It was going on long before FDR. Boss Tweed controlled New York around Civil War era and Tammany Hall goes back to post revolutionary New York.
Yep... However, there are many, myself included, who remember the residual Tammany Hall era (prior to the scum-bag RINO John Lindsey) as the wonderful halcyon years in NYC...
Although political corruption, bribery, etc were rampant (as they still are today), violent street crime, violent subway crime, violent school crime were minuscule-to-non-existent compared to today... Only gangsters, faggots, and those late in paying for protection had to live in occasional fear...
In 1957, after 6-years in the Corps, I lived in NYC, drove a Hoffa truck, and went to NYU... Loved that city... Fortunately I had moved on to graduate school in another state by the time John Lindsey changed/ruined everything...