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By 1980 the worst was over and the fires of the Fort Apache days were mostly out (the new name for the pct was"The Little House on the Prairie".)
The south and parts of the central Bronx were the worst in the early-mid 1970s. They hit bottom and stabilized there for a while. I worked there in the 70s (first time I pointed my weapon at someone was on St. Ann's Ave.). I had reason to go back through there a year or so ago with my wife in the car. I was going to regale her with war stories but they had all lost their edge because nothing looked the same, everything was new and shiny.
Those Dresden like streets you recall are now low-middle income row houses that show the pride-of-ownership concept of stabilization works. The same is true in Brooklyn's East New York although Bushwick and Brownsville still have the power to scare.
Agree about Brownsville. Bushwick, however, has St. Barbara's and is now being marketed by realtors as "East Williamsburg." I'm sure there's some kid who just moved from Seattle or Ohio who falls for that line.
My dads hometown of Newark, NJ hit rock bottom during the crack epidemic, although things have stabalized. Of course, a lot of it has to do with the fact that much of the crack generation is now behind bars or dead and that many of the former inhabitants of Brick City have been "relocated" by HUD to Bloomfield, the Oranges, Linden, etc.