Not one person has an iPhone.

ummm NYC subways dont have graffiti.

Obvious non new yorker subby

Graffiti wasn't invented yet.

The Yashica camera is amazing, a simply amazing little camera.

When I was in New York 20 years ago, the trains were filthy and the stations were clean.
When I went this Christmas, the trains were clean and the stations were filthy.

how is the little girl in the last photo listening to an ipod?

The guy sleeping in the one picture would be arrested for taking up more than one seat today.

puppypants: how is the little girl in the last photo listening to an ipod?

I noticed that too. She is probably comes from a family of time travelers.

Those trains were noisy rattlers back in the 70s...and yes that's about the time grafitti came into style.

relative obscura (new window)

have you looked in the late 80s/early 90s subby?

Why, you...wiseguy, huh?!

Pretty sure you couldn't sit by some queer with AIDS in the 60's.

Eggrolls' comment was my first thought. Well played.

srhp29: Pretty sure you couldn't sit by some queer with AIDS in the 60's.

Picture 5 has the guy from the lost city of Lunopolis (new window)

I love how new yorkers like to pretend that poverty doesn't exist on the subway and how gangs dont control subway tunnels. It is really a stretch for them to open their eyes and see that they have been living blindly to the problems that surround them.

buckler: TommyymmoT: It's obvious that everything subby knows about NYC, he learned from watching Welcome Back Cotter.
There hasn't been any significant graffiti on NYC subways in quite a few years.

It's cleaned off, usually within 24 hours, and newspapers have stopped hailing it as "moving art", so people don't even bother tagging trains anymore.
It not worth all the risks.

Yup. Even in the early 90's, when I was there, there was a rule in place that cars couldn't leave the yard if they had graffiti on them.

Today the cars and most stations are clean (the 51st station in the pic looks the same)

here are some of the Subway stations I pass by on the train from where I live to Manhattan

my station


some of the ones on my route









and where I get off



See not all stations are bad. Most lines have been cleaned up (with a few exceptions mostly in the Bronx) and the R160's have an anti graffiti coating that doesn't let graffiti stick, even the acid stuff.

Actually try the subway before knocking it

make me some tea: TommyymmoT: It's obvious that everything subby knows about NYC, he learned from watching Welcome Back Cotter.
There hasn't been any significant graffiti on NYC subways in quite a few years.

It's cleaned off, usually within 24 hours, and newspapers have stopped hailing it as "moving art", so people don't even bother tagging trains anymore.
It not worth all the risks.

The only "graffiti" you see nowadays is on the advertisements. Some of them are rather hilarious.

[26.media.tumblr.com image 440x368]

Defaced advertisements are quite common around here - in the Métro it's way more common than traditional rattle-tin graffiti, anyway. Most of it is pretty plainly ideological or political (in particular, there's a political group that seeks to rid public spaces of advertisement that does it as a form of protest). But every now and again there's some funny stuff. Some months ago I was in the Métro, waiting for my train to go to work, when I noticed that someone had defaced one of the ad posters on the platform in a very similar way. The ad was for one of those DeVry/ITT Tech type career schools, selling computer instruction or something. With deft application of a black marker, the ad copy had been changed from "Learn a career from the professionals!" to "Learn with your buttcheeks!"

Needless to say, my inner nine-year-old was quite amused.

Palin2012: I love how new yorkers like to pretend that poverty doesn't exist on the subway and how gangs dont control subway tunnels.

WORST. TROLL. EVER.
Absolutely pathetic. Get a hobby, like masturbating or pulling wings off flies. It would suit you.

skullkrusher: srhp29: Pretty sure you couldn't sit by some queer with AIDS in the 60's.

[projectqatlanta.com image 459x395]

The graffiti started in the 70s. That was when the Negroes and Spic-a-roos lost their fear of the billy club* due to the namby-pambization of the US of A.

*This also resulted in huge spikes in white-women-rape and general hooliganism and murder in the 70s and 80s.

It took a great man, Guilianai (Saint G.) in the 90s to help take out the trash.

Unfortunately it's a lot harder to eradicate spray paint. Plus it wasn't much longer (I blame the Beasty Boys in the 80s) that the white boys started emulating the ethnics.

jedihirsch: buckler: TommyymmoT: It's obvious that everything subby knows about NYC, he learned from watching Welcome Back Cotter.
There hasn't been any significant graffiti on NYC subways in quite a few years.

It's cleaned off, usually within 24 hours, and newspapers have stopped hailing it as "moving art", so people don't even bother tagging trains anymore.
It not worth all the risks.

Yup. Even in the early 90's, when I was there, there was a rule in place that cars couldn't leave the yard if they had graffiti on them.

Today the cars and most stations are clean (the 51st station in the pic looks the same)

here are some of the Subway stations I pass by on the train from where I live to Manhattan

my station
[upload.wikimedia.org image 319x240]

some of the ones on my route
[cdn4.wn.com image 300x225]
[www.subwaynut.com image 640x426]

[upload.wikimedia.org image 320x213]

[upload.wikimedia.org image 320x214]

[upload.wikimedia.org image 320x240]

and where I get off
[upload.wikimedia.org image 320x180]


See not all stations are bad. Most lines have been cleaned up (with a few exceptions mostly in the Bronx) and the R160's have an anti graffiti coating that doesn't let graffiti stick, even the acid stuff.

Actually try the subway before knocking it



horrifying

TommyymmoT: It's obvious that everything subby knows about NYC, he learned from watching Welcome Back Cotter.
There hasn't been any significant graffiti on NYC subways in quite a few years.

It's cleaned off, usually within 24 hours, and newspapers have stopped hailing it as "moving art", so people don't even bother tagging trains anymore.
It not worth all the risks.

On the Canal St station there were a few signs where the "C" was ingeniously blackened out so they read "anal St". It makes me chuckle.

TommyymmoT: srhp29: Pretty sure you couldn't sit by some queer with AIDS in the 60's.

Nah. You could probably sit by some asshole tourist from Oregon though.

Nah. He would be dead in two hours from the air pollution.

skullkrusher:
[www.z-mation.com image 480x360]

horrifying

There's black people in the picture. Looks scary and dangerous.

Subby bought a bridge, didn't it.

Maximer: skullkrusher:
[www.z-mation.com image 480x360]

horrifying

There's black people in the picture. Looks scary and dangerous.

that's the Upper West Side. They're just passing through on their way to the Even More Upper West Side

TommyymmoT: newspapers have stopped hailing it as "moving art",



We're not supposed to call it art anymore?

Maximer: On the Canal St station there were a few signs where the "C" was ingeniously blackened out so they read "anal St". It makes me chuckle.

There's a story that some air-raid wardens at the start of WWII shut off only the first two letter of the "Essex House" sign one night.

skullkrusher: Maximer: skullkrusher:
[www.z-mation.com image 480x360]

horrifying

There's black people in the picture. Looks scary and dangerous.

that's the Upper West Side. They're just passing through on their way to the Even More Upper West Side

It's the Upper West Side. It's whiter than the midwest.

skullkrusher:
that's the Upper West Side. They're just passing through on their way to the Even More Upper West Side

Thank God. I was about to write a strongly worded letter to Bloomberg and call Eyewitness News.

Maximer: On the Canal St station there were a few signs where the "C" was ingeniously blackened out so they read "anal St". It makes me chuckle.

There's definitely one on the downtown platform towards the south end. It's a little extra impressive because the tiles are over the tracks and not accessible from the platform. I appreciate that someone risked their life to make that joke. It used to make me smile every morning when I worked down there.

whenIsayGO: Maximer: On the Canal St station there were a few signs where the "C" was ingeniously blackened out so they read "anal St". It makes me chuckle.

There's definitely one on the downtown platform towards the south end. It's a little extra impressive because the tiles are over the tracks and not accessible from the platform. I appreciate that someone risked their life to make that joke. It used to make me smile every morning when I worked down there.

In Montreal there's a station called Atwater. You can imagine what they do to the signs there.