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This is Saint Marks Place as it looked, also in November 1982. The shop with the dresses hanging up in the window is Trash and Vaudeville, which is famous for supplying stars like The Ramones and Debbie Harry of Blondie with clothing during the golden age of punk rock in the 1970s and 80s. The store opened in 1975 and is still in its original location. Next door is the Valencia Hotel which was home to beat writer William S. Burroughs in the early 1970s. In the 1980s punk rock singer-songwriter GG Allin lived there. The hotel is now the St. Mark's Hotel.

November, 1982: It was risky taking photographs in the subway because there was a good chance you would get mugged and have your camera stolen. In the background is a poster with the words: ‘Scuse me, while you’re standin’ there… here’s 5 ways not to get mugged. Only three examples are left on the poster, the other two have been ripped off. In the 1983 edition of the New York Blue Guide book, there was some advice on traveling by subway:

“SUBWAY SAFETY: The New York subway system has a reputation for crime and filth which is not undeserved. Stations have been vandalized, cars sprayed with graffiti, platforms are smelly and filthy in many stations. In 1981 there were 15,812 felonies in the transit system including 13 murders, but it is also true that more than three million travelers ride the system daily and survive. Use common sense; be alert to your surroundings; stay with other people; don’t go down empty stairwells or ride in empty cars; don’t lean over the edge of the platform; if in doubt stay near the conductor who has a telephone, as does the attendant at the toll booth.”

Harvard undergrads David Mays and Jon Shecter, one a college radio disc jockey, the other a member of a white rap group called BMOC, bring on their classmates James Bernard and Ed Young to help grow what was a one-page newsletter into “the magazine of hip-hop music, culture and politics,” and the longest running U.S. rap periodical. The Source, Issue 1. August, 1988.

New York City Transit Police Caprice Classic. Manhattan, 1995.

A-Train. Manhattan, September 1993.

On August 27th, 1993, the word DEF was officially laid to rest. It was that day when Rick Rubin - who initially was a part of Def Jam but later broke away and set up his own Def American Records label, which in turn morphed into American Records--supposedly officially laid the dated hip-hop slang word to rest. This he did via an extravagant funeral service and even went so far as to get a legal death certificate, buy a real life size casket, secure a plot at the Hollywood Cemetery (which is still there to this day), and hold a faux solemn, funeral ceremony with Rev Al Sharpton acting as officiator.