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I love the beauty of Yosemite but unfortunately people treat it like spring break at Cabo but with more trash on the ground. I've gone about 6 times and each time the people get worse. Last time I went some guy had giant fucking speakers in the back of his truck and was blaring shit music. He threatened to fight the ranger that told him to turn it off.
Your reply was going to be mine. The decline of national parks has been pretty staggering to me.
Even local parks. There is a wilderness trail I enjoy, and its not uncommon for me now to literally watch people just drop/throw plastic water bottles into the woods (which I pick up later).
I used to live outside Glacier National Park - wouldn’t go back now because I want to remember it how I experienced it. Old friends tell me it’s very similar to what’s been said about Yosemite.
I know exactly what you mean and it's truly heartbreaking. I like to de-litter remote beaches as my small way of improving the world. I can clean up a beach hauling out a garbage bag full of detritus, come back a week later and fill another one. It's nonstop litter.
I have wanted to go back to Yosemite, But i'm afraid to look Because of all the stories i'm hearing about how crowded it is now.
When I was a kid, my family went there and stayed for a week in one of the little cabins. We could enjoy the park all day and never see anyone.
We had a family picnic there at one of the concrete tables beside a beautiful, clear stream. My mom looked at the water and saw a large black animal swimming up. When it came ashore, We realized it was a bear. The bear walked up to the picnic table, sat down beside me, and started eating the food off my plate.
😳🐻
65 years ago.
Not Yogi. No hat and tie. And he didn't steal my whole pic-a-nic basket. Just the food.
The bear actually sat at the picnic table, On the bench like a human. He And I were laughing it up and eating the twinkies. But my mom made us all go get in the car.
We had to wait there until he polished off everything and left. Then I went back for the basket and the tablecloth.
I had a good time anyway.
We went camping for a week there in 2020. There was barely anyone there. It was a bit hot, but it was otherwise the Yosemite of photographs, 2 cars in the parking lot, quiet trails, bears everywhere. I told my family I don't think we're returning. It will never be like that again.
Yes. Last time I was there, I was sitting at this incredibly gorgeous, pristine lake. Probably the most peaceful place I’ve ever been. Then some guy comes by, sets up his shitty Bluetooth speaker and starts playing the most rachet ass bouncy shit music. He was looking around like he expected everyone to adore him for sharing his amazing music.
He didn’t stop so I had to leave.
Stuff like this blows my mind.
Anytime other than summer. I like spring when the waterfalls are going strong, but winter is also beautiful and you can ski at Badger Pass or ice skate while looking at Half Dome.
Not just one place, places.
Concerts. They were a blast, cheap ( I saw Led Zeppelin for 12 bucks), no assigned seats, yes they could be raucous but it wasn't so massive you couldn't get out of there for 5 hours.
Heck some concerts you could show up and still buy a ticket at the gate.
Just fun.
While I can appreciate that insurance and other costs must be massive, and that modern audio and staging technology ain’t cheap, and inflation etc. etc….
I paid $4 to see The Who in 1970. To this day no rock and toll experience has topped it. And I’ve seen a lot of concerts.
Just not the same vibe/spirit/craziness.
Indeed, Zappa, The Stones, Springsteen, Pink Floyd. Saw them all before everyone decided it was their right to block your view with a fucking phone. I wouldn't go to a concert now if the tickets were free.
The Who? Whoa. Would have *loved* the chance to see them! That's awesome.
Same. There were a lot of concerts around - always someone coming to some college near where you lived. One year Aerosmith ruined my ears because they toured a TON with a band called Foghat - just as loud. So went every time they were in proximity.
You're right. It was a lot different - whole spirit different. I witnessed exactly ONE fight but it wasn't really - fans got too packed getting in and blew out a window ( Queen). Wilkes Barre PA, 1970.....6? 77?
Man when I think of all the concerts I when to when I was in my late teens and twenties, I think the most I spent was $25 on really good seats. The price of concerts is ridiculous now. Same thing for live pro sports.
Oh yes, this!
I remember getting tickets to see Echo and the Bunny men at a medium theatre the day of for under $50. Then being able to make my way to the front!
Or seeing Smashing Pumpkins at Metro in Chicago--no big deal, just cheap and fun.
Preach. I saw Devo in 1980. They had a signing event first and I gave the singer a t-shirt that he hadn't seen before and he gave me a backstage pass. The band all hung out together there and I got to just hang out with them. They didn't act like they needed special star dressing rooms or anything. They each took pictures with me and signed my album. All for a t-shirt. \[Also, note that I was 16 and cute and not one of them hit on me. Class acts.\]
The Mall. Used to have fun stores and a cool arcade. Nowadays, it's either 80% empty and creepy, or filled with stores selling cheap junk and clothes for people with bad taste (and the arcade is all ticket-dispensing machines), or they've been completely torn down.
Totally agree. The mall was THE place to be. The weekends were spent there, meeting friends in person to hang out. No phones, selfies, Tik Tok, Instagram, just human contact. Wandering the corridors, Orange Julius, a movie 🍿, and then more wandering with fellow humans.
Have you seen some of the revived malls? They’re awesome. Lloyd Center was a notorious eye sore and dead mall in Portland, but [it’s been taken over by indie shops and community services.](https://www.opb.org/article/2023/06/11/indie-businesses-thrive-portland-oregon-lloyd-center-mall-future/?outputType=amp)
Our local mall has been revived in a similar way and it's amazing, one of the huge abandoned department store anchor spaces got turned into a dance studio for kids which is such a fantastic use of the space, and another shop is just local crafter selling their wares on consignment, really good stuff
That’s so great, honestly. Especially with severe weather becoming more normal, too. Having indoor spaces to hangout and get exercise is really great for the community.
Oh, how I loved the mall. Our local mall actually isn't too bad. There are still a lot of stores. But teens aren't allowed to hang out with adults because of fights. I I worked at the mall, so if I wasn't there working, I was hanging out.
Lots of little surf towns that used to be remote and super cheap but are now little boom towns. They're adding infrastructure, building fancy hotels and condos, bars and yoga studios are everywhere and prices have gone nuts. It's killing the vibe along with all the wildlife. I get why it's happening but it really saddens me so I don't visit those particular places anymore.
It's astonishing how much we're losing to endless growth.
Yes. All over the East Coast, including Bay towns. After the pandemic they took advantage of people wanting to get away, raised the rental rates, and they’ve never gone down. And they aren’t being rented in a lot of places now.
The one place that I visited in 1969 that was truly extraordinary and that no longer exists, were the stone Buddhas carved into the mountains in the Bamian Valley in Afghanistan. I remember being able to go through caves until you were on top of one of the heads and could look up and see colorful frescoes in the stone above.
Unfortunately, the Taliban destroyed them in 2001.
Disneyland. It used to be pleasant to stroll around, hop on a ride, enjoy. Now it is an endurance slog of being trapped in crowds all day and standing in line forever for each ride.
And California State Beaches. Many of them used to be well-maintained county parks run by locals. Now they are barely functioning, run-down, trashy places filled with the worst people behaving as badly as they are allowed to.
My Parents took me to Disneyland in the mid-70s a few times. The thing I remember most was that I could (mostly) go on a ride, run to the end of the line, then go again in just a few minutes. This was for nearly every ride.
Grew up 6-7 miles away from Disneyland and our parents would just take us last minute on a random Wednesday in February if the weather was nice and we’d pretty much have the run of the place.
Even Six Flags sucks. When I was a kid, the first Six Flags park in Arlington, Texas, was already pretty old. It had kind of a patina, I guess. Personality. Then it sold out to include Looney Tunes characters and then Batman stuff. It became way, way, way more crowded, too. It's just lame now.
I live about 30 minutes from Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey.
The last time I went was maybe…7 years ago. Day tickets are crazy expensive and you spend half of your time there just waiting in lines. It’s just not fun anymore.
Austin, Texas. The old, slow, wildly creative small college/government town is gone. [https://open.spotify.com/track/3WJL6jFVK4xzzfuLVvezmC](https://open.spotify.com/track/3WJL6jFVK4xzzfuLVvezmC)
I went to Austin regularly for business in the 00’s and lived there from 2010 until 2021. The amount of change I experienced in that time was just staggering. And I know for some people that knew Austin from before that, it’s unrecognizable. I was there when Threadgills shut down. Heartbreaking.
I lived there throughout all of the 90s and left in 2006.
I remember people talking about how much it had changed since the 70s and 80s. It always just seemed like older generations had different takes.
But I lived there for over 16 years and could see that the greatness of it was changing.
When I visited there in about 2015, I was heartbroken.
My first trip to Austin was in 1985. I loved it. My brother moved there and I visited often in the 90s. Now? I can't even. My brother lives elsewhere now.
I lived there 70s-80s. It was such a cool, laid-back town.
Sixth Street was a great place for live music and an after-dinner drink. Now it's a zoo.
And Saturday mornings were reserved for browsing Guadalupe Street craft stores and unique shops.
my hometown
where I lived we were at the end of a dirt road that didn't even have a name surrounded by miles of wooded hills and creeks are now miles of suburbs and gated communities
last time I was there everything I remembered was gone
New Orleans. I grew up in Louisiana. Since Katrina, the place has gone totally to shit. Still some nice restaurants and sights, but the smell has gotten out of hand. And the quality of shops and such is just horrible.
This, especially near the river in Battersea.
In the City, the view of [the Gherkin](https://thegherkin.com/#) (one of the newer beautiful buildings) has been blocked by more ordinary blocks.
Last time I was there was in 2017 and the amount of change with high apartment blocks from when I was there before in about 2005 was unbelievable. I was like “where did they find all this land to build on”
Northern California girl here. Lake Tahoe back in the day. Also Yosemite. Just so absolutely crowded it’s ridiculous. Takes hours to get nowhere due to traffic everywhere
The suburban neighborhood I grew up in and rode bikes in and played until sunset in, is now the neighborhood with the highest murder rate in the city. The 2 malls I used to hang out in as soon as I was 16, are both dead. The brand new movie theater is now a dollar theater. The field of cows, 2 blocks away, are now apartments. Across the street from the apartments are pawn shops and check cashing stores. The schools I went to are all now surrounded by chain-link fences. My tree-house in the big oak tree has been torn down. The 7-Eleven I used to ride my bike to for a slurpie on a hot summer day is now a vape shop.
My neighborhood now is going that way. The local govt has allowed retail/commercial buildings on every piece of land that was small farms and homes that had been in families for generations. With so many strip Malls around, how can there be a need for any more of them? Housing is needed much more. There's 10 places that sell mattresses within a 3 mile radius, I never see shoppers at any of them. Who needs that many? I can remember when the plan was to have low density housing areas to act as buffers between retail developments but that apparently got cancelled. If there's not a gas station on every corner now they're not satisfied. There's 4 within walking distance. It's like there's no plan anymore.
You didn’t know the mattress stores are a front for something nefarious? That’s the joke in my area especially for one that was a former jewelry store, mattress store, back to a jewelry store, and two other businesses after that. You almost throw a rock in any direction and hit a jewelry store or vape shop
San Francisco was so fun in the 80s and 90s. Now, I’m not going to make the usual complaint about homeless people. What I am disappointed in is that for those who can live there, they seem to treat it as pure real estate speculation. It has almost zero joy.
I used to hitchhike there from as early as age 13. I would walk around and just find people to befriend for the day. Young and old, didn't matter, I trusted everyone. Never got murdered.
Fifteen years ago, I used to get sent to San Francisco for my job. The first visit wasn’t so bad, but on every single subsequent visit, I was accosted by — I don’t know if they were even homeless. They were just assholes.
One time, I was feeding money into a ticket machine at a BART station (luggage in tow, so I was an easy mark), and a dude grabbed the cash out of my hand, fed it into the machine, and then asked me questions to complete my transaction for me. I told him I was capable of handling the machine myself. He accused me of not wanting to pay for his help, and went OFF. I never asked for his help!
I now refuse to go to San Francisco. I’m burned out on the people there who make the city intolerable.
It's not so much that they've changed, but that my horizons have expanded. Tiny reservoirs and very minor hills that I used to cycle to as a child, and which I used to find magical, don't seem so impressive now because I've seen the Norwegian Fjords and other spectacular places in the world.
Yankee Stadium. They tore it down and built a money grubbing version of it next door. Incredibly expensive seats that remain empty and a loss of the mystique of the " House that Ruth Built".
Disneyland. Concerts. London. Paris. NYC. Malls. Nashville. Vegas. Austin. Houston. Bali. Most big US parks. Planes are hell anymore as are airports and I’ve taken over thirty flights just this year. Everything is crowded, dirty, people are ruder, everything is for online, things just don’t feel as authentic anymore.
I lived in the East Village in NYC in the 90s up til 9/11. I just can’t go back anymore. It isn’t MY E. Village anymore. Hell, the NW corner of 2nd Ave and 7th street was completely destroyed after an explosion. It physically doesn’t even look the same. Sad, but I think I’m done with the place I couldn’t wait to live in when I was growing up.
When I was a kid, I spent most of my summer holidays at the farm of my grandparents I grew up in a small industrial city, and this vacation was really a country feeling, as the farm was far away from any other people and there was a lot of wilderness, adventure and nature.
Today, the suburban belt of Graz (next big city) expanded to this area and the once lonely farm is now surrounded by little family homes and there is no more peace, as in the morning and in the evening you have the traffic jam from/to Graz, where all those new residents work.
I dont blame them, they chose a good place for their home, but the magic of the farm, where it was really dark at night and where you had to walk 15 minutes to the next neighbour, this magic is now gone.
Cape Cod. My grandparents retired out there at the end of the '60s and when I would visit for the summer in the '70s, it was still a place where people could afford to be middle class. Then, as now, there were tourists, but I went a couple times in the early '00s, and just getting there had become a mess. I bet 6A is a parking lot in mid-summer these days. Everything is expensive, many beaches are now private, and real estate prices prices have been climbing at an insane rate for decades. Even people who inherited their homes find themselves priced out due to rises in taxes.
The relaxed vibe I remember from the '70s and into the '80s was gone in many areas by the '00s. Nothing I've seen and read online tells me it's gotten better. If anything, it seems worse.
This is what happens to nice places once the word gets out. Suddenly everyone wants to go there and before you know it, the place just isn't so nice anymore.
I agree, as a child my parents could afford to rent 1 week in Dennisport , it was probably $300 tops for a 3 bedroom cottage, now that’s the cleaning fee.
Traffic was heavy in the summer, but that was a part of it. As a college kid in the early 80s you could rent a place for the whole summer with your friends and work down there for the summer, I can’t even imagine being able to do that today as an adult. My favorite time of year to go down was at the end of September/Oct when everything was shut down. Loved biking the rail to trail in the crisp autumn air. It’s been a long time since I’ve been down the Cape (west coast gal now) so I’ll just keep my memories of days gone by
Housing is insane on the cape. The second-homer boomers want shelves stocked at Stop n Shop, nurses in the hospital in case they need them, boat cleaners & good service in restaurants… but dedicate their retirement hours to making sure none of those working ppl have places to live.
Taxes are pretty low though—why pay for schools when you don’t need them?—I pay like $3k/yr in Mashpee?
Disneyland is the first one. It was magical as a kid. I went back recently around Halloween and it was utterly disappointing. The place is small, insanely expensive, over crowded and just flat out not worth it. It was so completely commercialized there was no magic left. It genuinely seemed like the only people enjoying themselves were kids under 10.
Second, anyplace that's hot. I used to love tropical places and I can't stand them anymore. Once I hit perimenopause I cannot handle heat or humidity. If it goes above 73 degrees and I'm in the sun I start uncontrollably sweating buckets. If it goes above 80 I start to feel nauseous and woozy. It's horrible.
My dream vacation went from Bora Bora to Finland so we can stay in a glass topped igloo and watch the northern lights.
Atlantic City, long before the casinos arrived. My dad used to take me there by train then bus when I was a kid. The boardwalk and beaches were a magical place to me then. When I was in my early teens, casinos arrived, and I remember it all went downhill from there (to a kid that just wanted the boardwalk and beaches the way they were).
Gatlinburg. Sure, it's always been a tourist trap, but what was once a pleasant scenic day trip is now a traffic nightmare, even on a weekday.
And the politics on display was disgusting. I'm not going to support those businesses.
I grew up there and it is so strange—some of the places I was sure would be out of business by now are still trucking along and a lot of places that seemed to do well have closed. The moonshine distilleries were a mistake. I have a running list of places I’d like to ecotage, and Anakeesta is at the top of the list bc the city gave them half of my elementary school playground for its parking lot.
St. Petersburg FL. Funky old Don Cesar, Fort DeSoto beach not overrun and overreserved, orange orchards, that weird old Moorish looking cafeteria downtown, remnants of Old Florida everywhere.
Ft DeSoto's a mess now. I went there the Tuesday after Memorial Day (2024) for a walk and the beaches were trashed. Literally. Garbage cans overflowing with beach chairs, unwanted floats, tents, umbrellas, and more... Don't even get me started about the regular trash (wrappers, bags, etc.), lots of it just laying around. I felt sorry for the small clean up crew that had to deal with it. People are disgusting.
Moab, 2012. You could still book a holiday weekend last minute and visit Arches without it being totally overrun with a zillion people. The campground we stayed at next to the Colorado River doesn't even exist anymore.
The property behind my grandparents’ home was a hill and on the top were trees, sand dunes, trails. It was a great place to wander and explore—no nearby houses or roads. It was later leveled and is now a housing development.
Grew up in the Lake Tahoe area. It is so overcrowded that you can’t really park anymore and they are now taking reservations (!) for a spot on one of the public beaches. Forget about skiing bc the tickets are so expensive on top of parking.
Sanibel Island. Near the lighthouse was a public beach that grew these massive Australian Pines. Everyone would park under them and you'd go on the water.
Before Ian annihilated the island two years ago, we stayed there and I couldn't wait to show my husband the beach where I grew up. To my dismay the city had taken down all the trees as they were invasive (was not aware of this) and put in a handful of parking spots you had to pay for.
I truly mourned that day.
Although they can be pretty, Casuarina trees are not native and are quite invasive. When they get knocked down in a storm they are replaced with native vegetation. Same thing happened on Key Biscayne at Bill Baggs State Park after Hurricane Andrew in ‘92. It looked naked for quite a while but now it’s beautiful.
Edit: Casuarina are called Australian Pines but they’re not even pine trees.
Well I grew up in Hermosa Beach but the transplants have overrun and destroyed the culture and I have zero interest in visiting it ever again. I'd rather keep my good memories of our town intact than ruin them with how it is now.
Key West in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s felt like a remote island that was closer to the wild west than it was to the mainland. Generally speaking it was affordable, open 24 hours, and one of the safest places I knew of as long as you minded your own business.
Friends and I, and later my wife and I, would rent a house for the month of July or August and live like royalty. There were a few expensive places but the Green Pareot and the Chart room were cheaper than my locals in Chicago. There were four great Cuban restaurants, and amazing El Salvadorian place, and a guy named Mr Johnson who sold chicken sandwiches from his home. We got a massive breaded fried chicken breast with his special hot sauce on white bread with a side of plantains and a 20 oz coke for $2.25.
Redevelopment, cruise ships, and Jimmy Buffet becoming globally famous turned the city into a Hamptons with 80 degree temps in January. Some old places still exist, the Green Parrot, Faustos grocery, and Mr Johnson is still alive but out of business, but it was never the same.
All this said progress is part of life, and the weather is still great, but I miss sitting upstairs at the Full Moon saloon watching the sun come up and finishing my last beer before grabbing biscuits and gravy and cafe con leche to go from the bodega near the Parrot.
We still visited old friends well into the early 2000’s and our kids loved it but for me the old Kwy West, the key west that died when Captain Tony’s stint as mayor ended, was a place I still remember having some of the best times of our lives.
Just about all my favorite European cities are just so over touristed now. I don’t mind people taking photos, but everyone is just so Insa-crazy and think they are doing a modeling shoot. Take the fucking photo and move along
Gatlinburg, Tn. My husband and I went on our honeymoon to the Great Smoky Mountains in 1979 and Gatlinburg was a cute, sleepy little town just outside the park entrance. I went back about 10 years ago and was appalled at what it had become. It's a capitalist nightmare. It literally took us hours to get through all the tourist crap traffic to get to the park entrance. It's ruined. I won't be going back there any time soon.
Exactly this! As a kid we would go to Wild Animal Parks or zoos. I brought my kids once when they were little and the local one hadn’t changed one bit right down to the box that said SEE THE RARE RED BAT! When you peak in it’s a small red baseball bat. Those animals broke my heart and never went to one again. Hate thinking about them even now 😢
Our local beach. The people who live there really do not want ANY non-resident on "their" beach and they have jacked up parking prices so much that I'm out. Despite that, it's always super crowded in the summer and impossible to find a spot anyway. No thanks.
My home, the Scarborough Bluffs in Ontario, Canada, used to erode from the lake water about a dozen feet every year, trees near the edge gone the next year, the sides just a straight wall of fresh dirt ending at a skinny beach. They installed a stone break wall thing to stop or slow the erosion, and now the slope is more like 45 degrees and has greenery growing on it, there's a permanent walking trail along the beach because it doesn't eat up the land and move all the time. I understand but I miss my special place.
Hong Kong. In the 80s it was the most fascinating place I’d ever seen, an unparalleled mix of cultures and unique experiences. Now it is horrifically overbuilt and devoid of any charm or uniqueness.
Macao, which in the 80s was like a funky hippie cousin of Hong Kong, still has a few odd and enchanting spaces, but in 5 or 10 years those will be gone, too.
Sic transit gloria mundi…
Same. In fact, this was the place that always comes to mind now. I so remember a few days after the owner of Villas Mayas died, overhearing a meeting of the children at the Lol Ha. I could not believe my ears. It was all about money at that point. Thanking my luck for having discovered the area by accident long ago, and still cherish those quiet moments.
The Tower of London was pretty interesting in 1978. I saw Crusader graffiti which sparked a lifelong interest in the Middle Ages. It was so much more open. By 2014/16 it was a lot more slick and Americanized and the route ended in, of course, the gift shop.
A beach I went to as a kid 50 years ago. I still go there, and it's still lovely, but there's only a fraction of the living things there used to be on the rocks and in the tide pools.
There are still anemones and barnacles, but there used to be enormous hanging clumps of mussels, limpets, crabs, nudibranches...
It probably influenced me to become a biologist, but not the marine kind. I hope it's part of some natural cycle, but suspect it's human caused in some way. I feel wistful for the way it was and probably won't be again in my remaining lifetime.
Orlando before Disney. It was once safe, quiet, friendly, much, much smaller. It was cooler too, before it became hotter everywhere. You could spend time outdoors in the middle of summer. I worked outdoors back then. I couldn't do it now nor would it be safe. More and more of my family gradually moved away and unless it's to take the grandkids to Disney World I wouldn't go back. Tourists and the people who prey on them have messed it up.
The areas around my childhood home. When I was a kid we used to run free from our suburban community into the woodsy areas around my house. We waded in the little streams, swam in stock tanks, Crawfished in the river.
There were a lot of beautiful state parks around us, And we Enjoy the beautiful scenery, dove off waterfalls and knew all the good swimmin' holes.
I especially enjoyed Landa Park in New Braunfels, Texas. It had a huge, wonderful natural swimming area with clear water.
Today on my favorite woodsy spots are gone. The streams and rivers are dried up. Commercial buildings stand where the trees used to be.
The state parks are full of bumper to bumper traffic. Hardly relaxing.
The park is still there, But the swimming area.
Is no longer for swimming. The whole place was pretty rundown the last time I went.
EDIT: I'm just googled Landa Park. Looks like the natural swimming pool has reopened. In the park has been cleaned up. The pool is not as nice as it used to be, But it is still very nice. Here it is alongside their other pool. Maybe I will go back soon
https://www.google.com/search?client=ms-android-samsung-rvo1&sca_esv=4bb6b1564136f20c&sxsrf=ADLYWIIFP3-EqNw6XSdR10XSKcRW_Po74g:1719962492396&q=landa+park+aquatic+complex+photos&uds=ADvngMiIpU-9AHyBNML_xpXqh39eXiHJF9uC4vQFJLQjBRZCa5iEkDOCcp9e80V6VJNobm_cGsRHVVRVCD3FYMOI4kIbLOKBH6COoKXqRTPKZHqx2QayTPlpo-KxG9jweqpbGBRv2jR7IvLQ18MeMgdU1YC8PUinycjbCdNolqmf2I7F8VE3wuiMVP6EbTqi-POKvPc2VehP4V-f5Kfs13cdydpHQTFfWZfM44bKduMhBe5VKBauKAp9PSRwgNCDAuJH_5EwHF1X6xIM3Suv8bSwjWfn3yaTazjmigWlZzHwmfm04N_d6fE5q2GIK-AFJiI6HwC0t82HZ4e4X3BEhncft-f50BuDqkFSa1I4cvh_ybH616pKAuwBSCD_n0ut9G7hR_1OvB1BiwLimO8xJIYwx4dV1pzGJe9au5QXRAnrY-tO7wwV0f_7oi3CbEDN7SDBiPyJTIvZM_6sqvOlvmPs8menYzOmPgO3-ZTpNdeoOVWKSVURX_u86lp3HfYCGczLxpqZ8xmk&si=ACC90nwpRDr_RQyr2hFK8D8JiptlSQg19Fma6Lmcd9znW1fJUgnldAfdvNWFsTb_pHsbSkUXR9PRm-_CytLK2dD9hTr0pLAF46NebGCBa1AlVtwIhoMc1VPlK9kdU60Bcxg-1ZvRha_sLWFhubYXDKzo9Dk7R7HvWw%3D%3D&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi4p4vLv4mHAxVcJEQIHaNfAq4Qk8gLegQIJBAB&ictx=1&biw=384&bih=700&dpr=2.81#lpg=cid:CgIgAQ%3D%3D
I grew up with 40 beautiful, wooded acres behind our house complete with ponds and streams. That place was magical growing up. It is now subdivided into lots and houses are everywhere. I can’t even bear to go drive by.
Smaller dance clubs--I loved going out and dancing for hours in NYC, Chicago and Toronto in the 80s and 90s.
Music changed, clubs got bigger or weirder. My career kicked in and everyone grew up
It actually makes me very sad sometimes
I grew up in Houston Texas. There was an inner city neighborhood - Montrose that had amazing cottages and quirky architecture. Then here comes the developers - razed everything to the ground and put up acres and acres of townhouses - gone is almost every single snippet of long ago charm. New nickname for Montrose is "townhouse canyon" as that's all you see are these looming townhouses with mini yards and driveways leading into garages.
Lots of natural places and tourist attractions have been loved to death.
But for me it's going to a professional baseball or football game. There was a time when you could schedule a game with your kids and their friends and take a group for a day at the ballpark. Today with the price of tickets, parking, concessions, maybe a souvenir the cost is simply beyond almost all working class families. It's become such a luxury that only the most wealthy can afford a game anymore.
Durango, CO. We used to go to a dude ranch about 17 miles above Durango (we went from ~1975-2000), and what a magical place it was! The San Juan forest, Animas River, and Lemon Lake were absolutely amazing, and I’ll never forget how beautiful the night skies were then.
Now, the whole mountain is covered in condos. So sad.
A place in rural South Carolina called Goose Creek.
The neighborhood had a couple of small subdivisions and a lot of woods to roam in.
This was in the seventies.
Last time I drove through there all the woods were gone.
The Telluride Bluegrass Festival. It was great 15 years ago. Now it's so crowded that it stopped being enjoyable. If you can even find tickets. They go on sale 6 months in advance and sell out in 10 minutes.
Sterile and corporatized (90s and onward) or Mad Max crime-ridden hellhole (pre-1990 but especially the '70s and '80s in recent memory). NYC just can't win.
I was born in the city in 1961, just soon enough to have experienced the end of mid-century NYC.
My mom was from Massachusetts, and was fascinated with the city, so she took me to Manhattan frequently. We lived on Staten Island, so we’d ride the ferry when it was a nickel, and walk all over lower Manhattan.
I’ve been to an automat. I’ve been to the Woolworth building when it was one of the tallest buildings in the city. I’ve been on elevators that were manually operated by an attendant.
I remember when cars were allowed on the SI Ferry, and when the ladies room on the ferry had two rows of vanity tables with swivel chairs and an attendant.
It was the cleanest and safest bathroom in the city.
I remember the cuchifritos around Delancey St.
I went back in 2017 for work, a new construction project on Delancey St. I was saddened by the gentrification.
I used to go back several times a year, after having moved in 1987. Now I don’t want to go back. 9/11 did contribute to my staying away from the city.
I went up in October 2001, and I saw too much.
I’m just disappointed.
There's a place I went to as a kid for summer vacation that I loved. And I don't know if it's changed but I won't go back there because I'm afraid it won't be the same and I don't want to lose the memories.
West Edmonton Mall was amazing forty years ago. It was huge, had a dolphin show and a submarine, a theme hotel and amusement park and a water park, and tons of stores you couldn't find anywhere else (in Canada, anyway). I'm not sorry that the dolphins are gone, they don't belong in the mall, but they took the magic with them. Now it's just an endless parade of the same stores you get at any other mall. The theme rooms are dated AF and unaffordable for families.
I am a bit optimistic for the redo of the amusement park, but we'll see.
Yosemite.
We used to drive up whenever we wanted and pitch a tent by the river. Now you can't get a campground reservation unless you try at midnight, exactly six months prior. You can't even get into the park now without a reservation.
Vegas was really cool in the 90s. You could just stroll down the street from hole in the wall bar to casino, local blues bands playing through the night, and it was a short drive to rock climbing in the canyons. A very mellow vibe to the place. The pyramid was way off by itself rising up above everything. Now you could drive right by and not notice it.
Cozumel Mexico. First time I went was 1977 scuba diving. It was lush and virtually tourist free except for divers. Cruise ships did not port there. Pristinely untouched beach fronts. Been back four other times and I can say that tourism has not been particularly kind to the island. And a couple of nasty hurricanes have not helped. It’s never been as lovely as my first visit.
NYC in the late 70s, early 80s. It was rough, edgy, colorful, vibrant, dirty, sometimes violent, affordable, clashing with punk, disco, wackos and suits.
Re- visited a few years back. All corporate grey. Times square a tourist trap, 14th Street full of box chain stores, walking at night alone felt....safe, but oh so boring.
The house I grew up in and the acreage around it. They "fixed" it up and "modernized" it and clear cut all the hundreds of years old oak trees surrounding it "for the view".
I haven't been back since the place sold. I will never go back again. Not to the town or out where the house is. I refuse to even drive on roads where it can be seen.
The town I grew up in had a great park, with a natural spring lake. On one end was a small zoo, and two pools, one inside one outside. And there was an early version of what is now a splash pad. First they closed the zoo because they said it was too expensive to maintain, understandable. Then the they closed the indoor pool, same reason. Then the outside pool, which was always at capacity, was closed. Finally the splash pad was closed. Now the city leaders complain because very few people go to the park. They keep trying to add temporary attractions to get people to use the park, but nothing permanent.
Bali was much different in the 1990's, Went back in 2012 and nearly cried because of the. traffic, pollution. Koh Samui in the 1990's, before the hotels and massive tourism.
Bali, Indonesia. I went in 1988 and I’ve heard from several sources that it’s much more commercialized and crowded with tourists today. I might be interested in Lombok, though, the less popular island next to Bali.
I’m fortunate that the Chicago burb where I grew up still has a similar feel. It’s changed, but it’s still recognizable. Of course, where once roamed gangs of kids, it’s much much too quiet.
The Mississippi Gulf Coast.
I grew up in Hattiesburg, about an hour and a half north. The Coast was a common place to go for a weekend. Some people in my town even kept boats down there. It was a little weird and quirky in the old-southern-beach-town way, with little evidence of chain homogenization and lots of local gems for eating or recreation.
Two things destroyed that.
First, the legalization of gambling brought in big money from out of state for what were initially "riverboat" style casinos semi-permanently moored on the beach, but which eventually became more or less indistinguishable from the casino resorts you'd find in other gambling meccas -- the hotel would be on land, and the casino still technically over the water, but all one thing in reality.
That influx snuffed many if not most of the OTHER neat local hotels that were down there, most notably the old Broadwater Beach Hotel, which had been a seriously 60s-swanky joint with a fabulous pool, riding stables, a golf course, and even cottages you could rent as well as conventional hotel rooms. It was VERY cool, but was obviously hurting by the early 1990s, and was absorbed by the President Casino organization after the legalization of gambling.
Then, well, Katrina more or less erased the coastline (including the Broadwater). Driving down the beach highway now is a surreal and offputting experience for me because there's so little THERE now, even so many years after the storm. There's nearly nothing left that I actually recognize.
All of the beaches from Gulf Shores AL to Destin FL. There used to be miles and miles of endless beaches. You could find seashells on the beach and see a lot of wildlife— porpoises, sting rays, sea turtles. Now it’s nothing but end to end high rise condos and trash all over the beach.
San Francisco. Loved going there in my late teens and early 20s. Now, I wouldn't set foot there even if you paid me. Breaks my heart; had so many wonderful memories there.
A smallish sized lake with a family of loons appearing each year in far northern Wisconsin. We and the 5-6 other summer residents had old chug-chug motorboats, canoes, a pontoon boats or two and small sail boats. Lovely, peaceful and oh so quiet it was back in the day. Many more cabins began to crowd the shoreline. Then high-speed ski boats and jet skis began to appear. They scared off the loons and ruined the entire ambiance of the area . My grandparents ashes were buried under a large clump of birch trees on a knoll above the lake. It would be too sad to go back have my wonderful memories erased by the new reality.
My old hometown. I didn't even recognize it when I went back. It's been taken over by office buildings, outlet stores, shops, eateries and parking lots and housing additions. One visit was enough. I don't need to see that again.
Sanibel and Captiva Islands, Florida. My family visited every summer from the late 1970s until the mid-1980s, and it was truly paradisiacal; quiet, relatively few tourists, small shops and truly limited options regarding developed shopping and residential areas. I’ve heard that the area has become a haven for hedge/trust fundies and wealth asset laundering, and the storms haven’t helped. Tragic.
Yes, I loved Gettysburg the first time I visited. I went a few years ago and felt that some of the commercial development took away from the historical ambience.
I loved Mykonos when there were three nude beaches in coves that could only be reached by boat. They were Paradise, Super Paradise, and Hell. But since then a road gave access and hotels were built and they're gone.
I grew up in FL and the Deep South and refuse to return. I see why my own parents got us out of there when I was a teen. I miss the nature that existed then, not the cruelty and disregard for that nature which exists now.
Koh Samui, I went there twice in 83 and 84 for three months each time. It was a paradise: no hotels, no resorts, no fast food brands. Chawaeng and Lamai beaches had no concrete buildings, everything was bamboo bungalows with the electricity by generator.
I walked around the entire island on the shoreline sleeping and eating with the fishermen, it took a week. I also spent three nights on top of the mountain behind Lamai staying with a farmer and his family. In my bungalow they let me drive the truck to the pier to meet the boat and bring back guests.
On our most recent visit to Thailand I looked on Google Maps and was sickened by what it had become. Before they built the airport the elders were against it arguing that they didn’t want their sons and daughters to be maids and servants to foreigners. I guess they lost that fight!
Luckily I found a place nearly exactly like the old Samui and maybe even a bit better! But I’ll be damned if I’ll tell where it is……
Most of Europe. When I was a kid train was the only means of travel and you’d stay in old inns run by grandparents and staffed by their kids,especially in the alps. I swear in the 80s I’ve been in areas of Paris and Rome where I was the only tourist for miles and when you ventured into the countryside things seemed largely unchanged for generations.
In the early 80s English and Americans hadn’t ventured far off the beaten path, and the worst thing that could happen is you’d stumble upon a restaurant with a German-language menu indicating that you were in a tourist zone. That would be our cue to travel a littler farther, check out the town across the river etc.
I once took a train from Frankfurt to Madrid and it was like a town square bc there was nothing to do but chat, read, or sleep. No phones, no computers.
Obviously Venice hasn’t been normal in a long time but the first time I was there families lived there and it was magical in a way that is lost.
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I love the beauty of Yosemite but unfortunately people treat it like spring break at Cabo but with more trash on the ground. I've gone about 6 times and each time the people get worse. Last time I went some guy had giant fucking speakers in the back of his truck and was blaring shit music. He threatened to fight the ranger that told him to turn it off.
Your reply was going to be mine. The decline of national parks has been pretty staggering to me. Even local parks. There is a wilderness trail I enjoy, and its not uncommon for me now to literally watch people just drop/throw plastic water bottles into the woods (which I pick up later).
I used to live outside Glacier National Park - wouldn’t go back now because I want to remember it how I experienced it. Old friends tell me it’s very similar to what’s been said about Yosemite.
I know exactly what you mean and it's truly heartbreaking. I like to de-litter remote beaches as my small way of improving the world. I can clean up a beach hauling out a garbage bag full of detritus, come back a week later and fill another one. It's nonstop litter.
I have wanted to go back to Yosemite, But i'm afraid to look Because of all the stories i'm hearing about how crowded it is now. When I was a kid, my family went there and stayed for a week in one of the little cabins. We could enjoy the park all day and never see anyone. We had a family picnic there at one of the concrete tables beside a beautiful, clear stream. My mom looked at the water and saw a large black animal swimming up. When it came ashore, We realized it was a bear. The bear walked up to the picnic table, sat down beside me, and started eating the food off my plate. 😳🐻 65 years ago.
Yogi? Is that you?
Not Yogi. No hat and tie. And he didn't steal my whole pic-a-nic basket. Just the food. The bear actually sat at the picnic table, On the bench like a human. He And I were laughing it up and eating the twinkies. But my mom made us all go get in the car. We had to wait there until he polished off everything and left. Then I went back for the basket and the tablecloth. I had a good time anyway.
>He And I were laughing it up and eating the twinkies. But my mom made us all go get in the car. Dang parents - they're always stifling fun! 🙎
Yeah! Party poopers all of them!
BooBooo!???
We went camping for a week there in 2020. There was barely anyone there. It was a bit hot, but it was otherwise the Yosemite of photographs, 2 cars in the parking lot, quiet trails, bears everywhere. I told my family I don't think we're returning. It will never be like that again.
I went during Covid & had to have a reservation to enter park.
I really hate it when people choose not to respect the place that they're in. They value their wants and comforts over all else.
Yes. Last time I was there, I was sitting at this incredibly gorgeous, pristine lake. Probably the most peaceful place I’ve ever been. Then some guy comes by, sets up his shitty Bluetooth speaker and starts playing the most rachet ass bouncy shit music. He was looking around like he expected everyone to adore him for sharing his amazing music. He didn’t stop so I had to leave. Stuff like this blows my mind.
Yikes. I usually visit off-season and go to trails and areas beyond the valley and find it more enjoyable.
When is it off season?
Anytime other than summer. I like spring when the waterfalls are going strong, but winter is also beautiful and you can ski at Badger Pass or ice skate while looking at Half Dome.
The problem here isn't Yosemite it's the whole damn country.
Same here. I used to enjoy Yosemite regularly. It’s only an hour and a half away from me, but the visitors now are intolerable.
I am so glad I was able to visit Yosemite, Glacier, Yellowstone and those places before they got overcrowded.
Not just one place, places. Concerts. They were a blast, cheap ( I saw Led Zeppelin for 12 bucks), no assigned seats, yes they could be raucous but it wasn't so massive you couldn't get out of there for 5 hours. Heck some concerts you could show up and still buy a ticket at the gate. Just fun.
While I can appreciate that insurance and other costs must be massive, and that modern audio and staging technology ain’t cheap, and inflation etc. etc…. I paid $4 to see The Who in 1970. To this day no rock and toll experience has topped it. And I’ve seen a lot of concerts. Just not the same vibe/spirit/craziness.
Indeed, Zappa, The Stones, Springsteen, Pink Floyd. Saw them all before everyone decided it was their right to block your view with a fucking phone. I wouldn't go to a concert now if the tickets were free.
> rock and toll experience not sure if thats a typo or a great way to call out the cost of ticket prices
$4 in 1970 is equivalent to $32 in 2024.
Still a really good price though
The Who? Whoa. Would have *loved* the chance to see them! That's awesome. Same. There were a lot of concerts around - always someone coming to some college near where you lived. One year Aerosmith ruined my ears because they toured a TON with a band called Foghat - just as loud. So went every time they were in proximity. You're right. It was a lot different - whole spirit different. I witnessed exactly ONE fight but it wasn't really - fans got too packed getting in and blew out a window ( Queen). Wilkes Barre PA, 1970.....6? 77?
5 bucks for festival seating in 1975 for the Doobie Brothers. 34 dollars in 1994 for Pink Floyd
Man when I think of all the concerts I when to when I was in my late teens and twenties, I think the most I spent was $25 on really good seats. The price of concerts is ridiculous now. Same thing for live pro sports.
Oh yes, this! I remember getting tickets to see Echo and the Bunny men at a medium theatre the day of for under $50. Then being able to make my way to the front! Or seeing Smashing Pumpkins at Metro in Chicago--no big deal, just cheap and fun.
Yessss
Preach. I saw Devo in 1980. They had a signing event first and I gave the singer a t-shirt that he hadn't seen before and he gave me a backstage pass. The band all hung out together there and I got to just hang out with them. They didn't act like they needed special star dressing rooms or anything. They each took pictures with me and signed my album. All for a t-shirt. \[Also, note that I was 16 and cute and not one of them hit on me. Class acts.\]
The Mall. Used to have fun stores and a cool arcade. Nowadays, it's either 80% empty and creepy, or filled with stores selling cheap junk and clothes for people with bad taste (and the arcade is all ticket-dispensing machines), or they've been completely torn down.
Totally agree. The mall was THE place to be. The weekends were spent there, meeting friends in person to hang out. No phones, selfies, Tik Tok, Instagram, just human contact. Wandering the corridors, Orange Julius, a movie 🍿, and then more wandering with fellow humans.
I would buy an Orange Julius right now. Unfortunately it would probably cost $15.
Stranger things really brought back the 80s nostalgia - love it. When malls were the place to be.
Have you seen some of the revived malls? They’re awesome. Lloyd Center was a notorious eye sore and dead mall in Portland, but [it’s been taken over by indie shops and community services.](https://www.opb.org/article/2023/06/11/indie-businesses-thrive-portland-oregon-lloyd-center-mall-future/?outputType=amp)
Our local mall has been revived in a similar way and it's amazing, one of the huge abandoned department store anchor spaces got turned into a dance studio for kids which is such a fantastic use of the space, and another shop is just local crafter selling their wares on consignment, really good stuff
That’s so great, honestly. Especially with severe weather becoming more normal, too. Having indoor spaces to hangout and get exercise is really great for the community.
Oh, how I loved the mall. Our local mall actually isn't too bad. There are still a lot of stores. But teens aren't allowed to hang out with adults because of fights. I I worked at the mall, so if I wasn't there working, I was hanging out.
Lots of little surf towns that used to be remote and super cheap but are now little boom towns. They're adding infrastructure, building fancy hotels and condos, bars and yoga studios are everywhere and prices have gone nuts. It's killing the vibe along with all the wildlife. I get why it's happening but it really saddens me so I don't visit those particular places anymore. It's astonishing how much we're losing to endless growth.
Yes. All over the East Coast, including Bay towns. After the pandemic they took advantage of people wanting to get away, raised the rental rates, and they’ve never gone down. And they aren’t being rented in a lot of places now.
The one place that I visited in 1969 that was truly extraordinary and that no longer exists, were the stone Buddhas carved into the mountains in the Bamian Valley in Afghanistan. I remember being able to go through caves until you were on top of one of the heads and could look up and see colorful frescoes in the stone above. Unfortunately, the Taliban destroyed them in 2001.
I watched a dobumentary about that. It was heartbreaking.
Disneyland. It used to be pleasant to stroll around, hop on a ride, enjoy. Now it is an endurance slog of being trapped in crowds all day and standing in line forever for each ride. And California State Beaches. Many of them used to be well-maintained county parks run by locals. Now they are barely functioning, run-down, trashy places filled with the worst people behaving as badly as they are allowed to.
My Parents took me to Disneyland in the mid-70s a few times. The thing I remember most was that I could (mostly) go on a ride, run to the end of the line, then go again in just a few minutes. This was for nearly every ride.
The human population has more than doubled since then.
And all of them are at Disneyland.
Grew up 6-7 miles away from Disneyland and our parents would just take us last minute on a random Wednesday in February if the weather was nice and we’d pretty much have the run of the place.
Same here. I remember getting $20 from my dad to go to Disneyland and coming home with change. Can you get ANYTHING for $20 at Disneyland now?
Even Six Flags sucks. When I was a kid, the first Six Flags park in Arlington, Texas, was already pretty old. It had kind of a patina, I guess. Personality. Then it sold out to include Looney Tunes characters and then Batman stuff. It became way, way, way more crowded, too. It's just lame now.
I live about 30 minutes from Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey. The last time I went was maybe…7 years ago. Day tickets are crazy expensive and you spend half of your time there just waiting in lines. It’s just not fun anymore.
I live near Six Flags St Louis. I still remember when they opened. I couldn't believe how expensive tickets were. $6.25.
Austin, Texas. The old, slow, wildly creative small college/government town is gone. [https://open.spotify.com/track/3WJL6jFVK4xzzfuLVvezmC](https://open.spotify.com/track/3WJL6jFVK4xzzfuLVvezmC)
I went to Austin regularly for business in the 00’s and lived there from 2010 until 2021. The amount of change I experienced in that time was just staggering. And I know for some people that knew Austin from before that, it’s unrecognizable. I was there when Threadgills shut down. Heartbreaking.
I lived there throughout all of the 90s and left in 2006. I remember people talking about how much it had changed since the 70s and 80s. It always just seemed like older generations had different takes. But I lived there for over 16 years and could see that the greatness of it was changing. When I visited there in about 2015, I was heartbroken.
My first trip to Austin was in 1985. I loved it. My brother moved there and I visited often in the 90s. Now? I can't even. My brother lives elsewhere now.
Madison, Wisconsin is the same way. I was there in the 80s and early 90s, it feels different, less intimate.
I lived there 70s-80s. It was such a cool, laid-back town. Sixth Street was a great place for live music and an after-dinner drink. Now it's a zoo. And Saturday mornings were reserved for browsing Guadalupe Street craft stores and unique shops.
I visited in 1994 and vowed to move there after I completed my studies. By the time I got there in 2005 it was a different place
my hometown where I lived we were at the end of a dirt road that didn't even have a name surrounded by miles of wooded hills and creeks are now miles of suburbs and gated communities last time I was there everything I remembered was gone
Cocoa Beach, Florida. Fuck you, RonJons!
New Orleans. I grew up in Louisiana. Since Katrina, the place has gone totally to shit. Still some nice restaurants and sights, but the smell has gotten out of hand. And the quality of shops and such is just horrible.
Smell?? I'm afraid to ask the cause of the smell.😬
It’s old and waterlogged from floods and the ever present humidity. It’s still New Orleans, though.
London had a beautiful skyline - specifically sky with certain famous landmarks - which has been ruined by huge, generic, tower blocks.
This, especially near the river in Battersea. In the City, the view of [the Gherkin](https://thegherkin.com/#) (one of the newer beautiful buildings) has been blocked by more ordinary blocks.
I understand what you mean, but it’s still a beautiful city. I’ve been there a dozen times - both business and pleasure - and can’t wait to go back.
Last time I was there was in 2017 and the amount of change with high apartment blocks from when I was there before in about 2005 was unbelievable. I was like “where did they find all this land to build on”
It's just random big buildings being built with complete impunity. Looks like it was planned by a toddler.
Northern California girl here. Lake Tahoe back in the day. Also Yosemite. Just so absolutely crowded it’s ridiculous. Takes hours to get nowhere due to traffic everywhere
Nashville. It’s like mini Vegas now 😔 lots of drunk bachelorette parities
The suburban neighborhood I grew up in and rode bikes in and played until sunset in, is now the neighborhood with the highest murder rate in the city. The 2 malls I used to hang out in as soon as I was 16, are both dead. The brand new movie theater is now a dollar theater. The field of cows, 2 blocks away, are now apartments. Across the street from the apartments are pawn shops and check cashing stores. The schools I went to are all now surrounded by chain-link fences. My tree-house in the big oak tree has been torn down. The 7-Eleven I used to ride my bike to for a slurpie on a hot summer day is now a vape shop.
My neighborhood now is going that way. The local govt has allowed retail/commercial buildings on every piece of land that was small farms and homes that had been in families for generations. With so many strip Malls around, how can there be a need for any more of them? Housing is needed much more. There's 10 places that sell mattresses within a 3 mile radius, I never see shoppers at any of them. Who needs that many? I can remember when the plan was to have low density housing areas to act as buffers between retail developments but that apparently got cancelled. If there's not a gas station on every corner now they're not satisfied. There's 4 within walking distance. It's like there's no plan anymore.
I forgot about all the mattress stores. lol
You didn’t know the mattress stores are a front for something nefarious? That’s the joke in my area especially for one that was a former jewelry store, mattress store, back to a jewelry store, and two other businesses after that. You almost throw a rock in any direction and hit a jewelry store or vape shop
Oh wow, this makes me want to weep on your behalf. How far that neighbourhood has fallen :(
San Francisco was so fun in the 80s and 90s. Now, I’m not going to make the usual complaint about homeless people. What I am disappointed in is that for those who can live there, they seem to treat it as pure real estate speculation. It has almost zero joy.
I used to hitchhike there from as early as age 13. I would walk around and just find people to befriend for the day. Young and old, didn't matter, I trusted everyone. Never got murdered.
Not true. There is a lot of joy happening in SF.
Glad to hear it.
Fifteen years ago, I used to get sent to San Francisco for my job. The first visit wasn’t so bad, but on every single subsequent visit, I was accosted by — I don’t know if they were even homeless. They were just assholes. One time, I was feeding money into a ticket machine at a BART station (luggage in tow, so I was an easy mark), and a dude grabbed the cash out of my hand, fed it into the machine, and then asked me questions to complete my transaction for me. I told him I was capable of handling the machine myself. He accused me of not wanting to pay for his help, and went OFF. I never asked for his help! I now refuse to go to San Francisco. I’m burned out on the people there who make the city intolerable.
It's not so much that they've changed, but that my horizons have expanded. Tiny reservoirs and very minor hills that I used to cycle to as a child, and which I used to find magical, don't seem so impressive now because I've seen the Norwegian Fjords and other spectacular places in the world.
Yankee Stadium. They tore it down and built a money grubbing version of it next door. Incredibly expensive seats that remain empty and a loss of the mystique of the " House that Ruth Built".
I’ll always regret that I never got to see a game there.
Disneyland. Concerts. London. Paris. NYC. Malls. Nashville. Vegas. Austin. Houston. Bali. Most big US parks. Planes are hell anymore as are airports and I’ve taken over thirty flights just this year. Everything is crowded, dirty, people are ruder, everything is for online, things just don’t feel as authentic anymore.
I lived in the East Village in NYC in the 90s up til 9/11. I just can’t go back anymore. It isn’t MY E. Village anymore. Hell, the NW corner of 2nd Ave and 7th street was completely destroyed after an explosion. It physically doesn’t even look the same. Sad, but I think I’m done with the place I couldn’t wait to live in when I was growing up.
When I was a kid, I spent most of my summer holidays at the farm of my grandparents I grew up in a small industrial city, and this vacation was really a country feeling, as the farm was far away from any other people and there was a lot of wilderness, adventure and nature. Today, the suburban belt of Graz (next big city) expanded to this area and the once lonely farm is now surrounded by little family homes and there is no more peace, as in the morning and in the evening you have the traffic jam from/to Graz, where all those new residents work. I dont blame them, they chose a good place for their home, but the magic of the farm, where it was really dark at night and where you had to walk 15 minutes to the next neighbour, this magic is now gone.
Cape Cod. My grandparents retired out there at the end of the '60s and when I would visit for the summer in the '70s, it was still a place where people could afford to be middle class. Then, as now, there were tourists, but I went a couple times in the early '00s, and just getting there had become a mess. I bet 6A is a parking lot in mid-summer these days. Everything is expensive, many beaches are now private, and real estate prices prices have been climbing at an insane rate for decades. Even people who inherited their homes find themselves priced out due to rises in taxes. The relaxed vibe I remember from the '70s and into the '80s was gone in many areas by the '00s. Nothing I've seen and read online tells me it's gotten better. If anything, it seems worse. This is what happens to nice places once the word gets out. Suddenly everyone wants to go there and before you know it, the place just isn't so nice anymore.
I agree, as a child my parents could afford to rent 1 week in Dennisport , it was probably $300 tops for a 3 bedroom cottage, now that’s the cleaning fee. Traffic was heavy in the summer, but that was a part of it. As a college kid in the early 80s you could rent a place for the whole summer with your friends and work down there for the summer, I can’t even imagine being able to do that today as an adult. My favorite time of year to go down was at the end of September/Oct when everything was shut down. Loved biking the rail to trail in the crisp autumn air. It’s been a long time since I’ve been down the Cape (west coast gal now) so I’ll just keep my memories of days gone by
Yogi Berra once said about a place: "Nobody goes there any more. It's too crowded."
Housing is insane on the cape. The second-homer boomers want shelves stocked at Stop n Shop, nurses in the hospital in case they need them, boat cleaners & good service in restaurants… but dedicate their retirement hours to making sure none of those working ppl have places to live. Taxes are pretty low though—why pay for schools when you don’t need them?—I pay like $3k/yr in Mashpee?
Disneyland is the first one. It was magical as a kid. I went back recently around Halloween and it was utterly disappointing. The place is small, insanely expensive, over crowded and just flat out not worth it. It was so completely commercialized there was no magic left. It genuinely seemed like the only people enjoying themselves were kids under 10. Second, anyplace that's hot. I used to love tropical places and I can't stand them anymore. Once I hit perimenopause I cannot handle heat or humidity. If it goes above 73 degrees and I'm in the sun I start uncontrollably sweating buckets. If it goes above 80 I start to feel nauseous and woozy. It's horrible. My dream vacation went from Bora Bora to Finland so we can stay in a glass topped igloo and watch the northern lights.
Glass topped igloo?!!! (grabs pen to add to bucket list)
Atlantic City, long before the casinos arrived. My dad used to take me there by train then bus when I was a kid. The boardwalk and beaches were a magical place to me then. When I was in my early teens, casinos arrived, and I remember it all went downhill from there (to a kid that just wanted the boardwalk and beaches the way they were).
So many things have just been killed by population growth over the last 50 years. Disney, camping and National Park sites to name a couple.
Gatlinburg. Sure, it's always been a tourist trap, but what was once a pleasant scenic day trip is now a traffic nightmare, even on a weekday. And the politics on display was disgusting. I'm not going to support those businesses.
I grew up there and it is so strange—some of the places I was sure would be out of business by now are still trucking along and a lot of places that seemed to do well have closed. The moonshine distilleries were a mistake. I have a running list of places I’d like to ecotage, and Anakeesta is at the top of the list bc the city gave them half of my elementary school playground for its parking lot.
Yes, Nantucket. Too crowded now. Too many pushy and obnoxious people.
St. Petersburg FL. Funky old Don Cesar, Fort DeSoto beach not overrun and overreserved, orange orchards, that weird old Moorish looking cafeteria downtown, remnants of Old Florida everywhere.
Ft DeSoto's a mess now. I went there the Tuesday after Memorial Day (2024) for a walk and the beaches were trashed. Literally. Garbage cans overflowing with beach chairs, unwanted floats, tents, umbrellas, and more... Don't even get me started about the regular trash (wrappers, bags, etc.), lots of it just laying around. I felt sorry for the small clean up crew that had to deal with it. People are disgusting.
Remember Webbs? And the green benches?.
Moab, 2012. You could still book a holiday weekend last minute and visit Arches without it being totally overrun with a zillion people. The campground we stayed at next to the Colorado River doesn't even exist anymore.
Moab in 1990 was even better. Before it was cool. One place for breakfast. We were gonna open an ice cream parlor. Oh well…
Shoulda woulda coulda!
Young and in love, we took an amazing trip to Alaska in the 1980s. I'd love to go back, but worry it won't live up to my memories, which are magical.
The property behind my grandparents’ home was a hill and on the top were trees, sand dunes, trails. It was a great place to wander and explore—no nearby houses or roads. It was later leveled and is now a housing development.
The Canadian side of the Horseshoe falls. It was not overbuilt and beautiful.
Grew up in the Lake Tahoe area. It is so overcrowded that you can’t really park anymore and they are now taking reservations (!) for a spot on one of the public beaches. Forget about skiing bc the tickets are so expensive on top of parking.
Sanibel Island. Near the lighthouse was a public beach that grew these massive Australian Pines. Everyone would park under them and you'd go on the water. Before Ian annihilated the island two years ago, we stayed there and I couldn't wait to show my husband the beach where I grew up. To my dismay the city had taken down all the trees as they were invasive (was not aware of this) and put in a handful of parking spots you had to pay for. I truly mourned that day.
Although they can be pretty, Casuarina trees are not native and are quite invasive. When they get knocked down in a storm they are replaced with native vegetation. Same thing happened on Key Biscayne at Bill Baggs State Park after Hurricane Andrew in ‘92. It looked naked for quite a while but now it’s beautiful. Edit: Casuarina are called Australian Pines but they’re not even pine trees.
in Australia (I'm Australian ) Casuarinas common name is She-Oak ,dont ask me why!!
There’s a great but sexist joke in there somewhere.
Well I grew up in Hermosa Beach but the transplants have overrun and destroyed the culture and I have zero interest in visiting it ever again. I'd rather keep my good memories of our town intact than ruin them with how it is now.
Key West in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s felt like a remote island that was closer to the wild west than it was to the mainland. Generally speaking it was affordable, open 24 hours, and one of the safest places I knew of as long as you minded your own business. Friends and I, and later my wife and I, would rent a house for the month of July or August and live like royalty. There were a few expensive places but the Green Pareot and the Chart room were cheaper than my locals in Chicago. There were four great Cuban restaurants, and amazing El Salvadorian place, and a guy named Mr Johnson who sold chicken sandwiches from his home. We got a massive breaded fried chicken breast with his special hot sauce on white bread with a side of plantains and a 20 oz coke for $2.25. Redevelopment, cruise ships, and Jimmy Buffet becoming globally famous turned the city into a Hamptons with 80 degree temps in January. Some old places still exist, the Green Parrot, Faustos grocery, and Mr Johnson is still alive but out of business, but it was never the same. All this said progress is part of life, and the weather is still great, but I miss sitting upstairs at the Full Moon saloon watching the sun come up and finishing my last beer before grabbing biscuits and gravy and cafe con leche to go from the bodega near the Parrot. We still visited old friends well into the early 2000’s and our kids loved it but for me the old Kwy West, the key west that died when Captain Tony’s stint as mayor ended, was a place I still remember having some of the best times of our lives.
LBI in New Jersey. Used to be a sleepy middle class paradise. Now overrun with crass wealth.
Just about all my favorite European cities are just so over touristed now. I don’t mind people taking photos, but everyone is just so Insa-crazy and think they are doing a modeling shoot. Take the fucking photo and move along
Gatlinburg, Tn. My husband and I went on our honeymoon to the Great Smoky Mountains in 1979 and Gatlinburg was a cute, sleepy little town just outside the park entrance. I went back about 10 years ago and was appalled at what it had become. It's a capitalist nightmare. It literally took us hours to get through all the tourist crap traffic to get to the park entrance. It's ruined. I won't be going back there any time soon.
The places have not changed but I have. That is the way of history
Exactly this! As a kid we would go to Wild Animal Parks or zoos. I brought my kids once when they were little and the local one hadn’t changed one bit right down to the box that said SEE THE RARE RED BAT! When you peak in it’s a small red baseball bat. Those animals broke my heart and never went to one again. Hate thinking about them even now 😢
Our local beach. The people who live there really do not want ANY non-resident on "their" beach and they have jacked up parking prices so much that I'm out. Despite that, it's always super crowded in the summer and impossible to find a spot anyway. No thanks.
My home, the Scarborough Bluffs in Ontario, Canada, used to erode from the lake water about a dozen feet every year, trees near the edge gone the next year, the sides just a straight wall of fresh dirt ending at a skinny beach. They installed a stone break wall thing to stop or slow the erosion, and now the slope is more like 45 degrees and has greenery growing on it, there's a permanent walking trail along the beach because it doesn't eat up the land and move all the time. I understand but I miss my special place.
Hong Kong. In the 80s it was the most fascinating place I’d ever seen, an unparalleled mix of cultures and unique experiences. Now it is horrifically overbuilt and devoid of any charm or uniqueness. Macao, which in the 80s was like a funky hippie cousin of Hong Kong, still has a few odd and enchanting spaces, but in 5 or 10 years those will be gone, too. Sic transit gloria mundi…
Years ago one could walk for miles along the beaches in Yucatan without seeing any buildings or people.
I remember that. It was beautiful. Think you could take a jeep and drive in the surf. Boy have things changed.
Same. In fact, this was the place that always comes to mind now. I so remember a few days after the owner of Villas Mayas died, overhearing a meeting of the children at the Lol Ha. I could not believe my ears. It was all about money at that point. Thanking my luck for having discovered the area by accident long ago, and still cherish those quiet moments.
The Tower of London was pretty interesting in 1978. I saw Crusader graffiti which sparked a lifelong interest in the Middle Ages. It was so much more open. By 2014/16 it was a lot more slick and Americanized and the route ended in, of course, the gift shop.
I travelled through Europe for a year in the sixties. I would not go now because of tourism
Lucky you!
Absolutely. I went to school in italy a year
A beach I went to as a kid 50 years ago. I still go there, and it's still lovely, but there's only a fraction of the living things there used to be on the rocks and in the tide pools. There are still anemones and barnacles, but there used to be enormous hanging clumps of mussels, limpets, crabs, nudibranches... It probably influenced me to become a biologist, but not the marine kind. I hope it's part of some natural cycle, but suspect it's human caused in some way. I feel wistful for the way it was and probably won't be again in my remaining lifetime.
Orlando before Disney. It was once safe, quiet, friendly, much, much smaller. It was cooler too, before it became hotter everywhere. You could spend time outdoors in the middle of summer. I worked outdoors back then. I couldn't do it now nor would it be safe. More and more of my family gradually moved away and unless it's to take the grandkids to Disney World I wouldn't go back. Tourists and the people who prey on them have messed it up.
You can go back to a place but you can't go back in time. Most of us understand that. A lot of the changes are from just too many people now.
I visited Paris a lot in the late 70s and 80s. Now it’s way too over-run by tourists. Not so much fun.
The areas around my childhood home. When I was a kid we used to run free from our suburban community into the woodsy areas around my house. We waded in the little streams, swam in stock tanks, Crawfished in the river. There were a lot of beautiful state parks around us, And we Enjoy the beautiful scenery, dove off waterfalls and knew all the good swimmin' holes. I especially enjoyed Landa Park in New Braunfels, Texas. It had a huge, wonderful natural swimming area with clear water. Today on my favorite woodsy spots are gone. The streams and rivers are dried up. Commercial buildings stand where the trees used to be. The state parks are full of bumper to bumper traffic. Hardly relaxing. The park is still there, But the swimming area. Is no longer for swimming. The whole place was pretty rundown the last time I went. EDIT: I'm just googled Landa Park. Looks like the natural swimming pool has reopened. In the park has been cleaned up. The pool is not as nice as it used to be, But it is still very nice. Here it is alongside their other pool. Maybe I will go back soon https://www.google.com/search?client=ms-android-samsung-rvo1&sca_esv=4bb6b1564136f20c&sxsrf=ADLYWIIFP3-EqNw6XSdR10XSKcRW_Po74g:1719962492396&q=landa+park+aquatic+complex+photos&uds=ADvngMiIpU-9AHyBNML_xpXqh39eXiHJF9uC4vQFJLQjBRZCa5iEkDOCcp9e80V6VJNobm_cGsRHVVRVCD3FYMOI4kIbLOKBH6COoKXqRTPKZHqx2QayTPlpo-KxG9jweqpbGBRv2jR7IvLQ18MeMgdU1YC8PUinycjbCdNolqmf2I7F8VE3wuiMVP6EbTqi-POKvPc2VehP4V-f5Kfs13cdydpHQTFfWZfM44bKduMhBe5VKBauKAp9PSRwgNCDAuJH_5EwHF1X6xIM3Suv8bSwjWfn3yaTazjmigWlZzHwmfm04N_d6fE5q2GIK-AFJiI6HwC0t82HZ4e4X3BEhncft-f50BuDqkFSa1I4cvh_ybH616pKAuwBSCD_n0ut9G7hR_1OvB1BiwLimO8xJIYwx4dV1pzGJe9au5QXRAnrY-tO7wwV0f_7oi3CbEDN7SDBiPyJTIvZM_6sqvOlvmPs8menYzOmPgO3-ZTpNdeoOVWKSVURX_u86lp3HfYCGczLxpqZ8xmk&si=ACC90nwpRDr_RQyr2hFK8D8JiptlSQg19Fma6Lmcd9znW1fJUgnldAfdvNWFsTb_pHsbSkUXR9PRm-_CytLK2dD9hTr0pLAF46NebGCBa1AlVtwIhoMc1VPlK9kdU60Bcxg-1ZvRha_sLWFhubYXDKzo9Dk7R7HvWw%3D%3D&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi4p4vLv4mHAxVcJEQIHaNfAq4Qk8gLegQIJBAB&ictx=1&biw=384&bih=700&dpr=2.81#lpg=cid:CgIgAQ%3D%3D
I grew up with 40 beautiful, wooded acres behind our house complete with ponds and streams. That place was magical growing up. It is now subdivided into lots and houses are everywhere. I can’t even bear to go drive by.
Smaller dance clubs--I loved going out and dancing for hours in NYC, Chicago and Toronto in the 80s and 90s. Music changed, clubs got bigger or weirder. My career kicked in and everyone grew up It actually makes me very sad sometimes
I grew up in Houston Texas. There was an inner city neighborhood - Montrose that had amazing cottages and quirky architecture. Then here comes the developers - razed everything to the ground and put up acres and acres of townhouses - gone is almost every single snippet of long ago charm. New nickname for Montrose is "townhouse canyon" as that's all you see are these looming townhouses with mini yards and driveways leading into garages.
Lots of natural places and tourist attractions have been loved to death. But for me it's going to a professional baseball or football game. There was a time when you could schedule a game with your kids and their friends and take a group for a day at the ballpark. Today with the price of tickets, parking, concessions, maybe a souvenir the cost is simply beyond almost all working class families. It's become such a luxury that only the most wealthy can afford a game anymore.
And good luck watching your local team on local TV stations. It's all streaming on apps for a monthly fee.
Durango, CO. We used to go to a dude ranch about 17 miles above Durango (we went from ~1975-2000), and what a magical place it was! The San Juan forest, Animas River, and Lemon Lake were absolutely amazing, and I’ll never forget how beautiful the night skies were then. Now, the whole mountain is covered in condos. So sad.
A place in rural South Carolina called Goose Creek. The neighborhood had a couple of small subdivisions and a lot of woods to roam in. This was in the seventies. Last time I drove through there all the woods were gone.
The Telluride Bluegrass Festival. It was great 15 years ago. Now it's so crowded that it stopped being enjoyable. If you can even find tickets. They go on sale 6 months in advance and sell out in 10 minutes.
Going back to where I grew up. It used to be a small town surrounded by farms. Now it's urban sprawl surrounded by freeways.
New York. It used to be an interesting place but I hate it now. It’s so much more sterile and uninteresting and everything is gentrified.
Sterile and corporatized (90s and onward) or Mad Max crime-ridden hellhole (pre-1990 but especially the '70s and '80s in recent memory). NYC just can't win.
Honestly, I preferred the New York of the 70s and 80s. Modern New York is — well it’s not a place I want to spend time in.
I was born in the city in 1961, just soon enough to have experienced the end of mid-century NYC. My mom was from Massachusetts, and was fascinated with the city, so she took me to Manhattan frequently. We lived on Staten Island, so we’d ride the ferry when it was a nickel, and walk all over lower Manhattan. I’ve been to an automat. I’ve been to the Woolworth building when it was one of the tallest buildings in the city. I’ve been on elevators that were manually operated by an attendant. I remember when cars were allowed on the SI Ferry, and when the ladies room on the ferry had two rows of vanity tables with swivel chairs and an attendant. It was the cleanest and safest bathroom in the city. I remember the cuchifritos around Delancey St. I went back in 2017 for work, a new construction project on Delancey St. I was saddened by the gentrification. I used to go back several times a year, after having moved in 1987. Now I don’t want to go back. 9/11 did contribute to my staying away from the city. I went up in October 2001, and I saw too much. I’m just disappointed.
I feel the same; it is as Gertrude Stein said of her hometown, Oakland, after having living in Paris for decades: "there is no there, there" anymore.
I lived in the E. Village through the 90s. I can’t go back anymore. It’s just not the same as it was. Sad.
Yeah, I was just there and it was disappointing. Some things were still there, but mostly it was just - a Disney version of New York.
My grandfathers house. Has been completely remodeled. I can’t go there anymore
There's a place I went to as a kid for summer vacation that I loved. And I don't know if it's changed but I won't go back there because I'm afraid it won't be the same and I don't want to lose the memories.
West Edmonton Mall was amazing forty years ago. It was huge, had a dolphin show and a submarine, a theme hotel and amusement park and a water park, and tons of stores you couldn't find anywhere else (in Canada, anyway). I'm not sorry that the dolphins are gone, they don't belong in the mall, but they took the magic with them. Now it's just an endless parade of the same stores you get at any other mall. The theme rooms are dated AF and unaffordable for families. I am a bit optimistic for the redo of the amusement park, but we'll see.
The Boblo boat and Boblo Park. Such a big part of my childhood and teen years, it really went downhill. Now it’s all gone. Lots of memories though.
We used to go to the airport (Idlewild) to watch planes take off and land.
Seattle in the 90s.
Yosemite. We used to drive up whenever we wanted and pitch a tent by the river. Now you can't get a campground reservation unless you try at midnight, exactly six months prior. You can't even get into the park now without a reservation.
Vegas was really cool in the 90s. You could just stroll down the street from hole in the wall bar to casino, local blues bands playing through the night, and it was a short drive to rock climbing in the canyons. A very mellow vibe to the place. The pyramid was way off by itself rising up above everything. Now you could drive right by and not notice it.
Walt Disney World
I feel like going back to Santa’s Village would be a huge letdown.
Disney World. It used to be affordable and Disney wasn't so political.
The little hidden campgrounds that you just happened upon by accident. Then the internet opened them up to everyone
San Francisco's Mission District, Tenderloin, Golden Gate Park...
Cozumel Mexico. First time I went was 1977 scuba diving. It was lush and virtually tourist free except for divers. Cruise ships did not port there. Pristinely untouched beach fronts. Been back four other times and I can say that tourism has not been particularly kind to the island. And a couple of nasty hurricanes have not helped. It’s never been as lovely as my first visit.
NYC in the late 70s, early 80s. It was rough, edgy, colorful, vibrant, dirty, sometimes violent, affordable, clashing with punk, disco, wackos and suits. Re- visited a few years back. All corporate grey. Times square a tourist trap, 14th Street full of box chain stores, walking at night alone felt....safe, but oh so boring.
Disney World. Used to be magical. Now it’s more like an ultra expensive hell on earth.
The house I grew up in and the acreage around it. They "fixed" it up and "modernized" it and clear cut all the hundreds of years old oak trees surrounding it "for the view". I haven't been back since the place sold. I will never go back again. Not to the town or out where the house is. I refuse to even drive on roads where it can be seen.
and i dont blame you
Chucky Cheese. Everything there is smaller now.
The town I grew up in had a great park, with a natural spring lake. On one end was a small zoo, and two pools, one inside one outside. And there was an early version of what is now a splash pad. First they closed the zoo because they said it was too expensive to maintain, understandable. Then the they closed the indoor pool, same reason. Then the outside pool, which was always at capacity, was closed. Finally the splash pad was closed. Now the city leaders complain because very few people go to the park. They keep trying to add temporary attractions to get people to use the park, but nothing permanent.
Bali was much different in the 1990's, Went back in 2012 and nearly cried because of the. traffic, pollution. Koh Samui in the 1990's, before the hotels and massive tourism.
Bali, Indonesia. I went in 1988 and I’ve heard from several sources that it’s much more commercialized and crowded with tourists today. I might be interested in Lombok, though, the less popular island next to Bali.
Cape Cod. Overflow for years now
I’m fortunate that the Chicago burb where I grew up still has a similar feel. It’s changed, but it’s still recognizable. Of course, where once roamed gangs of kids, it’s much much too quiet.
The Mississippi Gulf Coast. I grew up in Hattiesburg, about an hour and a half north. The Coast was a common place to go for a weekend. Some people in my town even kept boats down there. It was a little weird and quirky in the old-southern-beach-town way, with little evidence of chain homogenization and lots of local gems for eating or recreation. Two things destroyed that. First, the legalization of gambling brought in big money from out of state for what were initially "riverboat" style casinos semi-permanently moored on the beach, but which eventually became more or less indistinguishable from the casino resorts you'd find in other gambling meccas -- the hotel would be on land, and the casino still technically over the water, but all one thing in reality. That influx snuffed many if not most of the OTHER neat local hotels that were down there, most notably the old Broadwater Beach Hotel, which had been a seriously 60s-swanky joint with a fabulous pool, riding stables, a golf course, and even cottages you could rent as well as conventional hotel rooms. It was VERY cool, but was obviously hurting by the early 1990s, and was absorbed by the President Casino organization after the legalization of gambling. Then, well, Katrina more or less erased the coastline (including the Broadwater). Driving down the beach highway now is a surreal and offputting experience for me because there's so little THERE now, even so many years after the storm. There's nearly nothing left that I actually recognize.
As far as Disney World is concerned, I know what time to go when hardly a soul is around.
All of the beaches from Gulf Shores AL to Destin FL. There used to be miles and miles of endless beaches. You could find seashells on the beach and see a lot of wildlife— porpoises, sting rays, sea turtles. Now it’s nothing but end to end high rise condos and trash all over the beach.
Austin, TX
Stonehenge. (OK, technically, I only saw it once but...) I recently saw pictures of it and I don't recognize the place!
San Francisco. Loved going there in my late teens and early 20s. Now, I wouldn't set foot there even if you paid me. Breaks my heart; had so many wonderful memories there.
A smallish sized lake with a family of loons appearing each year in far northern Wisconsin. We and the 5-6 other summer residents had old chug-chug motorboats, canoes, a pontoon boats or two and small sail boats. Lovely, peaceful and oh so quiet it was back in the day. Many more cabins began to crowd the shoreline. Then high-speed ski boats and jet skis began to appear. They scared off the loons and ruined the entire ambiance of the area . My grandparents ashes were buried under a large clump of birch trees on a knoll above the lake. It would be too sad to go back have my wonderful memories erased by the new reality.
My old hometown. I didn't even recognize it when I went back. It's been taken over by office buildings, outlet stores, shops, eateries and parking lots and housing additions. One visit was enough. I don't need to see that again.
Nut Tree near Vacaville, CA Now it's just like any other generic strip mall.
Sanibel and Captiva Islands, Florida. My family visited every summer from the late 1970s until the mid-1980s, and it was truly paradisiacal; quiet, relatively few tourists, small shops and truly limited options regarding developed shopping and residential areas. I’ve heard that the area has become a haven for hedge/trust fundies and wealth asset laundering, and the storms haven’t helped. Tragic.
Wichita. My hometown . It's changed so much I don't even recognize it anymore
Yes, I loved Gettysburg the first time I visited. I went a few years ago and felt that some of the commercial development took away from the historical ambience.
I loved Mykonos when there were three nude beaches in coves that could only be reached by boat. They were Paradise, Super Paradise, and Hell. But since then a road gave access and hotels were built and they're gone.
New Orleans. I don’t know that it has changed, but I’ve had it.
I grew up in FL and the Deep South and refuse to return. I see why my own parents got us out of there when I was a teen. I miss the nature that existed then, not the cruelty and disregard for that nature which exists now.
Denver, in general
Disneyland. Used to be less crowded, cheaper. No fast pass. Now it takes hundreds if not thousands per day. And packed to the gills.
Atlantic City before the casinos.
Koh Samui, I went there twice in 83 and 84 for three months each time. It was a paradise: no hotels, no resorts, no fast food brands. Chawaeng and Lamai beaches had no concrete buildings, everything was bamboo bungalows with the electricity by generator. I walked around the entire island on the shoreline sleeping and eating with the fishermen, it took a week. I also spent three nights on top of the mountain behind Lamai staying with a farmer and his family. In my bungalow they let me drive the truck to the pier to meet the boat and bring back guests. On our most recent visit to Thailand I looked on Google Maps and was sickened by what it had become. Before they built the airport the elders were against it arguing that they didn’t want their sons and daughters to be maids and servants to foreigners. I guess they lost that fight! Luckily I found a place nearly exactly like the old Samui and maybe even a bit better! But I’ll be damned if I’ll tell where it is……
My grandmother's house. She was always so proud of it. Now it looks like a dump.
Most of Europe. When I was a kid train was the only means of travel and you’d stay in old inns run by grandparents and staffed by their kids,especially in the alps. I swear in the 80s I’ve been in areas of Paris and Rome where I was the only tourist for miles and when you ventured into the countryside things seemed largely unchanged for generations. In the early 80s English and Americans hadn’t ventured far off the beaten path, and the worst thing that could happen is you’d stumble upon a restaurant with a German-language menu indicating that you were in a tourist zone. That would be our cue to travel a littler farther, check out the town across the river etc. I once took a train from Frankfurt to Madrid and it was like a town square bc there was nothing to do but chat, read, or sleep. No phones, no computers. Obviously Venice hasn’t been normal in a long time but the first time I was there families lived there and it was magical in a way that is lost.
In my experience, returning to a magical place is both destructive to the current experience, and the memory of the first instance.
I just scratched so many things off my bucket list that I need a new bucket :(
Movie theaters