32 Impressive Photos Show How New York Has Changed Since the 1970s _ OLDUS

   

These startling 1970s New York photos reveal a city undergoing an unparalleled transformation fueled by economic collapse and rampant crime.
Reeling from a decade of social turmoil, New York in the 1970s fell into a deep tailspin provoked by the flight of the middle class to the suburbs and a nationwide economic recession that hit New York’s industrial sector especially hard.
Combined with substantial cuts in law enforcement and citywide unemployment topping ten percent, crime and financial crisis became the dominant themes of the decade. In just five years from 1969 to 1974, the city lost over 500,000 manufacturing jobs, which resulted in over one million households being dependent on welfare by 1975. In almost the same span, rapes and burglaries tripled, car thefts and felony assaults doubled, and murders went from 681 to 1690 a year.

Depopulation and arson also had pronounced effects on the city: abandoned blocks dotted the landscape, creating vast areas absent of urban cohesion and life itself.

In totality, the decade was a transformative one for New York, as it reconfigured the economic and social realities of America's most prominent city. By the conclusion of the 1970s, over a million people had left the city.

Take a look at these impressive photos that capture a New York City on the brink of implosion in the mid-1970s.

Greenwich Village, photographed by Nicolai Canetti, 1976

 

Greenwich Village, photographed by Nicolai Canetti, 1976

 

Chinatown, photographed by Nicolai Canetti, 1976

 

Financial District, photographed by Nicolai Canetti, 1976

 

House, photographed by Nicolai Canetti, 1976


Market, photographed by Nicolai Canetti, 1976

 

Metropolitan Museum of Art, photographed by Nicolai Canetti, 1976

 

 Plaza Hotel, photographed by Nicolai Canetti, 1976

 

Times Square, photographed by Nicolai Canetti, 1976

 

 Trinity Church, photographed by Nicolai Canetti, 1976

 

 United Nations, photographed by Nicolai Canetti, 1976

 

Wall Street on Sunday, photographed by Nicolai Canetti, 1976

 

West Side Highway, photographed by Nicolai Canetti, 1976

 

 125th Street, photographed by Bernard Herrmann, 1977

 

Bowery, photographed by Bernard Herrmann, 1977

 

Dominoes, photographed by Bernard Herrmann, 1977

 

Drug deals in Harlem, photographed by Bernard Herrmann, 1977

 

 East 125th Street, photographed by Bernard Herrmann, 1977

 

Empire State Building, photographed by Bernard Herrmann, 1977

 

Harlem from the air, photographed by Bernard Herrmann, 1977

 

Harlem from the air, photographed by Bernard Herrmann, 1977

 

Harlem from the ground, photographed by Bernard Herrmann, 1977

 

Harlem from the ground, photographed by Bernard Herrmann, 1977

 

Harlem, photographed by Bernard Herrmann, 1977

 

NW Corner Houston and West Broadway, photographed by Bernard Herrmann, 1977

 

Opposite Radio City, photographed by Bernard Herrmann, 1977

 

Pike Street Mural, photographed by Bernard Herrmann, 1977

 

South Bronx, photographed by Bernard Herrmann, 1977

 

Subway, photographed by Bernard Herrmann, 1977

 

Twin Towers, photographed by Bernard Herrmann, 1977

 

West 59th Street, photographed by Bernard Herrmann, 1977

 

West 59th Street, photographed by Bernard Herrmann, 1977