Tour of New York Back in the 2000s
In the 2000s, New York City was the place to be. It was the decade when rock was having a revival moment and was fueling everything. There were The Strokes, there was Interpol, there were the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Walkmen – there were all these cool, really good New York bands and they were all always hanging around with each other. The year of 2000 was also the last year of the Twin Towers. And The High Line was still just an abandoned suspended train track. Let's dive a little deeper into New York City during the 2000s.
A TOUR IN NEW YORK BACK IN THE 2000s
A visual story by Lucas Compan
View from the Empire State Building observation deck at the 86th floor. (2000 – Image credit: Marylin Bridges Photography)
1 – From Freights to Flowers
The High Line in May 2000 (Image credit: New York City Department of Parks & Recreation). Repurposing of the railway into an urban park began construction in 2006, with the first phase opening in 2009, and the second phase opening in 2011. The third and final phase officially opened to the public on September 21, 2014. Explore The High Line...
2 – THE PLACE TO BE
People who were going out gravitated towards them and their scenes, which included bars and clubs on the Lower East Side like Lit, Darkroom, Bungalow 8 and the TISWAS party at Don Hill's, which were kind of a continuation of '90s nightlife with club kids in corsets and wigs alongside grungy indie kids and goths. It was all the stereotypical party until dawn thing and nights were fueled by alcoholic energy beverages like Sparks and Zygo energy vodka.
Founded by New York City nightlife tycoon Amy Sacco, Bungalow 8 was the club of the early aughts. Full of California style decor and Hollywood Glamour this nightclub soon became the NYC playground for the A-List including Kate Moss, Lindsay Lohan, Nicole Richie and more.
3 – THE DAY THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
Then, 9/11 happened in 2001. And after that, it seemed like a lot changed in the life of New York. There was a sense of "the world's gonna end at any minute so live it up."
LIFE
Twin Towers at the WTC ( 2000 )
DEATH
WTC site after the attacks on September 11, 2001
RESILIENCE
President Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, and President George W. Bush at the 9/11 National Memorial in Lower Manhattan
REBIRTH
The new World Trade Center site: 9/11 National Memorial, Freedom Tower, and 9/11 Memorial Museum ( 2016 )
4 – THE 24/7 ENTERTAINMENT DEVICES
The 2000s brought breakthroughs in technology and media. Apple changed the way we enjoy entertainment with the iPod and later, revolutionized the way we communicate and receive information with the iPhone. Now, users can connect with the rest of the world in real time and news became trending live events. With YouTube and Facebook came stronger information and personal accounts; citizen journalism was born.
5 – Google New York
In 2000, Google New York starts in a Starbucks on 86th Street with a one-person sales "team."
Today, more than 4,000 Googlers work in our New York office, a former Port Authority building at 111 Eighth Avenue.
The web search titan dropped $1.9 billion to acquire one of the largest and most historic buildings in all of the Big Apple. At nearly 3 million square feet, 111 Eighth Avenue, the former Port Authority building, sits like a beached, red-brick cruise ship overlooking New York’s Chelsea neighborhood. The building is so big, in fact, that it has elevators large enough to accommodate 18-wheel semi-trucks.
The Café Taxi at Google New York
6 – THE NEXT LEVEL OF STREET ART
Jonathan Levine Gallery sponsored event 10 Years of Wooster Collective: 2003-2013, a group exhibition featuring over 50 local and international street artists. The temporary space located in the Chelsea district was curated by Marc and Sara Schiller, and featured works highlighting the ephemeral art scene ever-present in the five boroughs of New York.Wooster Collective was founded in 2001 with a genuine desire to share images of the city being transformed by street art with the rest of the world. The website woostercollective.com followed in 2003, and has seen a rise in popularity by organizing such monumental events such as 11 Spring Street, an art exhibition in an abandoned building with The New York Times named as one of the top art exhibits of the year.
In the aftermath of September 11, Marc Schiller walked around taking photographs of the art he found along the streets of his Soho neighborhood. In 2003, Schiller and his wife, Sara, created Wooster Collective, one of the first online celebrations of street art.
The blog blossomed, and other websites devoted to promoting and cataloging street art around the world sprang up. Today, amateur and professional photographers alike post their street art finds to Flickr, Instagram, Pinterest, and elsewhere, just about every artist worth his or her Sharpie has a website, and mainstream media like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal regularly cover street art, largely due to the influence of Wooster Collective.
7 – THE FIRST FEMALE SENATOR FROM NEW YORK
The United States Senate election in New York in 2000 was held on November 7, 2000. Hillary Rodham Clinton, former First Lady of the United States and the first First Lady to run for political office, defeated Congressman Rick Lazio. HillaryClinton was elected in 2000 as the first female senator from New York. She is originally from Chicago, Illinois.
8 – THE MAYOR AND THE SUBWAY
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg reads one of his newspapers during his subway ride to City Hall in this file photo taken in 2002. He is public transportation’s loudest cheerleader, boasting that he takes the subway “virtually every day.” He has told residents who complain about overcrowded trains to “get real” and he constantly encourages New Yorkers to follow his environmentally friendly example. Bloomberg has said that he is energized by the city's tough fiscal times and in fact that he probably wouldn't even want to govern a prosperous city. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Michael Rubens "Mike" Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, author, politician, and philanthropist. His net worth is estimated at US$43.3 billion, as of October 2016, ranking him as the 6th richest person in the United States and the 8th richest person in the world. Bloomberg served as the 108th Mayor of New York City, holding office for three consecutive terms, beginning with his first election in 2001.
9 – NEW YANKEE IN TOWN
New Yankee Stadium in The Bronx, opened in 2009
The old Yankee Stadium (1979)
On February 17, 2009, the new Yankee Stadium was born. A view of new Yankee Stadium (right) next to old Yankee Stadium (left). One thing worth asking: will the new stadium see 27 World Championships?
Former Yankee Stadium site – In footprint of old Yankee Stadium, Macombs Dam Park gives local kids a field to shine on
10 – Drop the Knife and Fork. Tony Soprano Is On.
In the 2000s, when the mob melodrama ''The Sopranos'' sang its seasonal swan song – inducing withdrawal agita among millions of the show's hopelessly addicted viewers – more than a few sighs of relief will be heard. Specifically, from restaurateurs and movie-house owners who have taken, um, a hit on Sunday nights during the 13-week HBO series.
''I'll be glad when it's over,'' said William Lee, the Sunday manager of Bill Hong, the Cantonese restaurant on East 56th Street in Manhattan. ''People seem to want to get out of here by 9, to see the show. Actually, our seating is pretty much done by 8.''
Wounded as he is overall by the Soprano Effect, Mr. Lee has nevertheless picked up a few diners for the show. He is host to what may be the most famous weekly Sopranos party in Manhattan: his restaurant was usually where Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani (107th Mayor of New York City) gathers with several friends, including Judith Nathan, for a pre-show meal. ''Every Sunday, before 9, there is a mass evacuation from the restaurant,'' said Mr. Lee.
11 – SUGAR FACTORY, A LANDMARK IN BROOKLYN
The revamped Domino Sugar Refinery building, which is in the process of being transformed into a 380,000-square-foot office space
The Domino Sugar Refinery, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn – Refining operations stopped in 2004
The Domino Sugar Refinery is a former refinery in the neighborhood of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, New York City. It was the original refinery of the American Sugar Refining Company, which produced Domino brand sugar. The current complex dates from 1882, when it was the largest sugar refinery in the world. Refining operations stopped in 2004, and as of 2012 the property is slated for multi-use development. Several of the buildings in the complex were given landmark status in 2007.
Paint peels in the now-demolished packaging plant of Williamsburg’s Domino Sugar Refinery. The factory operated on the Brooklyn waterfront for nearly 150 years before shutting down in 2004
Because the Domino Sugar Refinery is an exterior landmark, the 19th-century red-brick facade must stay in place. However, the offices within will be encased in an entirely new glass and steel structure, with the potential of incorporating elements of the building’s industrial past—exposed brick, ceiling beams, and the like—into the new offices.
There will also be four separate terraces on the building totaling 34,000 square feet, along with ground-floor retail, an open plaza at the front of the building, and “direct access” to some of the Domino mega-project’s public amenities, including an enormous waterfront park and a new ferry landing.
New looks at Williamsburg’s Domino Sugar Factory’s future as The Refinery
All images credit: Two Trees / www.mir.no
Continues below...
MORE DECADE COMPILATIONS
12 – NEW YORK CITY GARAGE ROCK RESURGENCE
CREDIT: Michaela Schuett/Stereogum
In the early days of the new millennium, a movement that had been percolating for a while started to take form and burst onto the scene in New York City. In a broad sense, you could call it the NYC rock revival, or resurgence, or early-’2000s rock boom. At the time, garage-rock revival, retro-rock revival, post-punk revival, and dance-punk were all monikers used liberally, and all were things that fell under the larger umbrella of the movement. The Strokes, The Walkmen, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Interpol are just a few examples of this youthful, stylish brand of rock music of the New York City garage rock scene at that time.
13 – TOP HITS FROM THE 2000S
14 – PEOPLE FIRST
New York is the top #1 city in the United States with car-free households. Also, it is the top #1 city in the country hosting tourists, 60+ million in 2016 along.
In May 2009, Pedestrian Malls were created at Times Square and Herald Square on Broadway. Beginning on May 22, 2009, New York City’s Broadway was closed to vehicle traffic for five blocks at Times Square, turning part of the "Crossroads of the World" into a pedestrian mall with cafe tables and benches.
A second promenade was created at Herald Square where Macy's, the world’s largest store, dominates the intersection. The plan is part of an experiment to create open spaces for tourists and make the city even more pedestrian friendly. The first section of the High Line, from Gansevoort Street to West 20th Street, opened June 9. The unique public park, built on an historic freight rail line elevated above the streets on Manhattan’s West Side, offers spectacular views.
Pedestrian Mall on Herald Square at Macy's