re: #339 Sergey Romanov

Is it like this now or did it get better? And why was it bad then?

[Link: gothamist.com...]

It is 9000 times better now.

It's complex, but basically in the 60s, the small manufacturing base-- garment stuff, largely-- left. The racial tensions of the 60s caused a lot of real estate decline as well. Then, just as things were picking back up economically in the 80s, with the rise of the financial sector, the crack epidemic hit.

That's a radical foreshortening, but basically: 60s, manufacturing leaves. 70s, stagnation, nothing new happening, nobody can see a clear future for it, and so it declines. 80s, crack comes in and makes the poor areas even worse.

Why it picked back up again is a subject of even greater debate.