did fire hydrants used to be shittier. like less well constructed. i feel like "broken fire hydrants spraying the street" are a thing in fiction set in NYC in like the 70s and 80s but not modern stuff

My impression was that people, like, intentionally broke open fire hydrants for free cool water to run around in/enjoy during heat waves?

No idea if air conditioning is cheaper now or the fire hydrants are harder to break though,yeah.

by Weegee, Summer on the Lower East Side, 1937

100% intentional, only happens in the summer. There may be other reasons why that doesn’t seem to happen any more, but I think the main one is that opening a fire hydrant was a classic method to amuse and delight children (and spare them from the summer heat). And the big change is: children don’t go out to play any more. At least not that much, and not in the big city.

If you look at mid-20th century street photos, from American cities and especially New York, kids are everywhere, they play in the street, they sit on the pavement and read comic books, they climb, they run, they play hopscotch. And in the summer, they crack open a fire hydrant (or maybe an adult does it for them) and they fool around with the water. 

by Bruce Davidson, East 100th Street, Harlem, 1966

That happens A LOT less these days. Public spaces have shrunk, parents are more controlling in that regard, leaving kids unsupervised is becoming less and less acceptable, leaving kids in a place that's not fenced seems scary now, there is WAY more traffic, there are cars everywhere, and crime, uh, crime has gone down actually, but you know how it is.

Also, things used to be less private. Before Manhattan got gentrified, people used to sleep outside during heat waves, laying on the fire escapes, because it was too hot to sleep inside and they just didn't care if their neighbours saw them in their nightgowns.

And more generally, people (and kids) spent a lot of time outside because inside sucked: it was too poor, too cramped, too hot, and there was no internet. In many places the inside still sucks, of course, but the overall verdict remains: if the kids don't open fire hydrants in the streets any more, it's because the kids aren't there.

(See after the cut for a tiny sample of the MILLION photos with children playing in the streets of 20th century New York.)

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New York City, 1938

Photo: Helen Levitt

New York - Under the Elevated Rail Tracks - Third Avenue - 1946

Photo by Todd Webb