Reimagining Cities-Disrupting the Urban Doom Loop

had reached $487 million ($3.3 billion in 2024 dollars). In 1975, the banks reviewed the city’s revenue projections and decided to stop underwriting its bonds. By April 1975, New York City had run out of money. The decline in city revenues was primarily due to the continuous out-migration of residents to suburban areas, reflecting the pent-up demand for Drivable Sub-urban living. In addition, civil unrest and rising crime between 1960 and 1990 created the perception, and sometimes the reality, that the city was out of control. In 1975, New York City officials sought assistance from the federal government but were rebuffed, as famously captured in the New York Daily News headline: “Ford to City: Drop Dead.” To restore stability, city and state officials appointed a group of business leaders, bankers and city officials to serve as an Emergency Financial Control Board. The Board mandated cuts in city services, reductions in the city workforce, the transfer of some municipal responsibilities to the state, and tax increases. 35 As the city’s government gradually reinvested in public services like infrastructure, trash removal, policing and emergency services, the city’s built and social environment began to improve, and people started to come back. 36 It took until the 1990s for the city to show tangible signs of recovery through new development, philanthropic investment and business investment. The city began to embrace the waterfront and new amenities, 35 Freudenberg, Nicholas, Marianne Fahs, Sandro Galea, and Andrew Greenberg. “The Impact of New York City’s 1975 Fiscal Crisis on Tuberculosis, HIV, and Homicide Syndemic.” Am J Public Health, 2006 March; 96(3): 424-434. 36 Mahler, Jonathan. “How the Fiscal Crisis of the ‘70s Shaped Today’s New York.” The New York Times, 2017.

FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD Vows He’ll Veto Any Bail-Out Headline New York Daily News October 30, 1975

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