New York City in 1990 Through a French Photographer’s Lens

At the dawn of the 1990s, New York City was in an unremittingly bleak state. It brought yet another all-time record high in violent crime.

By the mid 1990s, crime rates started to drop dramatically due to revised police strategies, improving economic opportunities, gentrification, and new residents, both American transplants and new immigrants from Asia and Latin America. Important new sectors, such as Silicon Alley, emerged in the city’s economy.
By the time the 1990s ended, the city was pulling in 7 million more tourists a year while the city’s population began to grow for the first time in decades.

French illustrator and photographer Watchman took these fascinating photographs that show  scenes of New York City in May 1990.

Initiation, Downtown NYC, USA

8th avenue at night, Downtown, NYC, USA

Avenue of the Americas (6th av), Downtown NYC, USA

Avenue of the Americas (6th av), Downtown NYC, USA

Avenue of the Americas (6th av), Downtown NYC, USA

Battery Park City, NYC, USA

Battery Park City, NYC, USA

Battery Park Underpass, NYC, USA

Battery Park, Lower Manhattan, NYC, USA

Battery Park, NYC, USA

Battery Park, NYC, USA

Bleecker St (and the Pink Pussy Cat Boutique!), The Village, Downtown NYC, USA

Broadway, Downtown NYC, USA

Broadway, Downtown NYC, USA

Broadway, Downtown NYC, USA

Broadway, Downtown NYC, USA

City Hall, NYC, USA

City Hall, NYC, USA

City Hall, NYC, USA

City Hall, NYC, USA

Downtown NYC, USA

Downtown NYC, USA

Downtown NYC, USA

Downtown NYC, USA

Downtown NYC, USA

Downtown NYC, USA

Downtown NYC, USA

Downtown NYC, USA

Downtown NYC, USA

Empire State, view by my window, 8th avenue, Downtown NYC, USA

Figure of the Empire State, Downtown NYC, USA.jpg

Financial district, World Trade Center, Downtown NYC, USA

La dispute, Downtown NYC, USA

Museum For American Indian, NYC, USA

Neighborhood of the World Trade Center, Downtown NYC, USA

New York skyline, NYC, USA

NYC view from Twin Towers, NYC, USA

NYC view from Twin Towers, NYC, USA

NYC view from Twin Towers, NYC, USA

NYC view from Twin Towers, NYC, USA

NYC view from Twin Towers, NYC, USA

Radio City Music Hall, 6th avenue, Downtown NYC, USA

Radio City Music Hall, 6th avenue, Downtown NYC, USA

Rockefeller Center, 5th avenue, NYC, USA

Rockefeller Center, 5th avenue, NYC, USA

St. Nicolas Church, Downtown NYC, USA

The Village, Downtown NYC, USA

The Village, Downtown NYC, USA

Tribeca (Triangle Below Canal Street), Downtown NYC, USA

TriBeCa, Downtown NYC, USA

Twin Towers & Battery Park City, NYC, USA

Twin Towers, NYC, USA

Twin Towers, NYC, USA

View by my window, 8th avenue, Downtown, NYC, USA

View by my window, 8th avenue, Downtown, NYC, USA

View by my window, 8th avenue, Downtown, NYC, USA

View from Columbus Circle, Downtown NYC, USA

Washington Square, Downtown NYC, USA

40 Beautiful Vintage Color Photographs That Capture Street
Scenes of the U.S From Between the 1950s and 1960s

Historians tend to portray the 1950s as a decade of prosperity, conformity, and consensus, and the 1960s as a decade of turbulence, protest, and disillusionment. These stereotypes are largely true, though, as with everything in life, there are exceptions to this perspective. Therefore, the historians’ portrayal of the 1950s and 1960s is accurate for the majority of Americans, though some groups were clearly exceptions.

The Iconic Maxwell Street Blues Bus

John W. Johnson (1937–2021) loved the Lord and began preaching the gospel in his early years. He is known to many as Minister and/or Rev. Johnson. He also loved the Blues. In the 1970s and afterwards, he sold Blues records and tapes on Sundays. He took his Blues Bus, a converted school bus painted blue, down to 14th Street at the Old Maxwell Street Market in Chicago. His big, bright blue bus became a well-known part of the bustling Sunday market, which stretched along little Maxwell Street to east and west of Halsted, on Chicago’s near west side for many decades.

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Maxwell Street is known as the birthplace of Chicago Blues. Rev. Johnson and his bus added to the scene. He hooked up big speakers that sat on the trunk of the bus, blasting the music down the street. Customers came to him from all over the city. They would just name a song and Rev. Johnson would find the cassette or CD for them.

After the market’s forced removal in the mid-1990s, he operated and owned a Blues records store on Halsted St., just 25 feet north of Maxwell Street. His store, called Heritage Blues Bus Music, was sandwiched between Original Jim’s and Maxwell Street Express, purveyors of the famous polish hot dogs.

Elder Johnson knew many Blues musicians and did not rate Blues music on a plane different from Gospel. He appreciated both and saw the common roots of both.

Maxwell Street