New York City 1977 vs Today
mid-morning on Friday, the 15th of August 2003 by Scott
Just a quick note:
From MSNBC
“On July 10 (of 1977 - the last large scale blackout), power officials guaranteed Congress that another power failure like the 1965 blackout would never occur again. Three days later, the lights went off a little before 9:30 p.m. and stayed off all night — 13 hours in all.
More than 3,700 people were arrested in looting across several neighborhoods. More than 1,000 fires were set, and estimates of the damage ranged from $61 million to more than $300 million. “
Here we are at hour 18 of the current blackout and here are the stats:
“There were no reports of serious looting in the big cities affected by the failure.”
Note that in 1977 Carter was president and NYC was run by Democrats. Today we have a Republican president and NYC and NY state are run by Republicans.
Coincidence?
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August 15th, 2003 at 12:11 pm
I think not!
While going into work this morning at 2am we were talking about how well behaved everyone was. And thats because the news networks made a big deal about it. But, why wouldn’t people be well behaved? Why was the expectation that New Yorkers were a bunch of savages who act like Springfielders, looting and pillaging the second the lights go out? Why do I expect more out of people? I forget the rest of my points but they certainly sounded better at the time!
August 15th, 2003 at 7:37 pm
Coincidence? I think so. I think the behavior of the citizens of New York City are far more likely influenced by the fact that several hundred of them were killed by terrorists and several thousand more could have been killed in the attack.
I’ve been to NYC many times, and I’ve noticed the difference. Before, most of them acted the way people would expect the stereotypical New Yorker to act: eyes down, torso leaning forward, walking quickly, “fuck you” if you get in the way. Now, there’s a real sense of community there. They have a collective identity, it seems, and most are not willing to violate it.
I imagine some of it has to do with increased police presence and reduced crime in general. (Read _The Tipping Point_ by Malcom Gladwell for background.) But I don’t think that by tiself would be enough.
August 15th, 2003 at 8:57 pm
You are right, its amazing the difference between New Yorkers of today and just a few years ago. I look at the old reruns of Sienfeld and I get really agitated and annoyed. I do not like that show. I don’t like people like that. I was working at JPMorgan when 9/11 happened, and I had to go up to NY soon after. It was a visible difference in the attitudes of people.
Now, two years later, overall people are a lot more serious. But think about the criminal charges that would have been levied before 9/11. Most would get off scott free. And they did, look at the LA riots. But if there were riots today, first off, the cops would be a lot more brutal, they’d also more likely be facing armed national guard, not just billy clubs and mace. And I guarantee no jury would find not guilty anyone proven to be a rioter. More than likely they’d be facing federal time also.
August 16th, 2003 at 12:43 am
I’m sure that “looting” would be framed as an act of terrorism, and I’m not so sure it would be far off the mark.
Last time I was up there I was waiting for the ferry to take my friend and me back to New Jersey (where I was staying) and I was absolutely stunned at how friendly these New Yorkers were. The boats were running very late due to a terroristic threat on one of the bridges, but nobody complained and nobody tried to get ahead of anybody else in line when the boats got there. One lady cut her hand on a rail and didn’t pitch a fit or threaten to sue the city. A guy in line behind us was telling us that before, he’d buy a sandwich for lunch from a certain shop where he worked, but now he buys two or three, just to help out the guy running the shop and give the city a little more business.
This is not the NYC I grew up hearing about. Knowhutumsayin?