A History Lover's Guide to New York City (History & Guide) by Alison Fortier

BOOK REVIEW - FIVE STARS

A History Lover's Guide to New York City (History & Guide) by Alison Fortier

Fun to read, educational and extremely interesting. I loved the well-edited and organized presentation that left me with many happy recollections.

EXCERPTS:

A popular referendum on creating a Greater New York passed in 1894. It took a few more years to realize what this would mean in practical terms. On January 1, 1898, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island became the five boroughs, or administrative units, of one New York City. By a "stroke of a pen," New York's population increased to three million, making it the second-largest city in the world after London.

The last sixty-five years have been mostly good ones for New York City. The exception was a period during the 1970s when the city’s finances failed. Government overspending and the departure of industry and jobs to cheaper areas hurt New York as a place to live and work.

High unemployment and escalating crime, rampant drug use and inadequate public services left garbage piling up on street corners and graffiti on buildings and subway cars. New York City was a difficult place to live. Population numbers declined—not until the 2000 census did the population exceed what it had been in 1950. A citywide power blackout in 1977 symbolized the city’s fate. The future looked dark. At its depths, New York City appealed to the federal government for financial aid to avoid bankruptcy. The administration of President Gerald Ford denied the aid. The New York Daily News paraphrased the president’s position in its famous October 30, 1975 headline: “Ford to City: Drop Dead.” Despite the fact that the Ford administration reversed itself within a few months and offered federal loan guarantees to New York City, Ford narrowly lost the state of New York to Democratic nominee Jimmy Carter in the 1976 presidential election. Jimmy Carter went on to the White House to become our thirty-ninth president. Gerald Ford blamed this headline for costing him the election.

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