With all due respect, NYC hasn't been that way since the Dinkins Admin. Giuliani really cleaned up things (though his tactics may not have been perfectly civil libertarian) and Bloomberg (who was NOT my favorite mayor when I worked there) carried on that "quality of life" focus to the point where Brooklyn is now gentrified and borderline unaffordable. Even Harlem is pretty nice up to 125th Street.
To be fair, I have not to been to Baltimore in decades and my visits to NYC suggest that it is creeping very slightly backwards. And yea, there are pockets of hell in NYC and DeBlasio is incompetent... but dirt and municipal stupidity are in abundance pretty much anywhere.
But NYC is far from the place depicted in Death Wish and The Out-Of-Towners.
I think New York City has been pretty clean since the Koch Administration! If you look at films from the 60s under Lindsay (as you point out with The Out of Towners or John Cassavette movies), you’re shocked at how dirty it is. Not now. During the height of the tourist season in summer, I will say the garbage starts piling up a bit with dropped pizza plates and plastic plates and forks. But that is not the fault of New York, though. Some tourists treat the city like it is a pig sty.
Baltimore, like most cities, has an ignored inner-city that drags down all the good statistics. I don’t dislike Baltimore because we have friends there and visit regularly. But, then, I like cities generally.
Wrong! about NYC
Lesions (sic) of creeps loitering and sitting
on the sidewalks and laying down on the
subway benches 24x7
Metro North ROW is festooned with tons of trash
from washers to tires to bumpers and unsightly graffiti
Just last night some (Hispanic) freak tried to beg:get in my car
At 9:30 at the very long light under the El end of the 4 line
There are plenty of areas in NYC where people still have pride of place. Neighborhoods like Jamaica, in Queens, are perpetually filthy, with trash dumped all over despite complaints. Then you have areas like Kew Gardens Hills, which is spotless. It depends on where you're talking about. I suspect Baltimore is much the same. The outer suburbs appear to be quite clean, from what I've seen on visits. I don't venture into the inner city there, as there is nothing that interests me there. I would love to see the National Aquarium again, but certainly not at $42 a pop.