I had to check out that claim. Today, I made a graph, and from the statistics, the overall crime rate started dropping well before Giuliani took office. Yeah, the crime rate started it's decrease during the Dinkins administration, so rudy rode the wave, so to speak. Sure, give him credit for cleaning up the graffiti if you want, but he isn't the one who got the ball rolling on the crime rate decrease.
By 1997, when I returned, I thought I was on another planet. I parked on the West side near the USS Intrepid, walked down to South Street Seaport and got hammered with some college buddies, then walked back to my car, through Chinatown, at 3:00 AM and came out alive ( the designated driver helped, too.)
You credit a DemonRat over Giuliani for lowering crime in NYC? That's the same argument Democrats used for years to discredit Giuliani. Dinkins deserves the credit. Giuliani is a fraud who is stealing the credit from Dinkins. The fact is that Giuliani did more than deal with trivialities like graffiti. His crackdown on quality of life crimes netted parole violators, drug dealers and wanted criminals. Cracking down on street drug trafficing helped to take the streets back from the vermin who were terrorizing whole neighborhoods. That helped to make people fell safe to walk the streets and it created an atmosphere in which new businesses opened up. Giuliani cracked down on the porno shops and cleaned out the low-lives that such businesses attracted. Times Square has been transformed from a cesspool into an area that attracts tourists and business people from around the world. The fact is that the murder rate was cut almost in half while Giuliani was mayor. To deny the effectiveness of his anti-crime policies and to trivialize what he accomplished in order to discredit him is disingenuous.