New York then and now - is it safer these days?

I'm not from New York and I have never been there, so I want to ask a question of you New Yorkers...

I've heard NYC is a lot safer now (post-911), but was the safety the result of boosts in police and security around town after 911, or because of the decline of mob activities in NYC?

I'm no expert, but I think the Gambino family became so big that they were victims of their own success. They had so many crews and so many rackets. They were gonna get busted sooner or later, either by rats or good police work.

It's beyond safe. Crime is lower than its ever been in NYC.

Must be all those NYPD portable surveillance towers.

... but I heard the cops just pushed the crime out of Manhattan into the outer burroughs - is this right?

In 1993, when I graduated High School, there were almost 2,500 murders per year.

The murder rate is now lower than 5oo per year. I didn't look up actual stats but I think that is pretty close. I heard Ray Kelly and Bloomy repeat these figures at every press conference.

Bill Bratton and Rudy Guiliani sort of engineered the crime reduction, starting in 1994.

You can walk around the parks pretty safely today.

Yay - thanks, guys - I'd love to visit one day!

I graduated Mount Saint Michael in 1977. Do you have the stats for that year, Flushing?

That was the summer they caught Son of Sam, the blackout, the heatwave, the whole nine yards. When you think of New York City and urban decay, you'd be hard pressed to sink lower than the summer of '77. And Elvis died to boot!

What a lousy year it was for me to turn 18 .

I found it Ironic as hell, the blackout was so scarey, even Berkowitz took the week off

what were the cause of all of those murders?

was it from drug crews fighting or just stick-up kids killing the victim

In 1977, when I graduated high school, it was probably just from general urban decay. But by 1993, the crack epidemic was in full bloom. That drug did more damage to the Bronx in a decade than every other drug combined in the previous fifty years. Couple that with a mayor who was easy on crime, and by the early '90s this place was becoming a cesspool.

All in the past, though. Safest big city in the world today. Steep price, though. Half the people who grew up here can't afford to live here .

http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/nycrime.htm

2,420 murders in 93- A big drop in 94-95

you sure about that? the heroin epidemic of the 70's was said to cause alot of the urban decay, not to mention being a much more addictive drug that crack itself. cocaine was also big around that same time, plenty of users were freebasing by the late 70's/early 80's. crack didn't hit full circle out west until i believe 84, and soon made it's way eastward. keep in mind that during this same time period while crack got all the headlines, heroin was still causing untold amounts of devastation. i'm not saying you're wrong, but maybe you should blame drugs as a whole, as opposed to just crack.

those stats that were posted must be for the entire nyc metro area just going by the population. i think it's also important to keep in mind that murder and violent crime rates have gone down significantly in the past few decades nationwide, despite what the gun-grabbing, fear mongering libby's would have you believe. i think it's also important to point out that nyc has a seemingly endless budget for law enforcement. it's also wise to consider that times square does not represent nyc as a whole, and that all 5 boroughs still have plenty of dangerous neighborhoods, although some more than others obviously. i haven't spent all that much time in the city, but i remember going to some raves in jamacia in the early 2000's and feeling less than safe!

Do you guys think the Heroin/Opiate Pill crisis we are in today can compare to the 70s and 80s? Not just NY, Im talking about the tri state area like NY, NJ, PA. Its spread so quickly to the suburbs, not just the cities anymore. In certain counties in NJ, cops are going to start carrying Narcon spray to help save some of these kids that are ODing.

Im just asking. I was born in 79 so I don't have first hand knowledge but I have seen these pills and then heroin kill kids so quicly these days.

It is bad" now ,just think about this,There were thousands" of drug dealers back in the day.
There could be millions" now ,I have herd of old people selling there pills on a regular basis,so that would open that drug dealing margin way up.
The figure is most likely double, what it was back in the day..

spmob,

I don't think the heroin/pill epidemic is quite as bad as the crack epidemic of the 80's crime wise, but it is certainly more lethal,these poor kids today are dropping like flies. The latest innovation is now the drug dealers are cutting the heroin with fentanyl, which is a pain killer 100 times stronger than morphine. Ocean County New Jersey, Baltimore and Pittsburgh have seen mass overdose deaths as a result of the shit their peddling now, all cut with fentanyl. The Treatment Center I work in down here in Florida if full of kids from Jersey, Mass, PA and NY. Its a disgrace.

They should let the police carry Narcon for it's easy to administrate and would save a lot of life's but our medical industry/pharma will lose too much of their profits from the whole ordeal so kids will continue to die ...it's the sad truth...

E.G. An average hospital stay of a kid overdosing and being in the ICU for 3 days can range anywhere from $10-20 K. A little liquid vial with a syringe doesn't cost that much to save a life watch politics block police from getting trained and allowed to carry narcon

You ever hear of " The Watershed" that place scams so many insurance companies it's crazy,,,they get away with it becasue there a non-hardship facility. But to attract users they use shady marketing techniques to prey on the weak who suffer from such a disease.

Vermont and Connecticut also have huge heroin problems. It's a damn shame what's happened to the Northeast with drugs

The Watershed does not have the best reputation. I have heard the same thing you are saying from others. The Boynton Beach Watershed is a huge facility like 140 beds, it is a high end treatment center and it looks like a Hilton Hotel inside and out, they also have a more modest facility in Boca. While I think the clinical staff that work there do the best they can it is very hard to get good treatment in a facility that large. Some of the more shady treatment centers down here will tell you almost anything on the phone to get you there and commit insurance fraud without batting an eye. Palm Beach County is ground zero for the treatment industry. Drug treatment is very profitable just like any other type of healthcare and now that the SA/MH Parity Act in Obamacare has been enacted it is going to get even bigger. I can tell you that a member of the LCN has a piece of one very profitable facility down here, thankfully it's not mine. It will not surprise me to see much more LCN involvement in the future, there is just too much money to be made.

I live up here in mass with all the generfaction or whatever that word is wont that help the mafia. it like revese white flite. now rich white people want to live in the worst parts of the city. fuck the colombos in Brooklyn must be in heaven. havnt they started like kicking the black people out the projects and turning them into condos. the projects in coney island could be nice ocean front condo's. its real dangerous part of nyc rite. mob in nyc aint going nowhere they just adapting to the new new York. herion around here is jus killing aton of people there cutting it with fenital or some shit. the domincans got it on lock. its like 60 bucks a gram and that can get 2 or 3 people high all day crazy. I been to so many funeral for people under 40. the unleashed all the oxy 80tys and then took them off the market shit a 20 dollar bag of dope is like a lot of oxy.

Crack was much worse because it was cheaper and more people became junkies. Besides, it was easier to smoke than to stick needles all over your arms.

That's around seven murders every day of the year! In 1977, around 210 cars were stolen in NYC each day -- 77,000 per annum.

You are safer walking around NYC than you are in Glasgow...

New york has completly lost its sole.Its much safer than it was years ago but i hear stories from my older cousins in the 80s and the kids today will never experiance anything like that.Just skipping school and going to the city was an adventure.Try doing that shit today the cops will pik you up.There was peep shows pimps sex drugs it was fun to take in small dosages but today that shit for the most part is extremly hidden.I get so jealous when i hear these stories and wish i was that generation.Dont get me wrong i had fun growing up but the older generations had more.

... yeah, I've heard New Yorkers who grew up in the 70s-80s are pissed that they can't afford to live in their own city anymore.

We shouldn't become too romantic about urban blight and crime giving a city its 'edgy' quality, but "the good old, bad old days" have a certain charm and appeal.

The gentrification started almost immediately after the crime reduction in the mid-nineties. Williamsburg and the LES, which had been unlivable for years, became destinations. Mostly fueled by 20 somethings who enjoyed the rubbing up against the edgy qualities of the city, without ever having to actually go through the despair of growing up in it. Not that I did, either. I'm from Archie Bunker land. I just always found it funny when the hipster tells you he's "from" Brooklyn, though he moved to Brooklyn after spending his formative years in a suburban cul-de-sac. Saying that you are from Brooklyn used to mean that you went through NYC public schools, torture at the DMV, the BQE, and so much else. Now it seems to mean that you got $60K advance from your parents to study art history at the NYU. Never stepped foot in an NYC public school, never endured the tumult of a Brooklyn upbringing.


I mean no disrespect to NYC newcomers with that post, I just could never understand why folks were claiming to be from Brooklyn when they weren't. What's wrong with just being from where your really from?

Anyway, I have no warm fuzzy memories of high crime from those days. I just wish it hadn't gone full tilt in the other direction. Its a global destination now for luxury living. It's safe alright, but increasingly inaccessible to the commoner.

... there was a NY musician called Johnny Thunders. He was from the 'New York Dolls' and his real name was John Genzale, Jr. He overdosed and died at 38, but he devoted one of his albums to the drug dealers of the Lower East Side. I've never been to NYC, so I don't know exactly what he means by that, but it must've been a fascinating place.... I mean, to think that Sammy the Bull's first murder victim (Joey Collucci) was the basis for John Travolta's Vinnie Barbarino in 'Welcome Back, Kotter'...

You may like him, hate him, think him egotistical or consider him a genius.....but the bottom line is that no matter what your opinion of him may be, you cannot deny that Rudy Giuliani cleaned up and changed NYC for the better. His persistence along with his not worrying about public opinion is what made this city a better place to live again and attracted fortune 100 companies like Disney to areas such as 42nd street.

I have an interest in your city (many people do!) and forums like this help us to understand your world a little better. (Let me guess: Mulberry Street is nothing like it to used to be ?!?)

Was 9-11 an 'inside job'?

Just found this article on Philly.com via NY AP.

http://www.philly.com/philly/health/20140406_ap_2794ee4df57e41579fad8ff9c5a6cb30.html?c=r

night time. I can take you're mulberry street question.
I first visited New York in 1988 I walked down mulberry street, pretty shady as I remember including wiseguy types.
I've been back since but only visited mulberry street again in 2007 this time the place was awash with tourists and directly across from where the ravenite had been they were filming Americas next top model

You may very well be right, Five. But crackheads were more visibly desperate. No comparison. I mean, you go back to the late '80s or early '90s, and at three o'clock on a Saturday afternoon you might see a crackhead walking down Jerome Avenue or the Grand Concourse with a Betamax or a Technics rack system piled high above his line of sight, like he was just out for a stroll or moving into a new building. Or hookers turning tricks for 3 dollars on White Plains Road.

And I swear on my kids, I'm not exaggerating in the slightest. And the funny part is, crime was so high back then the cops wouldn't even pay attention to them. It was insane. And you just never saw that kind of desperation and shameless begging with heroin addicts. Dope fiends tended to stay in the shadows. Back then, anyway. 


For some reason I thought you were older, Tiger .


Absolute truth.

I'm gonna be 55 and no one laments the passing of "Old New York" like I do. I hate the gentrification like poison (and being that I make my living as a landlord, that's really saying something). But as a parent, I'm content that I didn't have to raise my kids in a coldwater walkup off of Fordham Road. I know it sounds like a cliché and right out of "A Bronx Tale," but when you're older you'll all understand .

Pizzaboy im going to be 30 in a few months which means im gen Y.My gen is just before social media completely took over the lives of the kids today but also more than half our lives we have been carrying a phone around with us.

Personally, I don't understanding the whining about gentrification. Despite the connotation all it means the area becomes wealthier, increasing the property values for local residents, lowering crime and providing a higher-tax base leading to better schools, roads and public institutions.

This whining has gotten especially bad in the bay area, where protesters apparently don't want the tech industry in the city anymore because the rents are too damn high. Which is fine, I bet every sane city in america would love that gentrification that the tech industry brings (ie wealth creation).

I mean I get the nostalgia, I tend to really miss some old ballparks for some indescribable reason (like soul) despite the new ones being generally better. But lets not mask the fact that most cities (see Detriot or Gary) would like the "problems" presented by gentrification. Its a good problem to have.

I live in the hood in Crown Heights/border of bed stuy off Atlantic Avenue. I feel it's relatively safe.

I get what you're saying, Nicky. And I agree to a point. Like I said in my earlier post: I'm VERY content that my kids didn't grow up in a fifth story, cold-water, walk-up apartment, like I did. But you DO hate to see it when people can't afford to live in the neighborhood where they grew up (assuming they WANT to live there) .

Why would they cut heroin with fentanyl? You'd figure fentanyl would garner big money on it's own?

Should we nominate pizza-boy for The Noble Pizza Prize

Dixie, Because it makes the heroin a whole lot stronger. addicts wants the strongest batch they can find. When kids overdose on this stuff people line up to get some of it because it was strong enough to kill, sick I know but the way it is.

At least nine people have died or been hospitalized in New Jersey in recent months after overdosing on fentanyl-laced heroin, and law enforcement officials say they fear the potent synthetic chemical, which has been linked to dozens of deaths in the Northeast, is spreading like wildfire throughout the Garden State.

The New Jersey State Police have seen at least seven cases of seizures, overdoses or deaths from fentanyl-laced heroin in the past few weeks, said Capt. Stephen Jones, an agency spokesman. Several of those incidents occurred in Newark, said Paul Loriquet, spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office.

In Ocean County, police found the drug hidden in wax folds bearing the stamp "Bud Light" near the bodies of two people who overdosed in Point Pleasant and Seaside Heights last month, Prosecutor Joseph Coronato said.

Toxicology tests confirmed fentanyl-laced heroin in one of the victims, according to Coronato, who said he is "almost certain" the other death was also fentanyl-related.

In Cape May County, Prosecutor Robert Taylor said investigators linked fentanyl to one overdose death and three hospitalizations last summer, and drug seizures conducted by his office have turned up at least one bag of heroin that was "100 percent" fentanyl.

Fentanyl is a synthetic form of morphine used to treat cancer patients, but is also used to increase the potency of heroin, often with deadly results. It has been linked to 22 deaths in western Pennsylvania last month and 37 deaths in Maryland since September.

Heroin stamped "Bud Ice" was one of three "brands" of fentanyl-laced heroin linked to the deaths in Pennsylvania, authorities there said.

Fentanyl, which is odorless and tasteless, is especially dangerous because there is no way for a user to know if their heroin has been laced, said Carl Kotowski, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s New Jersey offices.

He said he fears addicts might actually be more inclined to abuse fentanyl, which is 80 to 100 times more potent than morphine.

"It does improve the high, and that’s the sick thing about being a heroin addict."

"It does improve the high, and that’s the sick thing about being a heroin addict," he said. "Word gets around on the street that this particular batch of heroin is making people overdose and die, but that addict, even though he or she has that information, they will think that’s the good stuff. They’ll be drawn to that, even knowing, ‘Hey, that could kill me.’ "

No one is entirely sure where the fentanyl-laced heroin is coming from, though Coronato believes it was brought into Ocean County from either Trenton or Camden.

Fentanyl overdoses resulted in roughly 1,000 deaths nationwide from April 2005 to March 2007, including 86 in New Jersey, according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. After that outbreak, federal investigators tracked the drug to underground labs in Mexico, Kotowski said.

While his office has not seized any fentanyl-laced heroin this year, Kotowski said Wednesday that reports of fentanyl overdoses in Newark and Cape May show the drug has spread throughout the state.

"It’s definitely out there," he said.

The drug-related death last Sunday of actor Phillip Seymour Hoffman was initially thought to be from fentanyl-laced heroin. However, police confirmed yesterday that the chemical had no role in his death, CNN reported.

Heroin abuse has skyrocketed across New Jersey in the past three years, especially among teens and people in their early 20s who were caught up in the prescription pill boom of the late 2000s. When those addicts were unable to afford drugs like oxycodone, which often costs $25 a pill, they switched to the much cheaper heroin, often sold for $5 per dose in Newark and Paterson.

The number of people between the ages 18 to 25 who sought treatment for opiate addiction jumped by 12 percent from 2010 to 2011, records show. There were 368 deaths related to heroin in the state’s 21 counties in 2011, up from 287 in 2010, according to the state medical examiner’s office.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2014/02...tainted_he.html

Why is it whining? I think it's a perfectly valid stance. Multi-generational NY'ers lived through decades of abuse. For some, it was similar to a warzone. Overnight things went from almost unlivable to almost unaffordable. Zoning laws were discarded, Whole Foods took over Key Foods, cost of living skyrocketing and now things are hard again - but for the completely opposite reason. People are getting priced out for hipsters and rich Europeans on extended vacations. Most of the folks gentrifying Bed-Stuy aren't doing it with working class grit, either. The gentrifiers seem to have an allergy to manual labor of any kind. They aren't working for $60 day rates doing hard construction like the immigrants in Corona. And SoHo is becoming French. Yes, French.

All the benefits of NYC renewal are going to people who weren't a part of its renewal.

You're all heart, Mikey O .

I am told New York City is way safer now than it was 30 years ago. Big reason is the cameras everywhere, as soon as someone commits a crime, their picture is up on community message boards and if it's serious enough, they get their photo shown in a newspaper or on television. The police deserve credit too, they cracked down under Giuliani and Bloomberg.


Chicago and Detroit are worse than New York. This weekend in Chicago they had 36 shootings and four murders. Drug related crime is also on the rise there.

heroin and crack both did damage, the latter were just more visible, the zombies ... fucking junkie thieves would steal any/everything they possibly could... but that's another subject. (drug delivery methods have changed the scene also, not as many whitey or $$$ going into the 'hood when they can get substance x/y/z delivered.) anyway--

1) yes NYC is generally 'safer,' especially most of Manhattan, chunks of Brooklyn, the subways.

2) that said, the specifics of Bloomturd/Kelly crime #s are bullshit, "COMPSTAT" is lies lies lies lies...

forget the downgrading of felony crimes-- very common practice-- but the # that would be instructive is NOT murders but rather the

# of shootings

particularly because trauma care is so much better than it was. Be very curious to find out how THOSE #s compare year-to-year, decade-to-decade.

I have no doubt the #s are still down-- taking away just mob-related hits cuts let's say a x dozen homicides a year-- but in the bad 'hoods... things are still bad, innocent bystanders get killed and badly wounded by asshole 'gangstas' etc

also, the newspapers suck and are more racist than ever so you hear less about these crimes, likewise, under Kelly, cops were barely allowed to speak in public so there were lots fewer stories for the few remaining REPORTERS (not glorified bloggers regurgitating the same shit from their desk) would be compelled to pursue.

p/s-- most of the cameras are bullshit. They're there, yes, mostly ignored and even when pulled... Remember that midtown hit last year, black guy (drug courier or related) whacked right on 57th St, broad daylight?

The light pole cameras etc were another Ray Kelly fraud--what # of arrests and prosecutions did they lead to? It'd also be instructive to learn who received the contracts for that crap.

Was the Child Sex Slave Industry around back in the 70's and 80's (when NYC was pretty dangerous)?

To me that is scarier than potentially being shot or stabbed for being the wrong guy in the wrong place.

Knowing a tiny bit about Aryan Brotherhood, sex-slave abduction is a danger in every city.
Everytime I see a flyer for a missing girl I think of the book, SOLD by Patricia McCormack (every parent and aunt/uncle ought to read SOLD)

So I guess what I'm trying to say is: If this sex-slave problem was around back then and is still around today then I would vote older NYC as more dangerous.

I made a post recently about the changes in Manhattan specifically, and my feelings are mixed. I guess it is a better place for wealthy people to sip their lattes and walk their little dogs around the park, but that tough element is gone. Might sound good to some people, but that toughness used to define NYers. Now I could pop a paper bag in the park and little 21 year old hipsters without a line on their face or a blister on their hands will drop their Starbucks and scream like babies. It might make for a better safer life, but the city doesn't feel like it did when I was younger. I guess it's dumb for me in a way, but NY people seem weak today. It's like u don't even need street smarts to make it anymore. I'm just a nostalgic guy I suppose. I want a piece of that back. But like the old school guys told me in my other thread, you can't go back so you just live in the present.

** before PB kicks my ass for my post, I will clarify that NY changed completely when I was barely out of my teens, so I'm not 100% cut from the old cloth, and I wasn't usually a full time NYC resident, but because of my family, I got to see a lot at an early age. So the old NY left an imprint on me that will probably never go away. I'm making no claims to be more authentic than guys like PB or footreads or the guys who really lived thru old NY in their adult years. It's just nostalgia for me.

For a while my father had a place on West 46th Street on Restaurant Row. It was a decent immediate area but walk to Times Square or certain parts of Hell's Kitchen and it got scary. In High School my father would let me stay out till whenever and I would take friends to Times Square, this was late 80's early 90's and you were either crazy or stupid for hanging out there at 2 AM on a Saturday Night. (We were stupid). You had the peep shows that would let you in at 15, bars that would serve you, black gangs like the Decepticons walking around, The Lost Tribe of the Isrealites, hustlers, pimps, cheap hookers, guys selling stolen/ knockoff jewelry It was truly a freak show but we had a blast. When Rudy got elected the place seemed to change overnight and became Disneyland. It was a tourist trap then just like it is now, but definatly does not have the same appeal for a teenage boy that it once did. Does anyone here remember the peepshows? You would put a quarter or token in, a sliding piece of wood would go up and there would be girls walking around topless and they would come over to the window for about five seconds and try to get you to pay extra to grab them and the window would go back down.

Google image search *South Bronx 70s* - it looks like Germany after WWII. And it surely didn't look much better in Harlem etc. At that time there were people starving - in NYC. There were districts where nine out of ten died an unnatural death, from murder, overdose, rat bites, etc.
The transformation NYC went through has to be one of the most impressive the world has ever witnessed. Interestingly, other parts of the US took the exact opposite route. Detroit was once the greatest manufacturing city in the entire world, today half of its population is "functionally illiterate" (not making that up...).

The police have really cracked down on pills , big time , and they have become much harder to get so heroin abuse is up a boatload . LE are making huge busts these days and it is having almost no effect , that's how much heroin is getting into the US these days .

I believe Camden , Paterson and Newark have the most potent heroin in the area today and those cities are probably most dangerous in the area .

Still tho there was nothing close from a crime perspective than the crack epidemic in the 80s and early 90.

I was in NYC a lot in the early to mid 90s because you could do anything , I used to get served alcohol with braces , girls offering BJs everywhere for $15 to $20, it was nuts . I think the highest NYC murder rate was that year in 1993.

Due to developers , NYC has changed and a lot of the poorer sections have been moved out but the hoods that remain are as dangerous as ever , there is a major gang problem in poorer areas in NYC and NJ . Blood secs everywhere and they are lethal.

I remember vividly my first time entering those peep shows at age 15! My buddies and I had never seen anything like it and vowed to come back the next night with more cash. A little later one of us was robbed at knife point so that ended that idea.

Looking back, it was crazy how the whole west side around the post office was a
sea of hookers and pimps

Believe it or not with my job I do have to take painkillers because of a spinal condition. Just a fact of life for me and I function perfectly on them. Like you said DB, LE is NOT the only ones cracking down. Used to I would go see my pain doctor and get 3 months worth of meds all on one script, my normal 120 pain pills plus 2 refills. Not anymore. Even Hydrocodone has been bumped up to where you can't have refills anymore. Of course I don't take them, I went from Hydro to Percocets and now on Opana (Oxymorphone) which is pretty hardcore in itself but believe it or not I don't get the high feeling with these like you would sometimes on the Percocets (I don't want to feel high, I want to be pain free). People think I'm crazy doing my job like this but they think about getting pain pills after surgery or something when your body has no tolerance and you are dopey for 3-4 hours. Hell I got to take one to get out of bed

As some of you know my Grandmother was born and raised in Camden until she met my Grandfather after WWII (he was Navy and was there during ship repairs) and I still talk to my cousins there and he laughed the first time I said I wanted to visit Camden. He said "son it's a freaking war zone there now, you don't want to be caught in Camden" as he was born in the 30's so he's seen it go from a great place to a freaking dump and moved out. I think he is in Pine Hill now. We owned a brickyard in Camden at one point before it went away around the turn of the 1900's.

The heroin business is booming in PA

Heroin Easier to Get than Wine and Cheaper than Beer in PA

Bags of dope are being sold for as little as $5 in the Keystone State.


By Desiree Bowie

10/01/14

A shocking investigative report released last Tuesday revealed that is easier for young people in Pennsylvania to buy heroin than a bottle of wine, and that the price of heroin is cheaper than a six-pack of beer.

Since 1990, the number of overdose deaths has consistently risen in rural areas of the state. As of 2011, the state has experienced 13 deaths per every 100,000 citizens, the Center for Rural Pennsylvania reported.

“Heroin is cheaper and easier for young people to obtain than alcohol,” said State Sen. Gene Yaw, the Republican chairman of the center, a joint legislative state agency.

In Pennsylvania, Yaw said a small packet of heroin costs between $5 and $10, and delivers a high lasting four to five hours. The report, based on evidence submitted in hearings across the state this summer, listed Cambria County in central Pennsylvania as having the highest overdose death rate outside of Philadelphia, 22.6 deaths per 100,000 population. That is equal to Philadelphia’s drug death rate, the report said.

Yaw suggested Cambria County’s drug death rate was not caused by any special factors, but state Representative Bryan Barbin, a Democrat, was not quite as sure. Barbin said Johnstown is easily accessible from heroin distribution centers like the city of Baltimore. Dealing heroin is an attractive career option for those with few economic prospects, he said, especially those with drug crime records.

The report asked for a number of legislative actions, including making it easier to prosecute dealers whose clients die of overdoses. The report also called for a "Good Samaritan" law assuring that people who seek help for overdose victims will not face criminal charges. According to the report, putting more addicts in jail will not solve the problem.

State Representative Richard Marabito, a Democrat, said Pennsylvania has about 760,000 residents with addiction problems, but that only about 52,000 are receiving treatment. Only one in eight addicts can be helped with existing state resources, the report said.

http://www.thefix.com/content/heroin-easier-get-wine-and-cheaper-beer-pa

Some good stuff on NYC back in the day. Do you NYC guys remember the Joe Franklin Show?


Hotel Claridge: Lucky Luciano’s, Meyer Lansky’s and Frank Costello’s Headquarters 1500 Broadway

September 19, 2014 by Infamous New York


They called themselves the Broadway mob. Members of the gang rubbed shoulders with high society, supplying the most exclusive speakeasies in New York with top-shelf, uncut booze. From their offices at the now demolished Hotel Claridge, located at 1500 Broadway, Meyer Lansky, Lucky Luciano, Bugsy Segal and Frank Costello would go from street gang to the masters of dry New York, making themselves multi-millionaires in the process.

Read more
http://infamousnewyork.com/page/2/