Why was it closed 40 years ago?
They cut things to the bone. Where I grew up in Queens, a store was held up at gunpoint, and the police response time was something like 2 hours.
See: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/25/when-new-york-t...
Another time, my dad and I were bringing some stuff to an elderly family friend somewhere around Greenpoint or Williamsburg. We stopped at some store on the way back to make a phone call, was gone no more than 5-7 minutes and "poof", wheels were gone from the car.