It was ...
interesting.
A friend that was in the “Fort Apache” area in the 1990s was shocked at how little it had changed in the ensuing twenty years.
DeBlasio’s Republican opponent tried to draw votes with fear tactics reminiscing about the David Dinkins/Crown Heights Riot days; it failed because so many of NYC’s voters today weren’t even in NYC back then. It really has become a very foreign city, and without the sanctuary offered would have whole areas completely deserted.
I remember the ‘70s in NYC too. I was working up in the Bronx on Kings Bridge Road.
I remember as well. In the late 1970s the subway graffiti was pretty intense.