This week, “Selling the City in Crisis” by Miriam Greenberg and Roger Starr’s “Making New York Smaller” were informative yet depressing. Theyr lays out many problems that New York City faced back in the 60s.
In contrast to New York City today, where excessive richness and congested traffic spread throughout the streets, New York City in the 60s was one of the worst places to live in. The crime rate was nearly 95% for more than a decade with reports of murders, mugging, and drugs were disseminated regularly on television. Vivid portrayal within the article were nauseating and thrilling. Even worse, Eisenhower’s highway projects facilitated outward immigration trend, making it easier for concerned parties to leave the city in the dust with all its notorious reputation.
Moreover, the city was in an economic crisis. Businesses declined proportionally to the rise of crime and interest rate. In 1963, bond’s rating was downgraded to “high risk,” forcing city officials to expensively borrow money to maintain the city. The combined effect pushed the city deeper into excessive borrowing and high level of debt, thus sinking the bond’s rating even lower. Neither the business nor the bonds of the city could be sold; New York City was losing a battle against the recession.
Since a city’s image strongly impacts its attractiveness to and the morale of the people, above-listed problems aggravated existing problems and caused new problems by further depressing New Yorkers who had already been stressed enough. The negative public image, in turn, pushed away both potential investments into and people away from the city. The United States Government was so repulsed by the city, seemingly regarding as a diseased spot that need to be left untouched, continuously declined funding and resources to resuscitate the City. Nowadays, one can see that the government has had a “fonder” view about New York City, continuously bailout banks and corporations of which headquarters are in New York all the while regarding it as the place where greed was born and presently resides.
Having mentally experienced what New York has been through through the pages, it is still hard for me to believe how bad the situation was back then. Upon realizing that, I have a better outlook on its current situation. The present does not seem so bad comparing to the past. I am now more grateful of the luck that we are currently enjoying. It’s not that bad after all.
