A State Saves a City: The New York Case

Abstract

the condition of New York City's finances in 1975. They are: 1) changing population and economic characteristics; 2) national economic difficulties; 3) state and federal government action; 4) inaction and weaknesses in the political system itself. 1. Socio-Economic Factors. Like those of other large, older northeastern and midwestern cities, New York's population and economic activities had for almost three decades been going through a process of realignment. The population in each of these metropolitan areas had sorted itself out between central city and surrounding suburbs -middle-income people went to the suburbs, lower-income people stayed put. The middle class left in search of better schools for their children and a piece of land they could call their own. Retail trade followed its customers. Simultaneously, other kinds of economic activity began to shift away from the central cities. Heavy manufacturing went to the suburbs in search of enough land to build horizontal rather