History of New York City (1978–present)

The history of New York City (1978–present) has seen a cycle of modest boom and a bust in the 1980s, a major boom in the 1990s, and mixed prospects since then. This period has seen severe racial tension, a dramatic spike and fall of crime rates, and a major influx of immigrants growing the city's population past the eight million mark. The September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001 had a lasting impact on the city that continues to reverberate to the present.

Koch and Dinkins

Compared to the 1970s, the 1980s were a time of restrained optimism in New York. The boom on Wall Street was fueling the speculative real estate market, and unemployment numbers dropped noticeably, however, the city's reputation for crime and disorder was still very much a part of New Yorkers' daily lives.[1][2][3] Mayor Ed Koch repeatedly warned that filth, crime, and racial tensions were weakening the city. He put a high priority on rebuilding neighborhoods and infrastructure. One result was that gentrification brought new businesses to decrepit neighborhoods corners and converted low-end rental housing to co-ops and condos that attracted young upscale professionals and business people. Koch's energetic efforts brought enormous attention from the media, but critics condemned his attacks on his opponents as "crazy," "wackos," and "radicals" and alleged he was racially divisive.[4]

For years enormous attention followed the criminal trials resulted when a woman known as the Central Park Jogger was badly beaten and raped.[5] The illegal drug trade flourished, causing the murder rate to soar, and dividing the city into areas ruled by different drug lords. It became known as the crack epidemic.[6] The New York City Subway fell victim to a crime epidemic that saw more crimes being committed on the subway each year than in any other subway system around the world.[7]

Homelessness became a serious problem during the 1980s,[8] specifically in the last two of Edward Koch's three terms as mayor (1978–1990). The city outlawed discrimination against gay and lesbian people in such matters as employment and housing in 1986.[9] In 1989, Koch was defeated by David Dinkins in the Democratic Party primary in his bid for a fourth term, and then Dinkins narrowly defeated Republican Rudolph Giuliani in the general election to become the city's first-ever black mayor.[10] Crime began a 15-year decline in 1990 during Dinkins's administration, but a combination of continued racial strife (such as that in the Crown Heights Riot in 1991),[11][12] and an extremely weak economy (in January 1993 the city's unemployment rate reached 13.4 percent, the highest level of joblessness seen there since the Great Depression).[13] This caused Dinkins' popularity to seriously decline (including a threat by residents of Staten Island to secede from the city, where in a 1993 referendum, 65% voted to secede, but implementation was blocked in the State Assembly).[14]

On February 26, 1993, a truck bomb detonated in a basement garage of World Trade Center Tower One. The 1,336 pounds (606 kg) urea nitrate–hydrogen gas enhanced device[15] was intended to knock the North Tower (Tower One) into the South Tower (Tower Two), bringing both towers down and killing tens of thousands of people.[16][17] It failed to do so, but did kill six people and injured more than a thousand.[18]

In late 1993, David Dinkins was defeated by Rudolph Giuliani in his bid for reelection.[19]

Giuliani

NASDAQ MarketSite at Times Square.
The World Trade Center skyline before September 11, 2001.
The World Trade Center site after the September 11 attacks.

The city rebounded in the mid- and late 1990s due to the steady expansion of the national economy and the Wall Street stock market boom[20] that took place concomitantly, as well as the precipitous drop in crime, although stubbornly high unemployment remained a local problem. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor, is credited by many for revitalizing Times Square[21][22] and making the city more "liveable" by cracking down on crime.[23] Changes in the worldwide economy during this time proved to be especially favorable to New York because of its highly developed transportation and communications infrastructure, as well as its massive population base. Over the course of the decade, the city's image transformed from being one of a bygone, decaying metropolis to one of the world's preeminent "global cities."[24]

As for sports, 1994 saw a great chapter in the city's sports history, with the New York Rangers finally winning their first Stanley Cup since 1940[25][26] and the New York Knicks making it to the NBA Finals, where they lost in seven games to the Houston Rockets, at the same time.[27][28][29]

The Knicks made it to the NBA Finals again in 1999, where they lost in five games to the San Antonio Spurs.[30] The New York Yankees began a dynasty led by manager (and New Yorker) Joe Torre winning the World Series in 1996,[31][32][33] 1998,[34] 1999,[35] and 2000.[36]

September 2001

On September 11, 2001, hijackers linked to the jihadist organization Al-Qaeda piloted two airliners into each of the World Trade Center towers. The airplanes, designated for transcontinental flights and therefore fully loaded with jet fuel, crashed into the towers in the early morning hours of September 11. The crashes ripped gaping holes into the towers, and ignited fires that caused the towers to collapse. Together with a simultaneous attack on the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and a failed plane hijacking that resulted in a plane crash in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, 2,977 victims died in the attacks;[37] the 9/11 attacks led to a temporary exodus of business from Lower Manhattan to places such as Midtown Manhattan, Jersey City, and Brooklyn, as well as elsewhere, along with the need to reposition the broadcasting antennas of several television channels.[38] About 430,000 job-months and $2.8 billion in wages were lost in the three months after the attacks. The economic effects were mainly on the economy's export sectors.[39] The city's GDP was estimated to have declined by $27.3 billion for the last three months of 2001 and all of 2002. The U.S. government provided $11.2 billion in immediate assistance to the Government of New York City in September 2001, and $10.5 billion in early 2002 for economic development and infrastructure needs.[40] Hundreds of thousands of tons of toxic debris containing more than 2,500 contaminants, including known carcinogens, were spread across Lower Manhattan due to the collapse of the Twin Towers.[41][42] Exposure to the toxins in the debris is alleged to have contributed to fatal or debilitating illnesses among people who were at ground zero.[43][44] The Bush administration ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to issue reassuring statements regarding air quality in the aftermath of the attacks, citing national security, but the EPA did not determine that air quality had returned to pre-September 11 levels until June 2002.[45] Many other closings, evacuations, and cancellations followed the attack, either out of fear of further attacks or respect for the tragedy. Cleanup of the World Trade Center site was completed by the end of May 2002.[46]

Other disasters

On November 12, 2001, American Airlines Flight 587 crashed into the Belle Harbor neighborhood of Queens, killing all 260 people on board and five others on the ground. It was the second-deadliest aviation incident involving an Airbus A300, after Iran Air Flight 655 and the second-deadliest aviation incident to occur on U.S. soil, after American Airlines Flight 191. In terms of single-airplane crash incidents that were ruled accidental and not criminal, as of March 2014, no incident since then has surpassed that death toll, though before 2001 there had been deadlier incidents of this type. Although initially feared to be another act of terrorism,[47][48][49][50][51] the crash was eventually found to have been caused by pilot error.[52]

New York City was affected by the 2003 North America blackout on August 14, 2003, at 4:11 PM, leaving the city without electricity for over a day. Unlike in the New York City blackout of 1977, there was no major looting. However, during the blackout, Verizon's emergency generators failed several times, leaving the emergency services number 9-1-1 out of service for several periods of about a quarter-hour each. New York City's 311 information hotline received over 175,000 calls from concerned residents during the weekend. Amateur radio operators attached to New York City ARES provided a backup communications link to emergency shelters and hospitals. Amateur radio repeaters were supplied with emergency power and remained functional. Many major U.S. networks (CBS, NBC, ABC, and FOX) and some cable TV networks (such as HBO, MTV, and Nickelodeon) were unable to broadcast because of the lack of electricity in the New York City area, but back-up stations in Dallas and flagship transmitters there made it possible for prime-time television to be broadcast. (ABC chose instead to cover the news from Washington, D.C. during the blackout).[53]

Hurricane Irene brought a destructive storm surge to New York City on the evening of August 24–25, 2011. In Manhattan, the Hudson River flooded in the Meatpacking District.[54] Long Beach and Freeport, both of which experienced serious flooding, were among the worst-hit towns on Long Island,[55] and many roads were left impassable. The workers at Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan worked to make the World Trade Center site hurricane-proof, and escaped major damage, just missing the tenth anniversary of 9/11.[55] The winds knocked down many trees and power lines, leaving almost 350,000 homes and businesses without power in Nassau and Suffolk counties.[56]

Hurricane Sandy brought another destructive storm surge to New York City on the evening of October 29, 2012, flooding numerous streets, tunnels and subway lines in Lower Manhattan and other areas of the city and cutting off electricity in many parts of the city and its suburbs.[57] City public schools closed for four days.[58] CUNY and NYU canceled all classes and campus activities for October 30.[59] The New York Stock Exchange was closed for trading for two days, the first weather closure of the exchange since 1985.[60] It was also the first two-day weather closure since the Great Blizzard of 1888.[61] The East River overflowed its banks, flooding large sections of Lower Manhattan. Battery Park had a water surge of 13.88 ft.[62] Seven subway tunnels under the East River were flooded.[63] The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said that the destruction caused by the storm was the worst disaster in the 108-year history of the New York City subway system.[64] Sea water flooded the Ground Zero construction site.[65] Over 10 billion gallons of raw and partially treated sewage were released by the storm, 94% of which went into waters in and around New York and New Jersey.[66] In addition, a four-story Chelsea building's facade crumbled and collapsed, leaving the interior on full display; however, no one was hurt by the falling masonry.[67]

Bloomberg

Billionaire media baron Michael Bloomberg, a Republican, was elected mayor in 2001, and reelected in 2005 and 2009. He used a statistical, results-based approach to city management, appointing city commissioners based on their expertise and granting them wide autonomy in their decision-making. Breaking with 190 years of tradition, he implemented what New York Times political reporter Adam Nagourney called a "bullpen" open office plan, similar to a Wall Street trading floor, in which dozens of aides and managerial staff are seated together in a large chamber. The design is intended to promote accountability and accessibility.[68]

Over the next ten years, a wave of public- and private-sector building projects reshaped large sections of the city, and a residential construction boom has resulted in permits being issued for over 25,000 new residential units every year. While the 2012 Summer Olympics ultimately went to London, New York was among the finalists and the campaign resulted in a plan to replace Shea Stadium with a new stadium, as well as an extension of the 7 subway service.[69][70]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Johnson, Bruce D.; Golub, Andrew; Eloise Dunlap (2006). "The Rise and Decline of Hard Drugs, Drug Markets, and Violence in Inner-City New York". In Blumstein, Alfred; Wallman, Joel. The Crime Drop in America. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-86279-5.
  2. ↑ Karmen, Andrew (2000). New York Murder Mystery: The True Story Behind the Crime Crash of the 1990s. NYU Press. ISBN 0-8147-4717-5.
  3. ↑ Peter Kerr (April 18, 1987). "AGENTS TELL OF DRUG'S GRIP ON WALL STREET". The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-01-15.
  4. ↑ Jonathan Soffer, Ed Koch and the Rebuilding of New York City (2010)
  5. ↑ Lynnell Hancock, "Wolf pack: the press and the Central Park jogger," Columbia Journalism Review (2003) online
  6. ↑ "DEA History Book, 1876–1990" (drug usage & enforcement), US Department of Justice, 1991, USDoJ.gov webpage: DoJ-DEA-History-1985-1990.
  7. ↑ nycsubway.org—The New York Transit Authority in the 1970s
  8. ↑ Scherl DJ, Macht LB (September 1979). "Deinstitutionalization in the absence of consensus". Hosp Community Psychiatry. 30 (9): 599–604. doi:10.1176/ps.30.9.599. PMID 223959.
  9. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/1986/04/15/business/business-and-the-law-aids-and-job-discrimination.html
  10. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/1989/11/09/nyregion/the-1989-elections-the-new-york-vote-almost-lost-at-the-wire.html
  11. ↑ William Glaberson, "Judge Accepts a Guilty Plea in '91 Crown Heights Unrest", The New York Times, April 13, 2002.
  12. ↑ "Beep Honor Peace Coalition: Crown Heights leaders reflect on 10-year milestone", New York Daily News, August 23, 2001.
  13. ↑ Johnson, Kirk (March 6, 1997). "New York City Has Sharp Rise In Jobless Rate". The New York Times. Retrieved May 1, 2014.
  14. ↑ McFadden, Robert D. (March 5, 1994). "'Home Rule' Factor May Block S.I. Secession". The New York Times. Retrieved October 20, 2009.
  15. ↑ Whitlock, Craig (2005-07-05). "Homemade, Cheap and dangerous – Terror Cells Favor from {megan anderson} Simple Ingredients In Building Bombs". Washington Post. Retrieved 9 September 2009.
  16. ↑ Childers, J. Gilmore; Henry J. DePippo (1998-02-24). "Senate Judiciary Committee Hearings: Foreign Terrorists in America: Five Years After the World Trade Center". US Senate Judiciary Committee. Archived from the original on 2007-12-27. Retrieved 2008-01-08.
  17. ↑ Wright, Lawrence, Looming Tower, Knopf, (2006) p. 178.
  18. ↑ "FBI 100 First Strike: Global Terror in America". FBI.gov. Retrieved 2011-09-08.
  19. ↑ Purdum, Todd S. (November 3, 1993). "Giuliani ousts Dinkins by a thin margin ...". The New York Times.
  20. ↑ Aaron Donovan (September 9, 2001). "If You're Thinking of Living In/The Financial District; In Wall Street's Canyons, Cliff Dwellers". The New York Times: Real Estate. Retrieved 2010-01-14.
  21. ↑ Macek, Steve. Urban Nightmares: The Media, the Right, And the Moral Panic Over the City. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. p. 111. ISBN 9780816643608.
  22. ↑ Rofes, Eric E. (2001). "Imperial New York: Destruction and Disneyfication under Emperor Giuliani. Review of Times Square Red, Times Square Blue. Samuel R. Delany. New York: New York University Press, 1999". GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies. 7 (1): 101–09. doi:10.1215/10642684-7-1-101.
  23. ↑ "NYC crime rate cut with penalties", BCHeights.com, November 3, 2005
  24. ↑ Sassen, Saskia - The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo. (1991) - Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-07063-6
  25. ↑ Morrison, Scott (2008). Hockey Night in Canada: My Greatest Day. Toronto: Key Porter Books. p. 106.
  26. ↑ LaPointe, Joe (May 28, 1994). "2 Overtimes Later, It's a Final and It's the Rangers". New York Times. p. 27. Retrieved June 5, 2011.
  27. ↑ Blinebury, Fran (June 13, 2004). "BELIEVE IT: 10 YEARS LATER; 'The Times of Our Lives'". The Houston Chronicle. p. 1.
  28. ↑ Hahn, Alan (June 14, 2009). "After huge effort, Knicks fall short". Newsday. p. A79. Retrieved September 7, 2009.
  29. ↑ NHL Stanley Cup Winners Vol 4: June 14, 1994: Vancouver Canucks vs New York Rangers-Stanley Cup Game 7 on YouTube
  30. ↑ Official Website on NBA.com at the Wayback Machine (archived October 12, 1999)
  31. ↑ Costello, Brian (August 8, 2004). "'94 Yanks Cut Short". New York Post. p. 58.
  32. ↑ Curry, Jack (August 26, 2002). "Lost Games, Lost Dreams". The New York Times. p. D1. Retrieved June 20, 2009.
  33. ↑ Amore, Dom (May 15, 2005). "Imagine: Buck's Yankees, but Not Jeter's". The Hartford Courant. p. E8.
  34. ↑ Forman, Sean L. "1998 World Series". Baseball-Reference.com - Major League Statistics and Information. Archived from the original on December 12, 2007. Retrieved December 9, 2007.
  35. ↑ 1999 World Series Coverage
  36. ↑ The subway series: the Yankees, the Mets and a season to remember. St. Louis, Mo.: The Sporting News. 2000. ISBN 0-89204-659-7.
  37. ↑ "Lost lives remembered during 9/11 ceremony". The Online Rocket. September 12, 2008. Archived from the original on September 16, 2010. Retrieved August 29, 2010. Retrieved from Internet Archive 15 February 2014.
  38. ↑ Bloomfield, Larry (October 1, 2001). "New York broadcasters rebuild". Broadcast Engineering. Archived from the original on 2008-06-04. Retrieved 2011-09-03.
  39. ↑ Dolfman, Michael L.; Wasser, Solidelle F. (2004). "9/11 and the New York City Economy". Monthly Labor Review. 127.
  40. ↑ Makinen, Gail (September 27, 2002). "The Economic Effects of 9/11: A Retrospective Assessment" (PDF). Congressional Research Service. Library of Congress. p. 5. Retrieved 2011-09-04.
  41. ↑ Gates, Anita (September 11, 2006). "Buildings Rise from Rubble while Health Crumbles". The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-09-04.
  42. ↑ "What was Found in the Dust". New York Times. September 5, 2006. Retrieved 2011-09-04.
  43. ↑ "New York: 9/11 toxins caused death". CNN. May 24, 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-06-18. Retrieved 2011-09-04.
  44. ↑ DePalma, Anthony (May 13, 2006). "Tracing Lung Ailments That Rose With 9/11 Dust". The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-09-04.
  45. ↑ Heilprin, John (June 23, 2003). "White House edited EPA's 9/11 reports". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved 2011-09-04.
  46. ↑ "Ceremony closes 'Ground Zero' cleanup". CNN. May 30, 2002. Archived from the original on 2008-12-01. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  47. ↑ United States. Congress. House. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims, "The need to implement WHTI to protect U.S. homeland security", 2006. p. 24 of transcripts
  48. ↑ Bell, Stewart (2005). The Martyr's Oath. p. 157.
  49. ↑ Bell, Stewart (August 27, 2004). "Montreal man downed US plane, CSIS told". National Post. Retrieved October 16, 2013.
  50. ↑ "Canadian Report Causes AA 587 Stir". Wave of Long Island. September 3, 2004. Retrieved October 16, 2013.
  51. ↑ Pipes, Daniel (August 30, 2004). "Why did American Airlines 587 Crash?". FrontPageMagazine.com. Retrieved October 16, 2013.
  52. ↑ Bella, Timothy; Fearnow, Benjamin (November 11, 2011). "Remembering America's Second-Deadliest Plane Crash". The Atlantic. Retrieved June 2013. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  53. ↑ "Interim Report on the August 14, 2003, Blackout" (PDF). New York Independent System Operator. January 8, 2004. Retrieved September 16, 2008.
  54. ↑ "http://www.panynj.gov/press-room/press-item.cfm?headLine_id=1457" (Press release). Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. August 28, 2011. External link in |title= (help)
  55. 1 2 Benkoe, Jeff (August 28, 2011). "Long Island pounded by Irene but residents feel lucky". Reuters. Retrieved September 14, 2011.
  56. ↑ Jonathan Allen – "Long Island residents frustrated by power outages" – Reuters – August 29, 2011 – Retrieved August 30, 2011.
  57. ↑ Superstorm Sandy causes at least 9 U.S. deaths as it slams East Coast CNN
  58. ↑ "Hurricane Sandy closures". New York Post. 2012-10-29. Retrieved 2012-10-29.
  59. ↑ Gonen, Yoav; Goldenberg, Sally; Li, David K.; Stretten, Amy; Simeone, Jessica; Sutherland, Amber; Mongelli, Lorena; Celona, Larry; Antenucci, Antonio (2012-10-30). "Follow live Hurricane Sandy updates from around the city". New York Post. Retrieved 2012-10-29.
  60. ↑ Andrew, Tangel (October 29, 2012). "Stock market to remain closed Tuesday". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2012-10-29.
  61. ↑ "Hurricane Sandy to keep stock markets shuttered Tuesday, Market Day". October 29, 2012. Retrieved 2012-10-29.
  62. ↑ Long, Colleen (2012-10-29). "Water, fire and darkness: NYC after the superstorm". TheState.com. Retrieved 2012-10-30.
  63. ↑ "Tracking Storm Sandy Recovery". Reuters. Retrieved 2012-10-30.
  64. ↑ "Worst disaster in NYC subway's history, says MTA chief". The Borneo Post. Retrieved 2012-10-03.
  65. ↑ "Superstorm Sandy: flood, wind damage and travel chaos in New York City". London: The Telegraph. 2012-10-30. Retrieved 2012-10-30.
  66. ↑ Report Cites Large Release of Sewage From Hurricane Sandy New York Times April 30, 2013
  67. ↑ "Hurricane Sandy: Large sections of Manhattan left without power". The Oregonian. 29 October 2012. Retrieved 2012-11-04.
  68. ↑ Nagourney, Adam (December 25, 2001). "Bloomberg Vows to Work at Center of Things". The New York Times.
  69. ↑ Roberts, Sam (November 26, 2006). "Bloomberg Administration Is Developing Land Use Plan to Accommodate Future Populations". The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-08-07.
  70. ↑ Bagli, Charles V. (November 27, 2011). "From Ashes of Olympic Bid, a Future Rises for the Far West Side". The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-11-28.

Further reading

  • Berg, Bruce F. New York City Politics: Governing Gotham (2007) excerpt
  • Brash, Julian. Bloomberg's New York: Class and Governance in the Luxury City (2011), A geographical approach
  • Burns, Ric, and James Sanders. New York: An Illustrated History (2003), large-scale book version of Burns PBS documentary, New York: A Documentary Film an eight part, 17½ hour documentary film directed by Ric Burns for PBS. It originally aired in 1999 with additional episodes airing in 2001 and 2003.
  • David, Greg. Modern New York: The Life and Economics of a City (2012)
  • Greenberg, Miriam. Branding New York: How a city in crisis was sold to the world (Routledge, 2009)
  • Jackson, Kenneth T., ed. The Encyclopedia of New York City (Yale University Press, 1995) 1350 pages; articles by experts; 2nd expanded edition 2010, 1585pp
  • Kirtzman, Andrew (2001). Rudy Giuliani: Emperor of the City. Harper Collins. ISBN 0-06-009389-7. 
  • Purnick, Joyce. Mike Bloomberg: Money, Power, Politics (2009)
  • Rich, Wilbur C. David Dinkins and New York City Politics: Race, Images, and the Media (SUNY Press, 2012)
  • Siegel, Fred. The Prince of the City: Giuliani, New York, and the Genius of American Life (2005)
  • Soffer, Jonathan. Ed Koch and the Rebuilding of New York City (2010)

Guide books

Primary sources

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