Just so you know Harlem is also chic (check out the multi-million $ brownstones on Strivers' Row), many people are moving to Inwood as one of the only affordable areas of Manhattan and Washington Heights is gentrifying. You've been gone 30 years and much of the city has changed.

Astoria and Long Island City are also becoming trendy with a lot of luxury highrises.

Come visit and see for yourself.

Thanks,
I have been back and I did not believe the change in Times Square. I was just used to going into the city, because Brooklyn really was not the place to hang out in the 1970s.

And also the Meatpacking District on the west side of Manhattan. Remember when it was just butchers and hanging beef carcasses? Now it's over the top prices for condos and hotel rooms, toney shops.

You're talking 40 (FORTY!) years ago. Of course things have changed.

What hasn't?

And the nearby areas of Brooklyn have been upscale for the bet part of 20 years. If you've been back since don;t know how you missed it.

I bought my 1 bedroom co-op on the upper west side in 1986 for $160K - and sold it - in a totally gentrified area - 4 years ago for almost $750K - in a non doorman middle class building.
And despite the late fall in prices - it's still worth essentially that - per a friend who sold a similar a few months ago.

This is a totally different New York.

And
it's a wonderful New York.

Bensonhurst is mostly Asian now. Some pockets of old Italians left, a few stores, watering holes and societies for older Italians to hang out remain. But mostly Chinese written and spoken in Bensonhurst now.
Ifcourse, the same thing is happening all over Queens.

BTW, FDR will be shut down in 2 years, to be replaced by an Yeshiva.

I was there about two years ago. You are right about Bensonhurst. It is still a decent area I think.
I still have some family there.

It all started about 20 years as an economic alternative to the rents in Manhattan and Brooklyn Heights. People wanted to live near the "L" line in Williamsburg which is minutes into the City. Then it spread from there.

The one neighborhood that never benefited from this is Red Hook because it was separated from the rest of Brooklyn by the BQE over 60 years. And now they are really suffering due to the hurricane.

Thanks, that makes sense. I did grow up in the East New York section of Brooklyn and it got very bad in the mid 70s. I am sure it is still very bad.