The Upper West Side was a mixed bag up until the late 80s or early 90s. Central Park West was always pretty classy even though down at street level there was an amazingly crowded and active nightly homosexual street cruising scene going on along the perimeter of the park until the late 1970s when the park benches began to be taken over by the homeless. Riverside Drive tended to hold on to a vaguely upper middle class residential base throughout the period. Ditto for lower West End Ave, especially below 96th St. There was a definite Mittel Europa feeling to the area, probably because so many refugees from Nazi Germany took up residence in the area a few decades earlier. West End Ave has an amazing stock of fine pre WW2(or earlier) apartment buildings. I briefly (circa 1972) lived in a large 3 bedroom top floor apartment at 101st and West End. I shared it with two Columbia students. My rent for a single bedroom was about $100. I was alone there one afternoon when I suddenly heard a noise in the dining room (the huge apartment had a separate dining room) and discovered that somebody was trying to lower themselves in through the open window from the roof of the building. I was not prepared to try to fight this daring intruder, figuring he was probably at least armed with a knife, so I took off down the stairs (no waiting for an elevator). This burglar came running after me. I finally turned to face off with him about six floors down, but he kept running past me and made it to the lobby and out of the building. That was a fairly typical story for the Upper West Side at that point in time. William Burrough's Hotel Lamprey was just up the street at 103rd and B'way. Here's how he described the area:
"103rd and Broadway looks like any Broadway block. A cafeteria, a movie, stores. In the middle of Broadway is an island with some grass and benches placed at intervals. 103rd is a subway stop, a crowded block. This is junk territory. Junk haunts the cafeteria, roams up and down the block, sometimes half-crossing Broadway to rest on one of the island benches. A ghost in daylight on a crowded street. You could always find a few junkies sitting in the cafeteria or standing around outside with coat collars turned up, spitting on the sidewalk and looking up and down the street as they waited for the connection. In summer, they sit on the island benches, huddled like so many vultures in their dark suits."
A similar scene revealed itself down at 72nd and Broadway in an area known at the time as "Needle Park". You could eat your delicious hot dog at Grey's Papaya and take it all in. It wasn't all grit and crime. Actually there was a vitality to the area that is mostly gone today. What is left is beautiful Broadway, which I think is one of the grandest stretches of street in North America. It's certainly the most European feeling boulevard in the city. Click the link for a peek at Broadway on the Upper West Side as it appears today. Yes, it is a lot cleaner and nicer, if you can afford it.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Br...!4d-73.9820683
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