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Street View of 80s NYC

80s.nyc

21–30 of 60 posts

Re: Street View of 80s NYC

#21
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I typed my reply, I briefly considered if AI/ML/NN might help but then I thought about it. I don't think there will be enough training data and I suspect that existing reference points would be vastly different, and made even more difficult to use by the lack of resolution. But... If it had some initial training done by hand, and by people including what dates and locations they know, maybe it could work backwar…

Sounds like fun! I know the Mapillary folks from interviewing with them. I think it'd just be a matter of me paying for the spot instances for the compute time. I'm going to ask!

And the data acquisition.

It does tie into a strange idea that I've been tossing about for the past decade.

A cluster of used cell phones. They're easy to power, probably free for the taking, and might make for big computing while just using something that'd normally be thrown away.

My original idea was SETI or one of the unfolding@home type projects, but something like this might make for a good project.

Alas, I'm way too lazy (and not qualified) to do this. Laziness is one of the perks of retirement.

Re: Street View of 80s NYC

#22
I don't know much about NYC, but I've read "The Bonfire of the Vanities" (1987 novel; heard the movie sucked...). Anyone plot key points in that? (for example: the car scene of Sherman and Maria, the court house in the Bronx, the Park Avenue apartments). If not, whaddaya whaddaya?

Re: Street View of 80s NYC

#24
post #18
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another perspective on the rash of South Bronx arsons is that it was caused by bad data science. See story here: http://nypost.com/2010/05/16/why-the-bronx-burned/

Thanks, I came across that article too. I've included an edit, there were many factors involved in the South Bronx blight (economic and political), but yes fire stations shutting down in neighbourhoods with less political pull was certainly one of them. The fires ended up ruining entire neighbourhoods due to the poor city response times, but the simple fact is many of them were started due to landlord arson or from p…

The incentives weren't just rent control but also white-flight population decline leading to decreased rent rolls leading to reduced property valuations that weren't yet reflected in insurance valuations.

And much of that white flight was due to the Federal government funding interstates to the suburbs and subsidizing mortgage loans for whites only that made suburban houses cheaper for white middle-class families to live in than urban apartments. http://www.bostonfairhousing.org/timeline/1934-1968-FHA-Redl...

The South Bronx was also entirely redlined by the HOLC in the 1930s, rendering it ineligible for mortgage loans for decades: https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining/#loc=12/40.8328/...

Re: Street View of 80s NYC

#25
post #15

The South Bronx really was a war-zone. http://80s.nyc/#show/40.8265/-73.9080 http://80s.nyc/#show/40.8107/-73.9180 http://80s.nyc/#show/40.8188/-73.9217 http://80s.nyc/#show/40.8229/-73.9167 http://80s.nyc/#show/40.8102/-73.9194 http://80s.nyc/#show/40.8152/-73.9165 All of those rent-control incentivized arsons... empty lots with garbage everywhere... dogs running around with no owners visible. Edit: correction, whil…

Have you been there lately? Fewer dogs but still similar.

Re: Street View of 80s NYC

#26
post #19
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the most stunning parts of the movie Koyaanisqatsi are the demolition of builds in the South Bronx (I'm pretty sure they're there, can someone confirm?). And, the scenes from the movie Wolfen look very similar to the above scenes.

Those were in St. Louis, MO https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pruitt–Igoe

Hence the name of the song. (smacks side of head) Thanks.

Re: Street View of 80s NYC

#27
From having browsed through the tax lot photos in the municipal archives from prior generations, it would be fun to see a split view where you browse around both the 1940s and 1980s at the same time.

If you browse around 80s Williamsburg photos it is not a place you would want to be. Now every one of those lots would be a minimum of $1M, with waterfront lots in the tens of millions. Pays to play the long game.

Re: Street View of 80s NYC

#29
post #15

The South Bronx really was a war-zone. http://80s.nyc/#show/40.8265/-73.9080 http://80s.nyc/#show/40.8107/-73.9180 http://80s.nyc/#show/40.8188/-73.9217 http://80s.nyc/#show/40.8229/-73.9167 http://80s.nyc/#show/40.8102/-73.9194 http://80s.nyc/#show/40.8152/-73.9165 All of those rent-control incentivized arsons... empty lots with garbage everywhere... dogs running around with no owners visible. Edit: correction, whil…

Reminds me of St. Louis today, it's completely hollowed out with dilapidated buildings everywhere. Sad.

Re: Street View of 80s NYC

#30
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks, I came across that article too. I've included an edit, there were many factors involved in the South Bronx blight (economic and political), but yes fire stations shutting down in neighbourhoods with less political pull was certainly one of them. The fires ended up ruining entire neighbourhoods due to the poor city response times, but the simple fact is many of them were started due to landlord arson or from p…

The incentives weren't just rent control but also white-flight population decline leading to decreased rent rolls leading to reduced property valuations that weren't yet reflected in insurance valuations. And much of that white flight was due to the Federal government funding interstates to the suburbs and subsidizing mortgage loans for whites only that made suburban houses cheaper for white middle-class families to…

> And much of that white flight was due to the Federal government funding interstates to the suburbs and subsidizing mortgage loans for whites only that made suburban houses cheaper for white middle-class families to live in than urban apartments. .

That study is for "1934–1968". The civil rights act (1969) made that type of discrimination illegal and included provisions to incentivize the reduction of segregation, yet I've read that nearly 50yrs later housing segregation is still today higher (or as high) than before the civil rights act.

I'm sure that federal policy played a big role in white flight but I'm curious why it hasn't reversed despite these changes... there must be other forces still at play here, that or we're seeing a multi-generational side-effect of bad policy.

But regardless it's interesting to think that so much government policy did the exact opposite of help the poor at federal, state, and city level... from city budgeting of fire stations to mortgage incentives to rent control and zoning laws, etc.

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