When Rudy Giuliani Made New York Great Again

His recent successors failed to learn the lessons of the great reformist mayoralty of the 1990s.

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s recent brush with mortality reminds us how clearly his administration showed that people, not impersonal forces, make history—especially men of vision and courage like him. His mayoralty also offers today’s floundering New York the fundamental lesson that good government can make a city flourish, while bad government impairs it.

Reigning wisdom when Mr. Giuliani took office in 1994 was that the problem-ridden city was “ungovernable.” Crime had skyrocketed in the preceding decades, with murders doubling in the 1960s and doubling once more over the next two decades before reaching 2,154 in 1991—one every four hours, roughly. Dope dealers hustled on the street alongside pushy panhandlers and prostitutes. Derelicts slept alongside graffiti-smeared buildings. An epidemic of car break-ins led owners to post “No Radio” signs in their windows, and auto alarms blared indignantly at all hours. Businesses fled: The 116 major corporate headquarters in Gotham in 1971 had dwindled to 49 by 1995. Small-business owners buzzed customers in through locked doors and, at closing time, rolled down metal security gates, luring graffiti vandals.

Mr. Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor, ignored the cliché that you could cut crime only by addressing so-called root causes, poverty and racism. He instinctively grasped the theory of social scientists James Q. Wilson and George Kelling that stopping small crimes would prevent more serious crimes, just as replacing a broken window halts more window-breaking by showing that somebody watches and acts. He had seen this theory proven in the subways in the two years before his election, when Robert Kiley, head of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, kept subway...

I spent a lot of time in NYC both before and during the Giuliani years. It was like two completely different cities. Before Giuliani, NYC was almost as much of a third world cesspool as it is now. During the Giuliani years, NYC was actually a nice place to visit.

Glad to read that Rudy is out of the ICU now (3 days after being read Last Rites by a priest) and recovering in a regular hospital bed.

https://dailyscan.net/news/rudy-giuliani-is-out-of-icu-after-being-read-last-rites-rep-credits-the-power-of-prayer/

Do you get only one shot at last rites? If he used his allotment this month, are they banked for the future, or is he SOL when he actually does die?

I love Rudy! I actually wish he’d live forever.

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