On the documentary film Gotham: The Fall and Rise of New York City.
Gotham: The Fall and Rise of New York City is a new documentary that tells the story of the city’s long decline from the 1960s through the 1980s and its surprising turnaround beginning in the 1990s under Rudy Giuliani and later Michael Bloomberg. The film, directed by Matthew Taylor and produced by Michelle Taylor and Larry Mone, draws upon archival footage alongside interviews with key participants to show how new leaders armed with innovative policies managed to turn the failing metropolis into the safest and most prosperous large city in the country. As New York and other cities once again slide into disorder and economic stagnation, the film provides voters and policymakers with a timely road map for recovery.
The film begins in 1965 with the election of Mayor John Lindsay. Handsome, Kennedyesque, and (surprisingly) a liberal Republican, Lindsay defeated Abe Beame, the candidate of the Democratic machine. “The bosses who run City Hall don’t have a vision,” Lindsay proclaimed. “They don’t care.” He promised a turnaround in the city’s fortunes. “I’m running for mayor because the city is in crisis. The streets are filthy. There is crime. People are afraid.” This message of reform through the transformative powers of government was a popular theme in the 1960s, at least for a short time.
Continue reading the entire piece here at The New Criterion
_____________________
James Piereson is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
Photo by atlantic-kid/iStock