60 Minutes Archive: Pete Hamill on New York City, in 1997

As we remember the legendary New York journalist, a look back at our 1997 report on "The Big Apple," Hamill’s hometown.
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[@arg888]

Great piece. Captures 1990's NYC.

[@chuckn9670]

Jimmy Bres & Pete Ham are sorely missed

[@Kylefassbinderful]

I was almost 11yrs old when this aired. I can't believe this was 23 years ago. Makes me feel kinda old even though 34 is still relatively young.

[@Kylefassbinderful]

@Salt Salt a hundred years ago you'd probably be right lol

[@paulyricca3881]

@TheRealUmarJohnson🚬👨🏻‍🦲U FU#KING OLD TO

[@perrieargent9997]

Peter Hamill, loved him, so articulate and bright. I was so sad to hear that he died. Truly a classic man.

[@Kylefassbinderful]

I wanna make video news reports about important and/or interesting topics like 60 minutes has been doing for decades. So inspiring. They really are a video/TV magazine.

[@Kylefassbinderful]

"Disney - I'll take the hookers". Well said Jimmy Breslin, RIP you loud old man.

[@Kylefassbinderful]

Jimmy Breslin lol, so funny. He was about to be in Spike Lee's "Summer of Sam" just 2 years later. Great movie.

[@mrgoforit7813]

Time to upload one that was filmed in the bay area

[@Kylefassbinderful]

Ohh boy do I agree with that lol either way I'm sick of NY getting so much damn attention. L.A. is to goto CA spot to get represented, time for the Bay

[@FRANKIESIXTOES]

Look what's happening in New York City now. Would you rather have a cleaner safer more vibrant city or a return to the 1980''s?

[@kapo2012fb]

Return to the 80s

[@RFKFREAK]

80's, without question

[@robertbuchwald6514]

Boy have things changed here in 2020.

[@bluet6898]

Remember that time and as a native, appreciated the squeegee people gone, they were an annoyance, except now we have people selling bottled water(yikes) and begging. Remember Times Square as a kid, people forget or don't know, it was family oriented, with theater showings for families, then it got real seedy,families stopped going, then it cleaned up or got more commercialized, an improvement, Big Apple in 2020 still has it's problems but it's come a long way.

[@bluet6898]

@Salt Salt guess you don't live in NYC, and/or not a native? Am talking about NYC in the 80's &90's.

[@stevec0326]

Couldn't be more clear. As kid in the 80s, Times Square was freakin dangerous and scary! Port Authority and 9th Ave was seedy. I definitely noticed the significant difference around 1993-1995. I will always be grateful for Giuliani. Regardless how people feel about him, he was a very big contributing factor to clean up of the town.

[@piratesmurf4251]

I miss 1997

[@rr7firefly]

A picture of articulate poise.

[@ew10662]

With “mass incarceration” in the 1990s, there were fewer criminals on the streets. These genius journalists can’t see the connection

[@Bodega180]

Fran Lebowitz was spot on

[@BarberJ95]

What’d she say?

[@Bodega180]

“... turning the Big Apple into the Big Apple Pie”. NYC lacks character.

[@lomamovaa99]

Which month in 1997 is it, please? 🙏

[@melbspapercreations6204]

June

[@incognegro8846]

The interviewer was clearly biased. How could she tell that guy he was exaggerating when she didn’t live in any of the communities he was talking about.

[@jonw999999]

Breslin was dropped on his head

[@eoiliss7723]

how times have changed in the last few year. It has gone crime and murders are up 200% year by year.

[@daniellartey7898]

Conscious awareness of the need to do Good happening onto people do help in shaping or reshaping their lives thereby making law enforcement less cumbersome and also when handlers of law show human concerns more people become obedient or even show soberness.

[@ruzzelladrian907]

Incredible how a few policy changes and better enforcement of the law made New York City what it is now today. But sadly the 80’s is coming back again.

[@1525boy]

It’s worse.

[@RFKFREAK]

80's NYC was better than in the late 90s and certainly than what it is now

[@waynemontpetit8181]

.....and now, NYC is a toilet again.............

[@ruzzelladrian907]

The violence part: Maybe because there’s less lead in the environment, too. Not just in New York but the entire country.

[@ruzzelladrian907]

8:00 Bitter much? Small things matter.

[@Kylefassbinderful]

This was so long ago Casey Neistat was just toying around with camcorders and his son Owen wasn't born yet lol. There was no imac to make/edit movies yet, just a crappy slow G3 imac with dial-up lol

[@kapo2012fb]

This was the stop and frisk era ...

[@gabegonzales6907]

i find that very hard to believe considering our times! very doubtful!

[@sierra7202]

I thought it was 2020 but it was 1997.

[@williamaperrow636]

I lived in Manhattan on the late 1970s and 1980s and I was mugged 3 times. This isn't the NYC I remember!

[@brooklynbnutterflyarts4646]

back to the future

[@AntonioCostaRealEstate]

Breslin is priceless.

[@nobullziggster4070]

Your not looking in the right places pfft

[@edmccaffrey1]

accountability? Imagine that!

[@regularguy5403]

Well now it’s an “rotten apple” again. Thank De Bozo and Cuomo for that.

[@ChrisOhMy]

Donald, is that you?

[@bmccarthy3333]

@@ChrisOhMy Yeah, that was Donnie. When Donnie left NYC, the worm left the Big Apple...a real tiny worm!

[@Stephen..]

Who,

[@darkhorse1691]

The lost boys from Africa

[@darkhorse1691]

Where are they at today

[@darkhorse1691]

The lost boys where are they at today.

[@AntonioCostaRealEstate]

And the ghost of Mamadou Diallo begs to differ

[@sierra7202]

I was hoping this was 2020. This was a time when Rudy G. was a decent man. In 2020, he's Trump's underarm hair.