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The claims of two sisters who said they saw a police officer beat and fatally shoot a Dominican immigrant crumbled under the weight of physical evidence and their own contradictions, leading a grand jury to clear the officer, the Manhattan District Attorney said yesterday.
I lived in the city in the city through the 70's and 80's and 90's and believe me the late 70's and early 80's was the worst. The small isolated riots under Dinkins were child's play compared to the city wide destruction in '77. And the city has never since 1977 been gripped by fear of crime as during the Summer of Sam.Dinkins might be the worst mayor in your lifetime but the city had already gone bankrupt and was already pretty much hollowed out and destroyed by the time Dinkins even came into office. Beame and Koch just watched it happen.Crime may have continued to rise but at that point it didn't matter.The damage was done.
" There it is,ladies and gentlemen, The Bronx is Burning "……Howard Cosell,1977……and that wasn't even the night of the blackout riots. And that was a couple of years AFTER Johnny Carson had already moved his show from NYC to Burbank because as he said " NY is a sinking ship "
I lived in the city in the city through the 70's and 80's and 90's and believe me the late 70's and early 80's was the worst. The small isolated riots under Dinkins were child's play compared to the city wide destruction in '77. And the city has never since 1977 been gripped by fear of crime as during the Summer of Sam.Dinkins might be the worst mayor in your lifetime but the city had already gone bankrupt and was already pretty much hollowed out and destroyed by the time Dinkins even came into office. Beame and Koch just watched it happen.Crime may have continued to rise but at that point it didn't matter.The damage was done.
" There it is,ladies and gentlemen, The Bronx is Burning "……Howard Cosell,1977……and that wasn't even the night of the blackout riots. And that was a couple of years AFTER Johnny Carson had already moved his show from NYC to Burbank because as he said " NY is a sinking ship "
I also lived in NYC during the same era. (Granted Younger) but resided in NYC and still do. The 70's in The South Bronx did see widespread arson, War Years for the FDNY. Big time dereliction of buildings and a burdensome heroin problem. I remember as a kid seeing hookers all over Union Square park en route to the LES to visit family along Ave D. Those were the days that the LES was not chic or safe. Now the biggest difference is the introduction of Crack Cocaine. My old hood, I would walk to school and see numerous cars on cinder blocks. The good old Benzi Box became popular. The biggest stat is 1990 is the year that most crime historians and the NYPD consider the most murderous time. I met Mr Tom Reppetto, I asked him that very question. I also asked Vernon at an HS symposium. He's from the Bronx like myself. ( His son just got on the NYPD) Both of those respected crime fighters both point to the reign of 87-93. Dinkins was a plain inept individual who appointed morons to positions. Hazel Dukes ran OTB into the ground. The only legalized gambling that lost money. Practical Homicide Investigation,
guiliani. the only reason why he was acclaimed, was due to right-wing media, such as fox who praised him for how he handled 9/11. before 9/11 he was despised because of his stance on minute crimes. diallo happened under guiliani's regime. his own wife couldn't even stand him, and she worked for fox. come on now. he fuggin sucked
im really surprised Dinkins gets a lil bit of slack from the C-D crowd of all people......I feel Dinkins tried, but was overwhelmed and didnt have enough support......but he did alot for the city that he doesnt get enough credit for.....like ramping up recruiting in the NYPD.......if dinkins hadnt done that id like to see how the first few years of giuliani went considering dinkins is the reason why he had such a large police force....
What Dinkins doesn't get credit for was beginning the process that would turn around the Times Square Area into what would become "Disneyland". It was under DD that plans were laid to use eminent domain, changes in zoning and other processes to get shot of the sex business in that area and start turning things around. Of course DD was voted out and RG took over and pushed through things on steroids thus gets much of not all the credit for "revitalizing" Times Square and the rest of mid-town which lead to the rebirth of the entire City.
Personally think Mr. Dinkins is a fine gentleman and a good man, he was just out of his depths as mayor. Too busy paying off/back liberal democratic supporters and their base than doing what needed to be done.
People don't realize that by the 1980's NYC was by no means out of the woods. A few national and local recessions, Wall Street crashes and other events meant the City still could go either way. While there is much to hate about Rudy G. you have to give the man some credit in realizing that the NYC of old with its manufacturing, docks and other such work was dying if not dead. The City needed to attract other sorts of employers and become much less reliant upon Wall Street.
Many of us (myself included) bemoan all this new construction and displacement, but look at what rising real estate values has done for the City's coffers. Bill de Boob has what? Nearly billions to play with in this current and next budget largely because real estate taxes/property values are flooding the City's pockets.
Many of the old Republicans (particularly from the North), were pro-civil rights. Man of the old Republicans were anti-union. They were anti-union due to the fact that many unions back then were closed shops to people of color. So, their anti-union positions were consistent with their civil rights stances. (See Lindsay v. the teachers union).
Lindsay fell right in line with those old, northern Republican principles. But Lindsay had a few problems.....
1. He underestimated the power of the unions
2. He had to deal with labor issues punted from his predecessor, Wagner
3. Three strikes and a snowstorm can break anyone in City Hall!
4. Expanding welfare via credit may have been his own doing. Which brings us to Beame, who ended up having to inherit the credit problems from Lindsay.
Poor John Lindsey, the guy just couldn't catch a break could he? *LOL*
Yes, he was the last good looking (if only) mayor of NYC and certainly the last WASP to hold that office.
John Lindsey began his term with such promise but circumstances on the ground soon overwhelmed the man. The Lindsay Years -
He soon became known as a political dilettante at best and totally inept at worst. All those labor strikes; teachers, transit, sanitation..... just convinced people JL didn't know or couldn't run the City.
This was a great post. You've been repped. There was some things in here than even I didn't know as a lifelong native and I know my NYC history. I agree wholeheartedly with the best mayors. Laguardia was probably the best. Giuliani is definitely top 3 in my estimation. Both of these guys were able to take NYC from the lowest of lows and move them forward.
I also agree with those that say Dinkins wasn't that bad as he wasn't given a choice for his policies to work. That said, he wasn't given a chance because NYC was arguably at it's worst when he was mayor and race relations were horrible when he was mayor. While he started to do some good things in the city towards the end of his tenure, there was enough bad during that time for him to be top 3 on the negative list.
Lindsay and Beame set the city back tremendously which is why they get the edge over Dinkins IMO. With Koch, things weren't great but at least with Koch you felt as if it was more the job being slightly more than he could handle as opposed to him deliberately ignoring big issues and intentionally screwing the city over as was the case with Lindsay and Beame...
Thank you Anon. It is really sad that people don't dig up or investigate their history of their community, neighborhood, borough and city. It is the New York thing to do to investigate the past which leads us to the present, and that guides us to the future. But I have to say, Guliani was a damn fine mayor.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BlakeJones
Say what??? DeBlasio took office January 2014.
Murders rates:
2001 649
2002 587 (Bloomberg takes office)
2003 597
2004 570
2005 539
2006 596
2007 494
2008 522
2009 471
2010 534
2011 515
2012 414
2013 332 (Bloomberg leaves, murders down 49% on his watch)
2014 328 (DeBlasio shows up)
2015 350 (projected, NYPD - Office of the Chief of Department)
Don't be a liar, murders are trending up under DeBlasio and gun violence is increasing more rapidly
Are you waiting for NYC murder levels to hit absolute 0? Let me go get the popcorn. I love to watch and laugh at worried folks like you. In the mean time, I advise you to pick up a book called Minority report at your local strand, library, Amazon Kindle or Barns and Noble retailer. In the book, NYC has 0 murders thanks to precogs who can see into the Future and prevent murders. Its a very good book. If you get a chance pass the book on to the Mayor and his commissioner.
John Lindsay has to be the worst mayor in NYC history. Crime skyrocketed, and the city went to hell under his watch. Interestingly, he was elected as a Republican. One has to wonder how history would have been different if William F. Buckley Jr. were elected in 1965 rather than John Lindsay. That would make for an interesting alternate history novel.
David Dinkins was also a disaster. I remember the city being in chaos during the Dinkins years--all sorts of lunatics and drug addicts roaming the streets and lots of violent crime. He was elected primarily because he was a Democrat in an overwhelmingly Democratic city and because of the novelty of him being the first black mayor of NYC. Unfortunately he was completely incapable of governing the city. He beat Giuliani in the 1989 mayoral election only to lose to him in 1993. Another interesting alternate history: what if Giuliani had won in 1989. Certainly some people who were murdered between 89 and 93 would now be alive.
Another strike against John Lindsay: the 1972 Harlem Mosque Incident occurred under his watch. A fake 911 call was issued from a Nation of Islam mosque in Harlem, and the responding NYPD officers were attacked by a mob. One of the officers, Philipp Cardillo, was shot and later died of his injuries. Mayor Lindsay didn't even attend his funeral.
John Lindsay has to be the worst mayor in NYC history. Crime skyrocketed, and the city went to hell under his watch. Interestingly, he was elected as a Republican. One has to wonder how history would have been different if William F. Buckley Jr. were elected in 1965 rather than John Lindsay. That would make for an interesting alternate history novel.
David Dinkins was also a disaster. I remember the city being in chaos during the Dinkins years--all sorts of lunatics and drug addicts roaming the streets and lots of violent crime. He was elected primarily because he was a Democrat in an overwhelmingly Democratic city and because of the novelty of him being the first black mayor of NYC. Unfortunately he was completely incapable of governing the city. He beat Giuliani in the 1989 mayoral election only to lose to him in 1993. Another interesting alternate history: what if Giuliani had won in 1989. Certainly some people who were murdered between 89 and 93 would now be alive.
The whole entire city was drug bazzar well before Dinkins came into power. What are you talking about?
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