granted, every single family has fallen on extremely hard times since the mid 80's, but the question is, who has fallen the hardest? i don't think its even up for debate. the outfit went from a huge, immensely powerful organisation that spanned a huge area of the western US to a few crews operating almost entirely within the city itself as well as the surrounding suburbs with a few minor exceptions. most agree that they were comparable to the 3 smaller ny families before this occurred.

fast forward to the present day. while the ny families have all felt the sting of L/E and attrition, none have fallen nearly as far as the outfit. people can and will make jokes about sinking ships ect, but the fact remains that even the weaker ny families have the resources, manpower, and diversity to outlast whats left of the outfit. combine that with the obvious split between the illegal and semi-legit factions of what remains in chicago and you potentially have a perfect storm.

if we are discussing who is next to cross the line from viable to non-viable, my vote is detroit hands down. lots of people already think thats the case. as far as the rest, we shall see. the next decade or so will tell us alot. will the outfit continue to go the semi-legit path, or might we see a bit of a resurgence at least as far as the street rackets are concerned? if we don't, than it's far from a stretch to think that the decalvacante's might outlast them due to a superior recruiting pool at the very least. unless something drastic changes, i see both philly and NE sticking around longer.