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In 1980s Los Angeles, a bank was robbed every hour (2019)

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Re: In 1980s Los Angeles, a bank was robbed every hour (2019)

#51

Post by stanford_labrat »

tomcam wrote: post #39
DennisP wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So to clarify that...the federal Assault Weapons Ban applied to semi-auto rifles with certain ergonomic features, including pistol grips, flash hiders, and folding stocks. (Semi-auto is one bullet per trigger pull, full-auto means you can hold the trigger down and spray bullets.) The North Hollywood robbers had illegally modified their weapons to enable full-auto fire. Since well before 1997, modifying guns like this…

Where do you even buy those pre-86 full autos? Asking for a friend.

You won’t be able to acquire one if you live in CA, NFA items are de facto banned for ordinary citizens.

Re: In 1980s Los Angeles, a bank was robbed every hour (2019)

#54

Post by Melting_Harps »

cleansingfire wrote: post #40
smnrchrds wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this was at least partially a result of the high crime rate in the cities.

When I lived in East Palo Alto, it was the murder capital of the US. With a carjacking attempt 75' from my front door (foiled by returning with a pistol before they could restart my car) I miss that time not at all.

> When I lived in East Palo Alto, it was the murder capital of the US. With a carjacking attempt 75' from my front door (foiled by returning with a pistol before they could restart my car) I miss that time not at all.

Yeah, I remember the Valley in the 90s... a lof of it looked a lot like downtown LA which I'm was never exactly a fan of.

But being in San Jose back then in the 90s looked and smelled like Chinatown when it was buzzing, Sunnyvale and Mountain View had a certain feel that is completely gone now it felt electric for reasons I didn't full understand and would only come to realize how significant what was happening there was a decade or so later.

I never went to the East bay until recently, but that feels like a very watered down version of what it was back then to me.

I guess it's survivor bias guiding my words, especially since I had close encounters with stuff like that growing up too; but having a choice of which one to deal with I'd stay with 90s CA to raise a family then somewhere like modern Geneva with all its amenities and manicured existence.

Re: In 1980s Los Angeles, a bank was robbed every hour (2019)

#55

Post by randmeerkat »

monsieurbanana wrote: post #48
randmeerkat wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And homes were still affordable places to live in. So does this mean the “crime paradise” was a better more prosperous time for people to live in than tech? If so, what does that say about modern society that our most depraved decade was actually better?

Withuot knowing nothing about California in the 80s besides what's in this thread, it seems you're saying gang shootings and bank robberies is an acceptable trade for affordable housing.

Yes, that’s exactly what I’m asking.

There’s people literally pooping on the streets in California. Do you think those people would be able to afford a toilet of their own if this was the 80s? Was homelessness then as bad as it is now? In our progress forward in technology has tech actually made California worse for people as a whole?

Re: In 1980s Los Angeles, a bank was robbed every hour (2019)

#56

Post by dantheman »

randmeerkat wrote: post #26
blackrock wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like the 80s were more fun. We had Miami Vice, MacGyver, The A-Team, Knight Rider, and Battlestar Galactica back then. And homes were still affordable places to live in.

> And homes were still affordable places to live in. So does this mean the “crime paradise” was a better more prosperous time for people to live in than tech? If so, what does that say about modern society that our most depraved decade was actually better?

Housing was affordable because it could still be built.

Re: In 1980s Los Angeles, a bank was robbed every hour (2019)

#57

Post by darren0 »

I grew up (in the 80s) by a bank that was routinely robbed. It was conveniently located by a freeway on ramp and had a drive thru.

Over time they closed the drive thru and eventually removed direct street access to the bank to try to discourage robbers.

Ah the good old days.

Re: In 1980s Los Angeles, a bank was robbed every hour (2019)

#59

Post by anigbrowl »

arminiusreturns wrote: post #31

> By 2013, the number was down to 212, one tenth of what it had been in its worst year. For the first time since the early 1960s, L.A. officially lost its title to the San Francisco Bay Area. The real interesting tidbit was at the end I found... I wonder why SF?

To quote the great Willie Sutton, 'Because that's where the money is.' SF was and is the financial capital of the west coast.

Re: In 1980s Los Angeles, a bank was robbed every hour (2019)

#60

Post by techsupporter »

randmeerkat wrote: post #55
monsieurbanana wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Withuot knowing nothing about California in the 80s besides what's in this thread, it seems you're saying gang shootings and bank robberies is an acceptable trade for affordable housing.

Yes, that’s exactly what I’m asking. There’s people literally pooping on the streets in California. Do you think those people would be able to afford a toilet of their own if this was the 80s? Was homelessness then as bad as it is now? In our progress forward in technology has tech actually made California worse for people as a whole?

Homelessness has always been a problem in this country; it just wasn't as visible as it is now. That visibility is from a bunch of reasons (the Internet makes all things more visible, cities became more popular instead of "white flight," sprawl in more areas). All the way back in 1995--jesus, that's 25 years ago, I feel old--Star Trek: Deep Space Nine had a two-part episode on "Sanctuary Districts" and staggering wealth inequality. Those were depicted as having gotten particularly bad in the year 2024 (the year our heroes were transported back to) but the episode was commenting on the state of society around the late 80s and early 90s. We've had hobo slums, tent cities, and the like as long as I've been alive.

It's not a California-specific problem. Dallas had tent cities in the mid-90s that the local news would occasionally report on. Seattle has had a variety of encampments, from "the Jungle" to "Nickelsville" to "Skid Row" and older.

We see the problem more now. We don't like it, but we also don't do much to deal with it. So it festers, because we're too self-centered to spend the tax dollars at the state and federal levels to do programs like Housing First, but too polite to just round up the homeless population and drop them in a woodchipper like most people on Nextdoor seem to want. Instead, we leave cities and counties to work it out for themselves while their suburban neighbors spend tax dollars on luring businesses out of the urban core because it is "so dirty."

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