene and old punk scene... along with the rest of the LES

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Brooklyn-Epoxy t1_iuc8yef wrote

I remember when I was a kid, that park had open fires that squatters would light to keep warm.

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LostSoulNothing t1_iueizil wrote

Well sure it's been a junkie hangout for decades but there's an electi coming up and mentioning that wouldn't further The Post's preferred narrative

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deadpoolagentx t1_iuf9az3 wrote

Parks always been like that they cleaned it up a bit wasn't too bad but it's gotten bad again its funny though because a lot of transplants moved into that area when it was a little cleaned up so they never knew how bad that area of avenue A and B were back in 80s and 90s with the squatter riots and the shit that would go down in that park like the dude who killed his girlfriend and fed her to the homeless people in the park

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pixel_of_moral_decay t1_iuf6g4w wrote

Yup.

It was always the most questionable of Manhattan parks.

Washington Square Park is also famously a junkie hangout, but less seedy more collegiate than Tompkins Square Park.

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utahnow t1_iudn2m9 wrote

It is indeed. The entire alphabet city was always sketch even at the peak of bloomberg administration

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karensPA t1_iuea5v5 wrote

That’s a bit of an exaggeration. Lived on Ave B by the park in the early 90s (right after they reopened the park) and it wasn’t Disneyland but it was a great neighborhood.

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