Chart by Quizmaster Last updated: Monday June 28th, 2021
After falling sharply in the 1970s, the population of New York City rebounded to reach an all-time high in 2016. Since then, the population has started to decline again.
Population is for all five boroughs, even if they hadn't merged with New York yet
If you watch any of these movies, the notion of stability is pretty much shattered: "The French Connection" (1971), "Klute" (1971), "Shaft" (1971), "The Panic in Needle Park" (1971), "Serpico" (1973), "Mean Streets" (1973), "Death Wish" (1974), "Taxi Driver" (1976), "Saturday Night Fever" (1977, yeah even that one), "The Warriors" (1979).
Crime must have played at least some part. The murder rate was sky high in the 1960s and 1970s. If nothing else, a thousand murders per year reduces the population by a thousand per year.
Does anyone remember the 80s in New York? It was severely mismanaged as well. Lots of corruption, crime. they couldn't afford to keep the mental hospitals open, so they just released mentally ill people into the streets with no support. no job, no money, no housing. Homelessness skyrocketed. And do none of you remember the East River catching on fire? The New York that we know now is very different from 40 years ago. Regardless of how you feel about individual mayors that have governed since 1990, Dinkins, Guiliani, Bloomberg and DiBlasio have managed it much better than Koch did.
This was the pattern with pretty much all US cities and many major cities around the world. Starting with industrialization people flooded in to them from the countryside to get work. This led to overcrowding, crime, pollution, and problems with management. After World War 2 many people started moving out in to the suburbs - which was something new. Because people had cars now they could live in nicer, cleaner, semi-planned communities with more space and drive to their jobs in the cities. The flight of the middle class to the suburbs sent the condition in cities spiraling downward, as this meant lower tax revenues, and greater concentration of poverty and crime. A couple decades went by and then it started to become trendy to try and rejuvenate these urban centers. Neighborhoods were gentrified. Management got better. Environmental regulations helped lower pollution levels. Public safety and public transit improved. People started moving back.
Some exception to this pattern in the US for major cities whose major industries (steel, automobiles) moved to other areas in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Their decline lasted longer.
this is a joke smh