Oh no, not safe streets!

Scripps Howard: Hardy readers who ventured deep enough into the Sunday New York Times to reach page 17 of the Arts & amp; Leisure section were rewarded with some startling news combining entertainment and urban planning.
Under the headline "From Mean Streets to Clean Streets," reporter John Clark recounted how filmmakers are now thinking that the Big Apple has become too polished and is no longer edgy, dirty and dangerous enough.
Organized crime
"Traditionally," Clark writes, "one of the most cinematically exploitable aspects of New York has been its reputation as a cauldron of organized crime, corruption and narcotics."
In the '70s and late '60s, it seemed that whatever urban hell America's big cities were headed for, New York would get there first and a host of movies used that descent as a seamy urban backdrop -- "The French Connection," "Midnight Cowboy," "Little Murders." It is a substantial body of work.
Alas -- if you're a visiting filmmaker and not a resident New Yorker -- the city has cleaned up its act and is safe, clean and livable to a fault.
"Times Square, once home to drug dealers, prostitutes and beleaguered theaters, has morphed into a Mickey Mouse mall.The West 50s, formerly part of the notorious Hell's Kitchen, have sprouted condos, fancy restaurants and the Comedy Central studios," Clark notes.
Stunt doubles
The upshot: Other cities like Toronto and Boston stand in as stunt doubles for New York. The most recent "King Kong," a film forever bound up with the Empire State building, was shot in New Zealand. And 9/11's ground zero for Oliver Stone's forthcoming "World Trade Center" is being done in Southern California.