Our old-timey addiction: Why we can’t get enough of century-old images ( Henry Grabar, Salon.com ) This nostalgia is not special to New York, though it does run strongly here. As a city marked by great migrations, the city claims millions of exiles. It’s said that nearly half of New York City’s population has turned over in the past decade alone. And whatever sentimentalism lay buried in the hearts of those supposedly callous and busy urbanites who currently live here has come rushing to the surface in recent months, as the end of the Bloomberg era provokes a collective flood of reminiscence. The pace of change has left many feeling like castaways marooned by time if not by place, and it’s easy to see how groups like Berkun’s “Old Images of New York” might provide a tonic, in addition to attracting aficionados of fashion, architecture and automobile design This fixation on “the way we were” has historically been considered an afflicti...