{"id":373119,"date":"2026-10-14T18:10:34","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T18:10:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/373119\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T18:10:34","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T18:10:34","slug":"8-ways-new-york-city-has-changed-since-girls-dominated-tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/373119\/","title":{"rendered":"8 Ways New York City Has Changed Since &#8216;Girls&#8217; Dominated TV"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The\u00a0girls\u00a0are back!<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re over the moon about the news that, a decade since that\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/newyork\/blog\/warning-the-series-finale-of-girls-will-probably-disappoint-you-041717\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">surprisingly lowkey series finale<\/a>, Lena Dunham&#8217;s\u00a0Emmy-winning\u00a0HBO comedy\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/newyork\/blog\/the-10-best-new-york-moments-from-hbos-girls-041317\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Girls<\/a>\u00a0is coming back for a limited-series revival.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Yes, the\u00a0voice-of-a-generation series will officially return for five episodes on HBO and HBO Max, with executive producer Judd Apatow returning as well as the original cast, including Dunham as Hannah, Allison Williams as Marnie, Jemima Kirke as Jessa, Zosia Mamet as Shoshanna, Andrew Rannells as Elijah. (So far, there\u2019s no word whether Adam Driver will return as Adam Sackler, but we\u2019re highly skeptical he\u2019d make an appearance given the whole hoopla over Dunham&#8217;s 2026 memoir Famesick.)\u00a0Production will reportedly begin in 2027, though no official release date has been announced just yet.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>RECOMMENDED:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/usa\/news\/hbo-max-and-paramount-will-be-combined-into-one-streaming-app-101126\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">HBO Max and Paramount+ will be combined into one streaming app<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe always said we would only return to GIRLS if there was a specific story we were burning to tell,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/newyork\/things-to-do\/lena-dunham-in-time-out-new-york\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lena Dunham<\/a> said in the series announcement. \u201cI&#8217;ve missed these characters, but for a long time I couldn\u2019t quite picture them in the present day. Then, right around my fortieth birthday, they started talking to me in the shower. And, as you may remember, once this fivesome starts talking it\u2019s pretty hard to get them to stop\u2026 It\u2019s rare that you get the chance to return to something that changed your life with the gift of hindsight and a whole new level of gratitude and understanding. I love these girls (and boy), our friends at HBO, and all the people who have continued to discover the show and remind us afresh why we do this, which is the joy of being together\u2026 and the chance to wear yellow mesh\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the reboot, the core four will be entering their forties,\u00a0so you can bet they\u2019ve grown and changed, but they\u2019ll still be the\u00a0\u201cgirls\u201d we know and love,\u00a0assures Amy Gravitt, the executive vice president and head of HBO &amp; HBO Max Comedy Programming.<\/p>\n<p>Like Jessa, Marnie, Hannah and Shoshanna, New York City, too, has\u00a0undergone some pretty foundational changes since the last episode of Girls aired.\u00a0For starters\u2026<\/p>\n<p>1. Rents are much higher\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Back inn 2017, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.furmancenter.org\/news\/state-of-new-york-citys-housing-and-neighborhoods-in-2017\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">median rent was $2,695<\/a> per month. Now? It\u2019s $3,707 per month, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.realtor.com\/research\/nyc-q2-2026-rent\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Realtor.com<\/a>. That\u2019s $1,000 more than it was 10 years ago. In fact, the average Manhattan apartment is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/newyork\/news\/average-manhattan-rents-are-nearing-7-000-a-month-the-highest-in-nyc-history-081326\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">now renting for $6,655 a month<\/a>, a figure that would astound Hannah and Co., who would now be priced out of neighborhoods (Brooklyn Heights, Greenpoint, Chinatown) that they\u00a0long called home.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>2. Fewer places are open 24\/7<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to the pandemic and economic factors, many local businesses, diners and transit-adjacent spots never returned to full 24\/7 operations after\u00a0COVID-related\u00a0closures. In fact, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/newyork\/restaurants\/24-hour-restaurants-in-nyc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the <\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/newyork\/restaurants\/24-hour-restaurants-in-nyc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">24-hour diner<\/a> is a rarity these days, rather than the standard.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/newyork\/restaurants\/kelloggs-diner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kellogg\u2019s Diner<\/a>, where Hannah and Adam shared a heartbreaking realization (and where <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qUYu7GJ5XKg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">the \u201cgood soup\u201d meme<\/a> came from) is still around, thankfully, and serving up more of a Tex-Mex menu after it changed ownership in 2023.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" id=\"a456be6f-6ba9-cb02-4de1-3765a8cad936\" class=\"photo lazy inline\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"lazy-embed\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792001434_355_image.webp\" alt=\"Lena Dunham and Adam Driver in &quot;Girls&quot;\" data-caption=\"Lena Dunham and Adam Driver in &quot;Girls&quot;\" data-credit=\"Photograph: Courtesy HBO\" data-width-class=\"\" data-image-id=\"106457325\"\/>&#13;<br \/>\nPhotograph: Courtesy HBOLena Dunham and Adam Driver in &#8220;Girls&#8221;&#13;<\/p>\n<p>3. We\u2019re working from home more<\/p>\n<p>Some of us have been working remotely since 2020. The pandemic showed employers and workers that an office is not necessary to get work done. Back in 2024, about 11-percent of\u00a0New Yorkers reported they <a href=\"https:\/\/bronx.news12.com\/the-real-deal-are-remote-jobs-still-available-for-new-york-workers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">were still working remotely<\/a>, but more and more, companies are requiring their staff to return to the office. It\u2019s still not what it used to be in 2017, though, and some office spaces are still empty.<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/newyork\/news\/recent-data-says-midtowns-empty-offices-could-yield-74-000-new-nyc-apartments-072825\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">new study<\/a> finds that midtown could lead the country in converting unused office space into housing, with enough empty square footage to potentially yield 78,121 new apartments. And it&#8217;s certainly\u00a0possible that some of the Girls&#8217; girls would work from home in the reboot.<\/p>\n<p>4. Influencers are the new hipster<\/p>\n<p>TikTok, which took off in the U.S. in 2020, reshaped the social landscape in New York City. Influencers, who\u00a0are\u00a0for better or worse ubiquitous on city streets, now drive lines for viral items and experiences, and help mold IRL trends. They, like the once-maligned Williamsburg hipster, get plenty of eye rolls. If we&#8217;d had to\u00a0wager which Girls characters would either be under the trance of influencers (if not an influencer themselves), it would be Marnie or Shoshanna.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>5. The skyline has changed<\/p>\n<p>The skyline looked very different even 10 years ago. With Hudson Yards opening in 2019, Little Island in 2021 and Billionaire\u2019s Row taking shape along 57th Street and Central Park South across the last 10 years, the very visuals of New York is markedly different from Girls&#8217; heyday.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" id=\"8e491742-4e26-2048-c732-0fc6c3439bd3\" class=\"photo lazy inline\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"lazy-embed\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792001434_175_image.webp\" alt=\"Christopher Abbott and Alison Williams in &quot;Girls&quot;\" data-caption=\"Christopher Abbott and Alison Williams in &quot;Girls&quot;\" data-credit=\"Photograph: Courtesy HBO\" data-width-class=\"\" data-image-id=\"106457326\"\/>&#13;<br \/>\nPhotograph: Courtesy HBOChristopher Abbott and Alison Williams in &#8220;Girls&#8221;&#13;<\/p>\n<p>6. The MetroCard was phased out<\/p>\n<p>OMNY is now the MTA\u2019s card of choice. Now we tap in and out of the subway system, rather than swiping with the MetroCard. Some of us just used our credit card-enabled phones to pay. It\u2019s much more high tech and standard than the MetroCard was, even though we miss it for nostalgic reasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>7. Gowanus was rezoned<\/p>\n<p>The toxic Gowanus Canal is now a water feature people actually want to live next to. When Girls was on from 2012 to 2017,\u00a0the Brooklyn neighborhood was mostly an artist haven that hadn\u2019t quite gentrified yet. But in 2021, the area was rezoned to allow 8,500 to 9,300 new residential units. Since then, there\u2019s been an influx of luxury residential buildings cropping up, totally changing the neighborhood forever.<\/p>\n<p>8. LaGuardia became\u00a0NYC&#8217;s best airport<\/p>\n<p>In 2017, LaGuardia Airport ranked dead last in North America in J.D. Power\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/newyork\/blog\/a-new-survey-says-that-laguardia-is-far-and-away-the-worst-airport-in-the-country-092517\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">North American Airport Satisfaction Study<\/a>, scoring 654 out of 1,000 against a 749 national average. In other words, it was horrible to fly out of. That year, however, the FAA approved the East Side Reconfiguration, paving the way for the demolition of older terminals and the consolidation of Delta&#8217;s operations, and construction on Terminal B kicked off. Now? It\u2019s the best NYC-area airport, winning the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.panynj.gov\/port-authority\/en\/press-room\/press-release-archives\/2026-press-releases\/laguardia-airport-recognized-by-world-s-leading-passenger-survey.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">2025 Airport Service Quality Award<\/a> for Best North American Airport Serving 25 Million to 40 Million Annual Passengers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The\u00a0girls\u00a0are back! We\u2019re over the moon about the news that, a decade since that\u00a0surprisingly lowkey series finale, Lena&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1739,9,11,10,2480,904],"class_list":["post-373119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-categories-things-to-do","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-news-city-life","tag-things-to-do"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}