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

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 .

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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

... 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.

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.