Drop Dead City (2024) Movie Script

1
I got speed.
-[vehicle engine rumbling]
-Got it?
Speed.
[horn honking]
Surely a significant portion of
the middle class
has fled New York City
and moved to the suburbs,
thus erade--
Tell me when. I got speed, Al?
Surely a significant portion of
New York's middle class
has fled the city and
moved to the suburbs
and thus eroded the tax base.
But that's nothing
really very new.
It's happened in a lot
of big cities.
But there are some
significant factors
that do explain New York's
present crisis.
-[horns honking]
-[people shouting]
[woman] You ain't goin' nowhere.
[indistinct conversations]
[male reporter] Believe it
or not folks, it's happening,
Mayor Beame is responsible
for the closing down
of this firehouse.
[boy] I think that's not fair.
Why should people get laid off?
[man] Well, the mayor says there
isn't enough money to pay 'em.
Well, I don't care what he says,
he's just a dumb, old bum.
[upbeat music]
Yeah, there's a lot involved!
My fucking life is involved!
My life is involved here!
[horns honking]
[crowd chanting]
In 1975, the City of New York
was fundamentally bankrupt.
[man]
Who's gonna pick up the garbage?
[man 2] That's the city's
problem. The city wants to
satisfy everybody?
Give us our jobs back.
We'll pick up the garbage.
We're all good workers.
Every man on this job
is a hustler.
[people chanting]
[man 3] We didn't have
the money for payroll.
We didn't have the money
to pay our teachers.
We didn't have the money
to pay firemen,
or sanitation workers.
Even our police force.
[all chanting]
We want jobs! We want jobs!
[man 4] When Abe Beame
became Mayor,
we thought, "Hey, we're in.
You know, he, uh-- he
appreciates the cops
and he's gonna take
care of us",
et cetera, et cetera.
Ah, didn't work out that way.
It's a desperate time
for the men and women
who no longer have jobs.
[man 4] I don't think the Mayor
really thought through,
"I'll lay off tens of thousands
of people
and continue
just doing what I do."
I'm not talkin'.
-[interviewer] Did you hear--
-I'm not talkin'!
[indistinct chatter, shouting]
[crowd]
Those families should be free!
[interviewer 2] One gets the
feeling that there is not a lot
of faith in government today.
Why should there be faith in
government?
Government has let
the people down,
government has made promises
and broken 'em.
Government has failed to respond
to the citizen in the street.
[man 5]
A worker making $10,000 a year
is more important than a bank
that garners up
$400 million in profits!
-[crowd cheering]
-Money!
Money! Yeah, Money!
[crowd shouting]
[indistinct shouting]
[crowd shouting]
[music ends]
[lively music]
[man] I'll tell you my
relationship to Mayor Beame.
He was a neighbor of mine
in Bell Harbor, Queens.
Right off the beach.
He was well known, he had been
budget director.
I knew he wanted
to become Mayor.
And we'd stand for hours
taking in a little sun
and talking politics
and government.
Uh, I guess then I called him
"Abe", and I asked him,
"Abe, what do you think
about the future?"
He reached into his bathing suit
and he pulled out some tiny,
minuscule notes, written
in tiny handwriting.
He says, "This is my program."
And he starts reading to me
everything he would do as Mayor
to help the city economically.
[people screaming]
I said, "Abe, what if
you go in the water?
You lose the whole program!"
And he laughed and he said,
"No, I have it up here, too.
I have it in my mind."
[people screaming]
-[thunder rumbling]
-[vintage upbeat music]
[male reporter] When he
walked down the steps
of City Hall today,
it was clearly
Mayor Beame's day.
A day that he's worked for,
for the last 23 years
in city government.
Mayor Beame says that during
his administration he wants
to be a matchmaker,
wedding New Yorkers
to their city
so that once again
they'll be proud
to call themselves New Yorkers.
[man]
If you go to Central Casting,
casting for Mayor
of The City of New York,
and you had Abe Beame?
Come on.
He just didn't look the part,
he didn't act the part.
-Will be...
-[Charles] And, uh,
he was not an expressive
public speaker.
We intend to make
our administration
a model of honest government.
[volume goes up] We intend
to be open in our dealings.
[man 2] Abe Beame
came into City Hall
with this reputation
as a good man with figures.
He very quickly found out
that the city's debt
-was grossly understated.
-[continues indistinctly]
-He thought it was 2 billion.
-Finally...
[Fred] It was about 6.
We wanna earn the public respect
for our governmental
institutions
by showing that we can provide
high quality service
and that we can operate on
a fiscally responsible basis.
[man 3] It took a while
for him to accept
that the situation was
what it in fact was.
I remember he said to me
plaintively, "Jay,
let me ask you,
how did we get into this?"
[upbeat, funk music]
[Fred] Most of the money,
the money that the city
could play with,
came from selling
New York City bonds.
Offered this morning
is $324,900,000,
zero bonds, City of New York...
So all the banks
would get together
in a room and whack it up.
"I'll sell 2 billion worth."
"I'll sell a billion
and a half."
And for every one they sold,
they got a commission!
Lots of money.
They didn't-- You didn't even
have to know anything!
Good morning,
ladies and gentlemen,
today the City of New York
is offering
for competitive bidding sale
260 million Tax Anticipation
Notes...
-For which I...
-[Harrison] The banks competed
to buy these bonds and resell
them to the public.
And so bankers' representatives
would put their bids
into a little tin box,
and then I would go out and
ceremoniously remove them.
And we would go into my office
and compute
which one of their bids was
the best from the standpoint
of the City, and then we would
award the bond
to the successful institution.
-Jay, can you hear us?
-[Jay over the phone]
Yes, I do.
I wish to announce
that the City
is accepting a bid submitted
on a competitive basis
at auction
by a syndicate headed
by Chase Manhattan Bank.
The interest rate is 7.69.
Thank you very much.
[music ends]
[man] If you do have any people
that are interested in them,
I think you can tell them
they'll be better than a seven.
Yes, sir. Will do.
Mr. Kupferman...
-[soft thud]
-I certainly will.
[man]
Municipal bonds were considered
the safest of investments.
And back then, the city
was run for people
who lived here,
really did live here.
Mrs. Resnick, uh, I understand
you own some bonds.
-Is that right?
-Yes, I do.
Why did you buy them?
Well, I'm sending a son--
a son to college,
and I thought, the money
that I would get--
the interest I would get on
the money would help me
defray the cost of the college.
What about yourself? Are you
depending on that money to live?
Absolutely, this is all I have
in this world,
and I've gotta have that money.
Mrs. Kessler, I understand you
hold some New York City bonds.
What were you gonna
use the money for?
Well, I do want it to--
for the both of us
for retirement purposes.
Maybe we wouldn't just
have to live on the dregs.
Maybe with our municipal bonds,
we would be able to,
well, live a little bit
more comfortably.
[interviewer] Mr. Kessler, would
you like to say anything?
[chuckles softly] Not really.
I think my wife
has said everything.
[Mrs. Kessler] We certainly
don't have too many luxuries
after all these years of living.
[upbeat, dramatic music]
[man] The years leading up
to the financial crisis
were a time of great optimism
in New York City.
Optimism about the power of
government
to do all of the things
that need doing.
[music continues]
[man 2] This city was
spending money based
on a liberal philosophy of
helping people live better.
This city, for a very,
very long time,
gave a real opportunity
to people that
came in and had nothing.
And they were given that chance.
At 10:15 DE2 is closed.
[woman] The City of New York
was the only place
in the United States that
provided a university system
and a community college system
that was absolutely free.
It was a pillar of opportunity.
[Harrison] My own father came
to this country at age 15,
not speaking a word of English.
Uh, he was the beneficiary
of a free education
at the City College of New York.
That was the spirit of New York.
[man 3]
The city was progressive.
And I came to New York
because I thought
the things I believed in
could be much better
accomplished here.
My work was
a realization of the idea
that I could deliver
universal health care.
That I could do wonderful care
for the people
that was essentially free.
And the fact that we were
opening neighborhood
family care centers
was a great part
of the progress.
You may bring your child in
at eight in the morning
and we close at six.
There was a great deal of caring
for people who had been left out
and hadn't been cared for.
It was very idealistic
and very exciting.
You can look at the history
of New York, and in a way,
it's always been divided
into the Big City
and the Little City.
You know, the Big City, that's
the capital of banking
and real estate
and all these things.
And the Little City,
you know, the thousand
individual neighborhoods
that are really the core of it.
[bike bell ringing]
[woman]
I came to New York in late '60s,
and there was never any doubt in
my mind that I wanted
to be in Harlem.
I loved being up there because
it was vibrant,
it was alive
and it was coherent.
[upbeat, latin-rhythms music]
People felt free
and comfortable.
[singing in foreign language]
[man] I grew up in a mixed
neighborhood,
which was cool,
you know,
there were Puerto Ricans,
there were blacks,
there were Greeks,
there was Italians,
there was Jews.
When we first moved there,
we were the first
Puerto Rican family
out of 23 apartments.
But being in New York,
I had a sense of belonging.
[music increases]
I mean, the young Puerto Ricans
took over the Park!
You could hear the music going
from one end to the other.
It was incredible.
[music fades]
[Anthony] The city had always
been interested
in providing not only
a wide range of public services,
but liberal compensation
for the workforce of the city.
[man]
The city had a public sector
with hundreds of thousands
of employees,
and contracts negotiated
over the years provided them
with good wages
and, um-- and good benefits.
Pensions, health insurance,
vacations, things like that.
All through the--
the '50s, '60s,
certainly into the '70s,
the labor unions
were all-powerful.
[cheering]
During that time,
a fellow named
Victor Gotbaum
was extraordinarily powerful.
[reporter] It's often said
that it was the great
giveaway era for the unions.
You're smiling.
Is-- Is that the case?
Because that's a regular ha-ha,
you know...
[Anthony] This was a union town,
a blue collar town,
I believe Victor Gotbaum
represented 100,000 employees.
And then the uniformed forces
were all represented by unions.
The New York City
Department of Sanitation
was represented by a union.
Albert Shanker led
the teachers' union.
All of the construction jobs
were represented by unions.
I mean, most of the people
who lived and worked
in New York were union members.
[man] The workforce of the city,
and I'm talking about
middle class,
average paycheck folks
all did very well.
You could buy a house
in Brooklyn or Queens,
your kids could go
to a good school,
you could retire.
It was a pretty good life.
[children shouting]
[man]
Did I like the idea that we were
putting people through college?
Did I like the idea
that the unions
were being paid a lot of money?
Yes, I did. I'm a liberal.
So, I thought it was great.
[indistinct clamoring]
[man]
The liberal spirit at that time
was not just consigned
to Democrats
because everybody that lived
in the city benefited from it.
They're gonna come
to New York City,
the greatest city
in this nation!
[crowd cheering]
We were doing our best
to do the right thing...
...and it imploded on us.
[music fades]
[Harrison] When I became
comptroller in 1974,
I made a pledge
that I would conduct
the first independent audits
of New York City's finances.
Well, as we started
to roll up our sleeves,
the chief accountant said to me,
"You know, Mr. Goldin,
every month
the city gets back the
canceled checks from the bank,
there's a closet filled
with these canceled checks
that have never been reconciled
to the city's books.
So, nobody has ever
undertaken to see
whether what the banks say
the city has in cash
is what the city's own books
have in cash."
That was just the beginning.
[intriguing, upbeat music]
They didn't have an accounting
system that made any sense.
-[man] It was chaotic.
-It was chaotic.
Everybody had stuff in drawers,
everybody had buried--
buried stuff,
and...
There's gotta be a good "and"
to some of this.
There were no fucking books!
[music continues]
You wanna talk to me,
I'll talk to you.
Don't make a-- don't make
a circus out of it, will ya?
We wanna ask a question
that involves
-both of you and Mr. Goldin.
-[Beame] Yeah.
The fact that Mr. Goldin had a--
had a different estimate
of the budget deficit
than you did...
Our Budget Bureau has indicated
that their figures are correct
and that's what they're--
they're standing by.
Well, I wish I were incorrect,
but unfortunately, I think
the Bureau of the Budget
has been too optimistic.
[Eugene] This disagreement
got the attention
of the senior bankers
and they started
asking questions
about additional risk.
As a result, interest rates
on the city debt
started going up quite sharply.
[reporter]
Did Mr. Goldin hurt the city?
Well, I just, uh, put it my way
that, uh,
I think it had an effect.
Well, I think that's
akin to, uh, the patient
saying that the doctor
has caused the illness.
[Harrison] I was an
independently elected
comptroller,
so Mayor Beame was not my boss.
And there was a big age
difference between us.
Uh, he was much older than I
and had a right to think of me
as, uh--
as a kid, which he did.
On top of that, Mayor Beame
had been comptroller
and was in a sense defensive
about what he had left behind.
Mayor, couple of weeks ago,
you didn't wanna
characterize Mr. Goldin's
motives at that time.
You were almost kind...
-...toward it, I--
-[Beame] Nor do I now.
[reporter]
Well, excepting the--
the war between you two
has heated up considerably
the last two weeks.
I just said to you,
and I just made the observation
that I am continuing
to do the job that I was
elected to as Mayor.
And the only time
I will say anything
with respect to my
former stewardship,
the comptroller's office,
will be when I want to correct
the record and the facts.
[upbeat jazz music]
[Fred] Abe Beame's background
was Brooklyn clubhouse politics.
That meant people
would come in and say,
"I'm having trouble
with my rent.
I need some turkeys
for Thanksgiving."
And you took care of
all those little things.
That's the milieu
in which Abe Beame lived.
[woman]
I-- I want to know, though,
is it proper for me to discuss
certain items
that would relate
to spending money
for community improvement
in the area now,
before you as members of the
-board of estimates?
-[Beame] You might as well
mention it.
[Fred]
Because the city was so big,
there was always money
coming in and going out.
And so you could promise,
"If it was gonna be a good year,
that thing that you wanted
there in Brooklyn,
we can build that."
There's a common cry
at this all day grousing
for better schools,
better hospital facilities,
better roads, better parks,
better libraries.
And there's a common answer
from the Mayor
and his men up there
on the platform.
It's basically,
"Sorry, we'd like to help,
but we just haven't
got the cash."
[dramatic music]
[man] We really are in trouble.
The present operating budget,
which was
balanced on July 1st,
is now $400 million down.
[interviewer] How--
How does that get remedied?
Well, first of all, the--
the way we can remedy it wo--
would be with new taxes,
which the Mayor ruled out.
He didn't say forever,
but he ruled out
at the present time,
and the other way
would be to cut the
operating expenses
of the city right now.
[music intensifying]
[female reporter] Mr. Beame,
you said that you get along
with the construction workers
yet Tom Tobin said that this
used to be a union town.
How do you react to that?
Well,
you know, you get carried
away at times.
This is a union town,
it's always gonna remain one.
[crowd shouting]
[crowd chanting]
[indistinct chattering]
[indistinct clamoring]
[man] Mayor Beame
has $29 million allocated
for construction
he's holding back.
You people are the ones
that can find out for us
where that 29 million is.
[reporter]
We'll give it our best effort.
We know you will, sweetheart,
and thanks very much.
[music continues]
[Stephen]
The costs for the labor force
in New York City
were overwhelming.
I mean, in the decade before
the shit hit the fan,
from '63 to '73,
the cost of
New York City government
grew three and a half times.
That is a big pile of dollars.
And that would have
never happened
without the help
of Nelson Rockefeller,
who was Governor of the
State of New York forever.
[audience applauding]
[man] Nelson Rockefeller was
an ambitious governor.
He spent a lot of money,
liked to build things,
liked to do things,
and it wasn't
always paid for
[chuckling]
as well as one would like.
Adoption of a universal health
insurance program...
Further improvement
of public transportation
and other community services...
Major expansion of housing
and urban development...
Let us continue
to maintain New York
as a model to the nation
of what creative,
responsible state government
can achieve for the people.
I thank you very much indeed.
Best of luck.
[audience applauding]
[Kevin] All throughout the '60s
Nelson Rockefeller was the face
of northeastern
liberal Republicanism,
something that doesn't
really exist anymore.
He-- Here was a man who was
a big cold warrior,
wanted to increase the military,
uh, but was also
for public spending
on education, civil rights,
health care,
cultural institutions...
I mean, almost single-handedly,
he built 80,000 units
of affordable housing.
For Rockefeller,
this was not extravagance,
this was civilization.
[intriguing, classical music]
[Fred] New York loved him,
absolutely loved him.
He could be relied upon
to be honest and straight,
mainly because he was rich
and he didn't have to steal.
But he was the Godfather
of the fiscal nightmare
of New York City.
[indistinct chatter]
[Ira] Whenever they got
into fiscal difficulty,
the city would call
on the Governor
to help approve
another type of tricky bond
like tax originating bonds
or tax anticipation bonds
all of which were "hoopy doopy"
to raise money with
no real assets behind it.
[Kevin] Tax Anticipation Notes.
"There's gonna
be a tax, trust us."
Bond Anticipation Notes.
"For this bond, we're gonna
issue another bond."
You know--
Finally, Moral Obligation Bonds.
"Don't worry, the State
won't let itself go bankrupt.
You know, it's-- Trust us."
[music fading]
[Jim] In late '73,
Rockefeller stepped down
as Governor.
One of the people
running to replace him
was Congressman Hugh Carey.
He was
a complicated personality.
He had been
in the Congress 14 years
so he was
a real Washington insider.
But like Mayor Beame, he was
from Brooklyn, New York.
So he knew his way around
the politics of New York City.
[Hugh] Because Brooklyn
gave me a chance,
the kind of opportunity
that I want
for every young man,
woman and child
in this great city
and in this great state.
[woman] Nobody expected him
to get the nomination,
let alone
win a general election.
But it was a Watergate year
in 1974.
People of the
State of New York...
...wanted to sweep
with a clean broom
and the one they swept in
was Hugh Carey.
[gentle, thoughtful music]
I was assigned
in my baby reporter days
to travel on the bus
that took
his family up to Albany.
Nelson Rockefeller
never spent a night in Albany.
He had his own plane and he
would fly home every night.
Hugh Carey and his family
were moving in
to the Governor's Mansion.
[female reporter]
When we visited the Carey family
they were in the midst
of making a specialty
of the Carey household, oeuf
avec chapeau , eggs with a hat.
It's always at this point that
someone hides the spatula.
-Oh, of course--
-[woman chuckles]
[Linda] He had had 11 children.
Two had died.
His wife had died.
He was a widower.
It was really
quite a touching story.
[Jim]
Hugh Carey, like all of the
smart politicians in New York,
knew that there had been
a long time deferral
of fiscal reality in the State
and that the legislature
was always moving
the target forward
for the next guy.
So there was an atmosphere
of fiscal crisis
from the day
that Carey was sworn in.
-So help me God.
-[audience applauding]
[applauses and music fading]
[upbeat, jazz music]
[music intensifying]
[Ira] It was a young lawyer
at White & Case
who blew the whistle.
-[music fades]
-He was
representing one of the
banks on a new loan
to the city,
and he went down to City Hall
and asked the question.
[man] In early 1975, I was 29
and I went up and I met with
the assistant comptroller,
and I asked him a question which
he said no one had ever...
...asked before. And I said,
"You know, you're issuing
tax anticipation notes.
What taxes do you
anticipate receiving?"
And he actually wrote out
some information for me
on a yellow legal pad.
And I looked at it and I said,
"Goodness, I don't think
they have the room...
...to back this issuance.
'Cause if you don't
anticipate receiving taxes
because you've
collected them already,
you can't issue
a tax anticipation note."
Well, pretty quickly
the show kinda collapsed.
The announcement on behalf of
the Comptroller is that the
offer which we had
expected to receive
and announce
at 2 o'clock this afternoon...
...is now expected at 4 o'clock.
[reporter] Does this mean that
nobody wants those bonds?
We will be making
a further announcement
at 4 o'clock
and anything before--
[Harrison]
That day, nobody showed up.
And we had a box,
and it was there,
and the door was open,
and the appointed time came
and nobody showed up.
Nobody wanted to buy the bonds.
That was not good.
[Ira] The emperor
has no clothes, right?
And it was a lawyer
representing a bank
who blew the whistle.
Where was everybody else?
You know?
Where was Albany?
Where was everybody else
who's supposed to be watching
the fiscal affairs
of the City of New York?
[male reporter]
The three northbound lanes
of the Westside Highway
collapsed under the weight
of a heavily loaded asphalt
truck late this afternoon
and some 50 tons
of hot asphalt
spilled over
the service road below.
[man] We're in a recession,
we're in deep budgetary trouble,
and then we get
a third complication
which is that
the banks wouldn't lend
to the city short term anymore.
[reporter] You said that
the banks make
Jesse James
look like an amateur.
What would you do
with the banks?
I-- If the banks
would not respond
and treat us as--
for what we are,
an institution that has
the welfare of 8 million people
to be concerned about,
-and unless they recognize
-[music intensifying]
their obligation
to the public,
then we have to begin to talk
about nationalizing.
[Alan] There was a meeting
between the union leadership,
the City, and the bankers
as to what the banks would be
ultimately willing to do.
And the banks
distributed a document,
it was about
three quarters of an inch thick,
[chuckles]
with the terms and conditions
under which the banks
would assist the City.
I was at that meeting
looking at Abe Beame
and he was getting
red in the face...
...in a rage.
He understood that what was
being presented to him
was a coup d' etat by the banks.
He said, "I would rather have
the City go into bankruptcy
then to turn over the governance
of this city to you guys."
[strong, dramatic music]
Basically, they told them to go
fuck themselves.
You don't own me
I'm not just
One of your many toys
You don't own me
Don't say
I can't go with other boys
[Michael] This is something that
the city brought upon itself
with the connivance
of its bankers, let it be said.
You know, what tends
to be forgotten
is that for every bad
borrower...
...there's usually
a stupid lender.
[Richard]
Citibank was the largest bank,
and the chairman,
Walter Wriston,
was a very conservative guy
who thought, you know,
all the politicians in New York
had been irresponsible fiscally.
We used to laugh about it.
But then I'd say, "You're
absolutely right,
but why the hell did you
lend them money?"
- You don't own me
-[chuckles]
Excuse me, could I talk to you
for a moment?
I'm trying to buy, uh, a--
a bus ticket over
at Port Authority.
I have $14. I'm just trying to
get together two more dollars.
A half a dollar, even.
-I don't have any bread--
-A quarter?
[female reporter] New York City
is supposed to be down
and out but its beggars have
never had it so good.
At least those who go to
Omar's School for Beggars.
Omar lost his executive job
in New York a few years back.
At 45, he was
on the verge of suicide
when a good Samaritan
heard his hard luck story
and gave him 20 bucks.
Now, wearing a disguise
to protect his identity,
Omar teaches others.
[Omar] Remember you got
2, 3, 4, 5 seconds, that's all.
Get up to the guy,
touch him on the sleeve,
make your pitch, be polite, say,
"Pardon me, sir, thank you..."
[man]
As Omar, I tried to explain
that in countries like Sweden
and Norway,
you're taken care of.
And I just felt that people
in our country should be
taken care of.
And I'm doing--
Taking care of them
with Omar the Beggar,
teaching them
how to beg for money.
[Omar] The point is, you're not
going to some guy and saying,
"Give me 100 bucks."
You're saying,
"Give me 2, 3, 4, 5 dollars."
That's all you're asking for,
'cause this is what
professional panhandling
is all about.
[lively, playful music]
[man] Mayor Beame
came to see the Governor.
I'm the new young
budget director
of the State of New York,
and I know roughly
what's going on, only roughly.
The Mayor says, "Governor,
we have $800 million of notes
coming due in 10 days
and we have no way to meet it."
The Governor and I
lean forward--
I mean, we knew they
were having troubles
and there was a budget problem.
They have $800 million coming
due and no way to meet it?
And they tell us 10 days before?
[man 2]
Abe Beame comes up to Albany
with two or three pages.
On each page there were like,
one or two sentences.
That was the whole presentation.
He didn't have a full-fledged
professional presentation
of what their problem was?
[Peter] So we all got to work.
They eventually
put together the picture.
We estimated that the real
budget gap of New York City
was 4 or 5 billion.
That turned out
to be very close.
Turned out to be 6.
[music fades]
New York's financial situation
has grown increasingly serious
in these days
of inflation and recession.
The city is spending more,
but taking in less.
New York Governor Hugh Carey
said the state
will advance $200 million
to pay one city bill
due tomorrow.
That will help, but it's a long
way from solving
the city's problems.
[intriguing music]
[Stephen] And everybody
was tearing their hair out,
how terrible this is,
all this money...
And I said, you know,
"This is the small one."
I said, "Come this summer,
we're gonna be dealing
with the bankruptcy of the
City of New York."
The room got violently quiet.
Carey took his glasses off,
threw 'em on the table
and said, "I never wanna hear
about that again."
And he didn't talk to me
for four months.
[music increasing]
[water splashing]
[music fades]
[soft music]
[siren wailing in distance]
[music continues]
[man] You know,
I came here back in 1970.
Someone said, "Why are you
coming back to New York?"
I said, "Well, because
it's a great city
and it's worth saving."
I'll never forget, he said,
"Yeah, that's what they said
about the dinosaurs."
[music continues]
[man 2] When I was a child,
we didn't have the playgrounds
like the kids have today.
So our playground
was the streets.
Everybody knew each other.
You know, it wasn't
like today, you know,
the hipsters
and stuff like that.
Back then,
you knew people
in the neighborhood
ten blocks away.
You had a lot of factories,
a lot of good jobs,
and there was a bar,
or two bars on every block,
you know, for people after work.
But back in the '70s,
it started falling apart.
Buildings becoming abandoned,
and little by little,
it started eroding
and deteriorating, b--
you know,
the whole neighborhood.
You would see a lot
abandoned buildings.
They weren't even blocked up
with cement blocks, or whatever.
And that was going on
all over the city.
[train horn honking]
[Judah] From the late '50s
to the early '70s,
the population
of the City of New York
remained the same
at eight million.
But during that time
one million whites
essential to our tax base
moved to the suburbs.
And they were replaced
by about the same number
of African-Americans,
as well as Hispanics
from the Islands.
It was not easy to get a job,
and a lot of people
were suffering.
I mean, we had
no heat last year,
no hot water,
no nothing.
[reporter] Have you been able
to get any help
from the city or anybody?
The city? What is the city
gonna do for me here?
[indistinct chattering]
[Kevin]
People coming to New York
were in many ways
the same people
who had always come
to New York.
The poor, the striving,
new Americans,
all of them
looking for opportunity.
But the jobs weren't there.
[music continues]
[Michael] When I was a kid
growing up
in New York right after the war,
New York was the largest
manufacturing city
in the United States.
Everything from belt buckles
to hats, to-- you name it.
But by 1975, 30 years later,
that was no longer the case.
[man] Originally,
when I came here, uh,
it was all industrial on both
sides of the street.
In the last couple of years,
buildings have been
deteriorating
and landlords
don't wanna fix anything,
so everybody's been moving out.
[music continues]
[woman]
Business in Crosby is lousy!
And everybody else around.
[Judah]
There was a tremendous amount
of uncharted territory
if the leading city
in the country
would go bankrupt.
It's to be avoided...
...at all costs.
[music fades]
[male reporter] Mr. Comptroller,
how would you characterize
the city's financial status
right now?
Well, this city, uh, continues
to have, uh, enormous reservoirs
of financial strength.
[Peter] In fact, they could stop
all the debt service payments
and they didn't have
enough money to run the city.
Even if we got the labor unions
to take cuts,
even if we got the banks
to take a stretch-out,
even if we cut the budget,
it was clear that we couldn't
get out without help
from the Feds.
So Governor Carey
and Mayor Beame
went to Washington.
[heroic, dramatic music]
[Jim] In May of 1975,
Gerald Ford
had only been President
for eight months.
Can't Bob
go to the one luncheon,
and then I drop by
over there afterwards?
He was sworn in
when Nixon resigned.
Let's do it that way.
He in turn appointed
Nelson Rockefeller,
who was out of a job at the
time, to be Vice-President.
[reporter] What does the
Vice-President Designate
do with himself all day?
Well, review all of the things
you've done all your life,
uh, all the decisions
you've made.
Uh, be sure that you can
answer questions
as to why and when,
and I guess there are
some questions
that will be raised
about finances.
[Jim] Rockefeller represented
the Eastern Establishment
of the Republican Party.
But the people running
the Gerald Ford administration
were Donald Rumsfeld
and Dick Cheney.
The Dynamic Duo.
On any given day,
we didn't know which one
was Batman
and which one was Robin.
-Where's Terry? Inside?
-He's in there.
They were young
Midwestern conservatives.
[indistinct chatter]
[Jim] They detested
Nelson Rockefeller,
and they didn't think much of
doing anything for New York.
[lively, dramatic music]
One thing I will never forget
is our first meeting
in the White House.
Gerald Ford and Hugh Carey
had served together
in the House of Representatives
for 20 years.
They'd swapped votes,
stories and beers.
And who's on the
opposite side of the table?
It's Nelson Rockefeller.
Ford says, "Can you shed
any light on how the City
could get
into this much trouble?"
The response comes,
[imitating Rockefeller]
"Mr. President,
I find it almost inconceivable
how these people could have
gotten into so much trouble."
[in normal voice] Then he turns
to the guy next to him.
He says, "What about you, Bill?"
Bill Simon,
presently
Secretary of the Treasury
and a former New York City
municipal bond salesman.
He had been chairman
of Comptroller Beame's
Debt Advisory Committee.
The rest of us think
we're in the funhouse.
So Simon tells Ford,
"When I last knew anything
about City finances,
they were in good shape."
And there's Beame
just sitting there.
[music ends]
[man] I don't think
it was always clear
who had Ford's ear.
But over at the
Treasury Department,
Bill Simon felt very strongly
that New York
had gotten itself in trouble
through its profligate spending
and that the only way
to stop it was to be tough.
I can only hope
that the travails
of New York City will have some
impact on our attitudes
as to the proper role of
government in our society.
We have to, in the
Federal Government,
accelerate a comprehensive
reexamination
of all Federal, State
and local relationships.
We have to determine
whether the priorities,
practices
and procedures of the past
in all areas, welfare, housing,
all assistance programs
such as rent control...
I know I'll be ripped on that
suggestion tomorrow morning
in the newspapers
back home, uh...
But that's too bad.
[intriguing music]
[Kevin] Supposedly, New York
gave out so much money
to the poor, particularly
to welfare recipients,
that people were flocking
to New York to get it.
And of course, this is nonsense.
I mean, New York's welfare
payments, like everybody else's,
were determined within certain
parameters set by the Feds.
[reporter]
A Welfare Center in Harlem.
There are now a million people
on welfare in New York.
And as the
national recession worsens,
an extra 12,000 New Yorkers
sign on every month.
[Kevin]
New York City had no ability
to turn people away if they
qualified for welfare.
Paul Robinson!
[Kevin]
And here you had William Simon
who'd been a New York bond guy,
a millionaire,
making it this morality play.
What were they supposed to do?
Pay the policemen or send out
the welfare checks?
There's not enough money.
[Richard] There was a story in
the newspaper that Paul Volcker
was named President of the
New York Federal Reserve Bank.
I knew that the Fed had the
power to make emergency loans
to municipalities,
so I figured
it was a good thing
to get in touch with him.
[Paul chuckles]
It was a long time ago,
but Dick Ravitch
and Peter Goldmark
came to visit me
and said,
"Okay, you're the President
of the Federal Reserve Bank
of New York
and New York is going bust, what
advice do you have for us?
And what are you gonna do?"
And I said-- I told him,
"Well, the Federal Reserve
isn't gonna lend you
any money. [chuckles]
You're on your own!"
-[machine clicking]
-[people chattering]
[Eugene] If it got to the point
where the city could not borrow
an additional nickel
at any price,
no matter
what the interest rate,
it would have real trouble
paying the salaries
of the municipal employees.
Week after week, we were
in exactly the position
of the small business owner
who has a payroll to meet
and does not have cash
in the cash register.
At the moment, New York City
doesn't have the money
in hand to get
through next week.
Public School 79 didn't get
its monthly truckload
of canned vegetables today.
The canned vegetable wholesaler
says he's not delivering anymore
unless he gets paid cash.
And the city is $5 million
behind in its milk bills.
[Harrison]
I was really concerned.
I remember
I got my first chest pains.
I got a pain, I remember lying
down on the couch in my office.
We needed credit,
and there was
one thing left to do
that would reassure the banks.
[soft rock playing]
That's how I feel
Oh, that's how I feel
[Alan] Once we got past
understanding that
this was real,
the question is,
"What was the solution?"
And it certainly
was not layoffs.
From our point of view,
it wasn't layoffs.
[Victor] Once again,
we're asked to sacrifice,
while there is absolutely
no sacrifice,
absolutely no sacrifice,
asking corporations
such as Citicorp,
whose profit margins
have gone up almost 100%.
[distant shouting]
We are here,
my brothers and sisters,
to demonstrate
that banks
cannot put themselves
above the people
of the City of New York.
[crowd cheering]
Let me say this to Mr. Wriston
who I'm now told has locked
his employees in there.
They can't even
get out for lunch...
[crowd shouting]
Let me say,
we are asking
First National City Bank,
come out of the closet
and communicate!
[crowd cheering]
[man]
What I have to say is gonna be
very short and very sweet.
If it's up to the Patrolmen's
Benevolence Association,
they won't have $400 million
profit next year
because they're not going to
have it on the backs of cops!
-That's the way we feel.
-[crowd cheering]
[man 2] When they're talking
about laying off cops,
we were laughing. We said,
"What, are you kidding me?"
Never happened in the history
of New York City
Police Department.
Never, they never laid off cops.
You know,
I-- In a million years.
There's a man chasing a guy
who just picked his wallet,
about two blocks up.
[Wilton] There were precincts,
for instance,
the 75 precinct,
they were doing...
...almost a homicide a day.
Somebody was getting killed
in that precinct
every single day.
[reporter] Just why the shooting
began is still a mystery.
But the gunman
and his first victim,
who may have been able to shed
some light on it, are dead.
So is the Good Samaritan,
another victim
of the senseless violence
that's part
of New York street lore.
[man] At Channel 5,
the sense of fear
was very great.
The anchorman...
...had a gun.
The news director had a gun.
Most of the reporters had guns.
I was the only one who didn't...
...that I know of.
I had this vision of everybody
shooting everybody else.
It was, uh, a strange time.
[grandiose, dramatic music]
[narrator]
Crimes such as mugging depend
on the criminal's opportunity
to be alone with his victim.
You can deny him this
opportunity by remaining alert
in potentially
dangerous situations.
Look around you.
Make sure
you are not being followed.
If you suspect you are,
one possible strategy
is to stop
at a lighted storefront
and wait to see
if the suspect passes you by.
If he stops too,
then you have some evidence
that you have been singled out
as the target for a crime.
[Eugene]
The uniformed forces said, uh,
"Look, imagine
this city is chock-full of crime
to begin with, imagine
what it's gonna be like if you--
if you don't have cops
or firefighters on the street.
[siren wailing]
[man] I was with Ladder 120, uh,
in Brownsville,
and we were the
busiest company in the world.
In the world.
We were doing like
10,000 runs a year,
maybe 30 times a night.
[sirens wailing]
There were times, I can
remember one in particular,
that we turned into a street,
I jumped off and I ran in
to start cutting
the roof open,
and I hear
the lieutenant calling me,
He's going,
"Flip, where are you?"
I've got this thing, it's-- it's
blowing 20 foot in the air.
And I looked, they were fighting
a building across the street.
I was on a total
separate fire by myself.
[suspenseful, jazz music]
What type of people
go into arson?
[man] I would say they're
all kinds of people,
businessmen,
kids,
family men,
and women.
[Flip] They were basically
burning Brooklyn down.
Whether it was Gas Can Harry
or for insurance purposes.
I mean, how could
they lay off firemen?
How could that possibly happen?
[Kevin] Firefighters
were literally dealing
with this apocalypse.
There were fires everywhere.
And William Simon
or a Walter Wriston
was telling them they were--
they were making too much money.
"Good luck!
You go put out the fire!
[chuckles] You go keep the city
from burning down!"
This is complete madness again.
People are gonna die.
More people are gonna die.
And the public has to
now be aroused
by this move by our Mayor.
[music turns upbeat]
[news reporter] Some people
once called New York, Fun City.
Now the police and firemen's
unions of New York
are calling it Fear City.
Travelers arriving at New York's
Kennedy Airport today
were handed pamphlets by
off-duty police and firemen.
The pamphlet says
the city is so unsafe
that visitors should stay home.
[Fred] "Stay off the streets
after 6 PM.
Muggings and occasional murders
are on the increase."
I'm sta-- I'm starting to read
this and it's bothering me...
So-- but I'll continue, I mean,
it's bothering me
that this was on at the time.
But let me finish it.
"Avoid public transportation.
You should never ride the subway
for any reason whatsoever."
It will continue until
we're served. It's that simple.
We're gonna continue with
this campaign for 18 days.
[continues indistinctly]
Come on! I grew up on the
Lower East Side, it's bullshit!
I mean come on,
what do you think?
I'm gonna panic over this?
I'm gonna get diapers?
I mean, come on!
Have you heard of the
Fear City campaign?
-Of the what?
-[reporter] The police--
-The Fear City campaign?
-No.
[reporter] The police say that
a lot of them are being fired
and New York is not safe.
How do you feel about that?
Well, I've seen a lot of them
around and I haven't seen, uh,
any purses
snatched or anything else.
Are you aware of the
Fear City campaign?
No, sir, I'm not,
I just arrived in New York
and I'm not aware of it.
Have you heard of the
Fear City campaign?
Oh, yes, I have.
[reporter] What's your reaction?
I think it's, uh, overstated.
I'm not personally afraid of it.
[Fred] "Do not leave valuables
in your hotel room.
And do not
deposit them in the hotel vault.
Hotel robberies have become
virtually uncontrollable."
[reporter 2] The Mayor says
you're-- you're inciting panic.
W-- The Mayor should read
what we wrote, uh...
If-- In fact, if you read it
yourself you'll find out
that everything
that's written in there
is either, uh,
statistical, uh, data
from-- that we've gleaned
from the Fire Department
or the Police Department,
or things that
we've taken directly out
of the New York City newspapers.
Well, frankly I had forgotten...
...that, uh--
that this was
the posture of the, uh--
the PBA.
How can people
who claim to love our city
speak of it in this fashion?
I think it is disgraceful.
[music fades]
[soft, folk music]
Well, there's
All kinds of cities
That I've rambled around
But New York, New York
Now there's
A hell of a town
You know, it ain't no lie
And it ain't no guff
They got five big boroughs
Chock full of stuff
They got skyscrapers
Subways
And sea of humanity
Sure, I know New York
Is dirty and ugly
And full of cockroaches
And gonorrhea
And rats and junkies
And hookers
-And rude cab drivers
-[horn honking]
Bad air and bad vibes
And unemployment and...
Oh, but it's not boring
New York City's
big financial problems
have moved out of the
government's accounting offices
and into the streets.
The municipal treasury
is so bare
that the city began
its new fiscal year yesterday
by laying off
thousands of workers.
[Anthony] I was a supervisor
when the layoffs
went into effect
I remember
a group of men came in,
I gave them their orders and
everybody just went outside
and did nothing.
More than
2000 sanitation workers
were laid off.
[indistinct chattering]
Then a lot of the men
who were not laid off
decided to support
their colleagues.
So, there was a strike.
[upbeat, funk music]
[reporter] The top of the news
this morning,
the Big Apple
turning a bit sour.
Garbage men on strike
in New York City,
a wildcat strike
that began yesterday
and until it ends, over
25,000 tons of garbage a day
will pile up.
I've been living here since 1929
I ain't never seen
nothing as ridiculous as this.
Personally do you feel anything
that you can do
as a person?
I don't think there is much
that I can do as
a person I mean,
perhaps I could write
a protest letter
to the New York Times.
[man] I love picking up garbage,
that's my money.
What do you think I throw things
in the street for?
-'Cause I'll have
a job tomorrow.
-[men chuckle]
If I don't pick it up and throw
it in the street,
I won't have a job tomorrow!
-What, are you kidding?
-[men clapping]
And I want Mayor Beame
to know, Friday,
I'm coming to his house
with my two kids,
make sure they feed 'em.
[man 2] I think it's a terrible
time to have a strike
because it's too hot and it's
really a health hazard.
So, uh,
Mayor Beame
should get on the ball.
Or get on the beam.
[music increases]
Lay off 2,300 firefighters
in New York City?
Richard Vizini,
head of the Fire Union,
says there'll be money
made out of that.
The money, he says, will be made
by the undertakers.
The people that are gonna be
greatly affected by it
are the people in the
disadvantaged areas,
the people in the ghetto areas.
[reporter] 5,000 police officers
were dismissed by the city.
They were ordered to turn in
their badges and guns.
The unions are attempting to
force the city to reinstate
the 19,000 municipal employees.
And the city says
it simply doesn't
have the money,
unless it receives
additional taxing power
from the state.
If we want a city
of only poor or only rich,
we are going in that direction,
we are driving the
middle class out of the city!
[people chanting]
Save Our Cops!
Save Our Cops! Save Our Cops!
[Wilton] I didn't know
if I would be laid off.
I mean, I didn't think so.
I had seven and a half years
on the job.
How far they gonna go?
Well, guess what?
They went to
seven and a half years!
[man] We are now experiencing
the product of mismanagement
in the city
over many, many years.
What we have had here is
political ineptitude.
[music turns suspenseful]
The union has put up $1,600,000
to meet any shortfall
in the anticipated revenue
that the city may face.
[reporter] Where is the
million-six coming from?
There were--
The union treasury.
It'll go right to the--
the-- Mayor Beame,
I'll put the check in his hand.
[reporter 2] What about
the cops and the firemen?
Will they be reinstated also?
No layoffs there either?
Bob, I don't-- I only speak
to sanitation men.
They go out on strike,
the garbage builds up,
he gets $1.6 million,
he hands at the Beame
and he says, "Here, put all my--
all my men back."
They're gonna get back more
than that million dollars
because every one
of those garbage men
is gonna be cleaning up
the mess that they made
for the last three days.
They're gonna get paid
time and a half
and double time
for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Well, I'll tell you
how we feel about it,
we're up to here with Beame.
They're using us.
And I hope to God
that the damn city
blows up.
I'd love to see them cops go.
Because we're tired of the--
[stutters]
of being
on the bottom of the pile.
[commentator speaking
indistinctly]
[soft music]
[music fades]
-[reporter] Everybody ready?
-[man] Yeah, ready.
Governor, Mayor Beame
has just told us
that at this point there is
nothing assured in terms
of any special deal with the
state in terms of helping
the city with its cash crisis.
What is the situation?
-Well, the Mayor is accurate.
-Is the state willing
-to start taking over
some of the city functions?
-Gentlemen, please.
-[man 2] We have a--
-Come on, we have a dinner now.
We-- We have a--
Well, that would require
acts of the legislature,
things of that kind, uh...
The state is ready
and must, to help the city
in any way possible.
Please, gentlemen...
[Donna]
I was teaching political science
at Columbia
when the Governor
called me and said,
"What are you
doing for the summer?"
And I said, "Not much."
And he said, "Great,
I'm going to appoint this board
called the
Municipal Assistance Corporation
to help negotiate
the finances of New York City,
and I need you on this board."
I had written
my doctoral dissertation
on the financial relationship
between states and cities.
So I said, "Okay, Governor,
I'll be happy to do it."
Governor Carey has been taking
a long, hard look at the
borrowing habits
of New York City.
He's been instrumental
in setting up a thing called
the Municipal Assistance
Corporation.
It's a new state agency.
It's already been
nicknamed Big MAC.
[reporter]
Governor, is this board
now running
the City of New York?
The Mayor is beside me
and we wanna strengthen,
strengthen the government
of the City of New York
in this hour of crisis.
So there'll be no
misunderstanding,
the fact that we are here
in a committee to work
with respect to the finances
of the City of New York
in no way is gonna deter
from my managing the City
of New York in the way I think
it ought to be managed.
[Fred] Every bit of
New York City's budget
had to be accounted for
by this group
of financial people
led by Felix Rohatyn.
We have asked
the heads of the banks to
be available to talk to us.
We've asked the heads
of the unions to stand by
and be ready to meet with us
over the weekend.
The Governor is going to ask
the legislative leaders
to come down here
and we will have
all the parties around a table
to see if we can build
some kind of a structure.
[Charles] I had no idea who
in the hell Felix Rohatyn was,
and I figured, here's another
goddamn Wall Street banker
that's gonna tell us,
"Pull in your belt."
In the language of the
early space programs,
we've gotta go
for a couple of orbits
and, uh--
and then we'll see what happens.
We've, uh--
[Charles] I came to know
about the compassion he had
for the people of New York City,
and that just
cutting the City's budget
was not his objective.
We don't have the power
to dictate to the politicians
how they establish the social
priorities of the City,
nor do I think
it would be in any way
appropriate for us to do so.
[Peter] Felix was a dealmaker in
the good sense of the word.
Here we are suddenly
constructing a whole new path
for the largest city
government in the country,
which involved banks,
unions, and politicians.
Felix's role was to bring
those worlds together.
[Alan] My sense was he believed
in progressive politics
and good governance
so he wasn't one
of these individuals
hostile to government,
he was-- he was for it.
And he wanted to help.
[Herb]
There were remarkably few people
working on this,
and there were meetings
that would start
at 8 or 9 o'clock
and last till
12 or 1 in the morning.
[man] Can we have 5 minutes
while you gentlemen and ladies
from British television
do your thing and then
we'll get down
to our own business?
There was a basic understanding
that there was
no choice for anybody
except to come to--
come to terms with this.
Now the idea is that
Big MAC will pick up
the short term debts
that the City has to pay
at the moment
and if all goes well,
it'll pay those debts
by raising more money
through long term bonds.
[Michael] The MAC Bonds were
based on a very simple premise.
You isolated
a stream of revenue,
in this case,
the city sales-tax,
and in effect you issued those
bonds against that stream.
[cashier] $1.30.
[Anthony] The "Big MAC" bond
was going to be triple tax-free.
How they arranged that is way--
way above my pay grade,
and, uh, pay
something like 10%.
So it seemed like
kind of a no-brainer.
-I believe
-I believe!
This will survive
[reporter]
The rally, the first of many
planned in local communities
throughout the City,
is designed to encourage
the purchase of Little MAC bonds
in denominations
of $50 and $100
in order to help save
New York City from default.
I suppose if you believe
in New York City,
put your money
where your faith is.
-Yes, I believe
-I believe!
In New York City
And I'll do my part
To keep this town alive
[Beame] We're fighting back!
We're facing up
to the financial crisis
confronting this city.
We need your help!
I know you're going to give it.
Thank you all,
and God bless you.
[Harrison]
Beame went on television
to say that as
a demonstration of his own
belief in the future
of the city,
he was taking all of his
retirement money
and investing it in city bonds.
I remember looking
at this television set
and saying to myself,
"Oh, my God,
you poor man."
[dramatic music]
[reporter] When Big MAC bonds
went on the open market,
the first billion dollar batch
plunged 10%.
A $100 million
paper loss in a single day.
And Mayor Beame was now forced
to call for more layoffs
and deeper cuts.
You know, I was in communities
talking to people
who were raising this, you know,
"Am I gonna get paid this week?
How am I gonna buy food?
How am I gonna pay my rent?"
So it was a very human problem.
It's a desperate time
for the men and women
who no longer have jobs
because
the city is being denied
the opportunity
to help itself.
I can appreciate the
frustration and despair
of these workers.
The failure in Albany
to give us our taxing rights
has forced us
to balance our budget
with still further layoffs.
We've been
turned upside down,
we have no income,
we don't know
where he's gonna get a job.
I mean, you put
5,000 policemen alone,
not counting all the other
civil employees that are
out of jobs on the streets,
where are you gonna find a job?
$95 a week unemployment
isn't gonna help us.
We have a house, we have bills,
my son
is supposed to get braces.
You put six years in on a job
and then they turn around
and they say, "Well,
we don't have the money
to pay you anymore."
Where can you go?
What can you do?
-[suspenseful music]
-[siren wailing]
[reporter]
You've 10,000 bed patients,
you do 41 emergency runs a day,
you've got about 20,000
clinic patients a day,
now who can handle that kind
of a situation?
It's a tremendous burden
that we face,
tremendous problem that we face,
and we are certainly
in difficulty.
[music continues]
[people chattering]
I heard Mr. Beame promise us
there would be absolutely
no cutbacks
in services or monies
from the Office
for the Handicapped.
Remember, there are
one million disabled people
in New York City.
And that's a lot of voters.
[man] And here to introduce
Mayor Beame is Jim Weihart,
Bureau Chief
of the New York Daily News.
Jim?
[audience applauding]
[Jim] Abraham David Beame,
Mayor of the City of New York,
started at the bottom
as a district captain
in Brooklyn's Crown Heights
section, in 1930.
[Peter] The pressure
of this whole business
took a great toll on him.
I remember one meeting
in the Governor's office
where he was looking
like this out the window...
...for the whole meeting
while the argument
was raging around him,
the Mayor of New York,
the fate of whose city
was at stake.
It's his dignity,
it's his history.
It's the world as he knows it,
being refashioned by these
upstarts in Albany.
[soft, thoughtful music]
[Fred] He was still the Mayor,
but he didn't have
this piece anymore,
and he didn't have
this piece anymore.
Big MAC was running the city.
[woman] The men that sit
on the board of Big MAC,
not one of those bankers
were ever voted in.
And yet they're the ones
that are raising the fare.
Felix Rohatyn!
This is a tax
upon the working people,
upon the-- the riders
of New York City.
[people chanting]
No guns, no bridge!
No guns, no bridge!
When we get our guns back,
the City gets the bridge back.
That's it.
Well, what can I tell ya,
it's a tough route
they gotta take, you know.
Ci-- City's in a hell of a mess.
[chanting]
No wage freezes!
Stop Big MAC!
Workers and unemployed,
time to fight back!
[Donna] There were
protests in the streets
whenever we cut anything.
Including when we
imposed tuition
on the City University,
destroying one of the
clear identities
of the City, free tuition
for any New York City resident.
[picket line chanting]
It was just devastating.
[music fades]
What does our society
owe to its citizens?
Walter Heller?
Well it's really
a question of what,
in a sense, do we owe to
each other in a democracy?
And I think, first of all,
we owe each other,
uh, equality of opportunity.
And that's something
we have to do collectively
rather than individually.
That means secondly,
that those who are denied
by the conditions of the economy
and the conditions of society,
who are denied
equal opportunity,
have to have a certain amount of
collective support
from government.
Milton Friedman, how do you
approach that question?
I think putting the question
in those terms,
"What does society
owe citizens?",
grossly misstates the issue
and is responsible
for a lot of our difficulties.
And I think what we need
is to have a system
in which we as individuals
can have a greater
degree of freedom
to pursue our own interests,
in which we are controlled less
by Big Brother in Washington,
in which less of our money
is taken off there,
and in which taxes
are not imposed on us
without our having voted
explicitly for them.
I once held her
In my arms
She said would always stay
Well, I must've been mad
Never knew what I had
I threw it all away
I threw it all away
[music fades]
[lively, upbeat music]
-[reporter] How you stay cool?
-Positive thinking. That's all.
You just think positive,
think cool and you'll be cool.
Ooh ooh ooh ooh
Ooh ooh ooh ooh
Ooh ooh ooh ooh
Ooh ooh ooh ooh
[Alan] The Americana was the
wage deferral negotiations.
We were trying
to avoid more layoffs
in return for deferring
wage increases.
Why can't we be friends
Why can't we be friends
Why can't we be friends
Why can't we be friends
We have thought that one way
to bring fiscal stability
to this city
is to have all members of it,
of the community,
move forward together.
And a voluntary agreement,
as we've always said,
would be
a highly significant step
in that direction.
-I think the agreement...
-[Herb] You gotta remember
all of these unions represented
very different kinds of people,
they had different
interests in their contract.
It's really what
made it complicated.
We're going to have
a series of meetings.
We started this morning with
the Governor and his staff.
The legislative leaders
are coming in.
We're going to meet with
the labor leadership
this afternoon, we're going to
meet with the banks
this afternoon and we
will be continuing
into the night and tomorrow.
[Herb] I spent
a lot of time with Felix,
who was extraordinary.
He was the most tenacious
person I've ever met.
What do you think
the chances are,
putting something together
by the end of the weekend?
You're asking me,
is there a chance to put
something together
from the point of view
of both City and State
that is self-contained without
some form
of Federal involvement?
I don't think there's
any chance of doing that.
[reporter] What form
of federal involvement?
I don't know yet and we won't
know until we see
how the other pieces of the
package develop.
[Donna]
At that meeting, Felix Rohatyn
brought uncommon
partners together,
and asked everybody
to give something up.
[man] An empty pitcher, right?
And it wasn't just symbolism.
He didn't believe
that you couldn't put
everybody at the table
and get this done.
[lively, upbeat music]
But it was not that easy.
[Betsy] The head
of the Sergeants union
came to a meeting where
he walks in and he
opens his jacket and takes
his gun out of his holster,
puts it on the table.
And you know,
that kind of set the tone
for the negotiation.
[Stephen] Labor leaders had
different ways of negotiating.
For example,
the bridge operator guys.
I mean, they could close
the city down, you know.
Open the bridges
and nothing gets in.
There were drawbridges
all over the city.
[Eugene] The workers
turned off the controls
and walked away, leaving the
bridges in the up position.
In a city where
traffic is impossible
on the very best day,
that had an immediate
and profound effect.
So, the unions
had enormous power.
[music ends]
[Herb] These negotiations
were going generally
pretty smoothly.
There was a feeling
of mutual trust.
But when we
got down to the issues of
reductions in--
in employment,
it got to be
really difficult.
What are some of the demands?
Uh, I'll talk about those later
but I think it's enough
to say at this point that--
that they've at least doubled
what they're asking today,
from what they did yesterday.
[Manfred]
I liked the union people
but Shanker
was a different problem.
The teachers union
was always
a very difficult union
to deal with.
[man in speakerphone]
People, victory to the teachers.
Build a labor party.
[man]
Read the socialists' viewpoint,
get the viewpoint of what the
socialists have to say.
[Manfred]
Teachers think they know a lot,
and they do know a lot,
and I respect them,
but they don't know
anything about politics.
[reporter] As New York's
money crisis deepened,
the Board of Education
told teachers they might
have to accept more layoffs.
The union
pretty much said, "No."
And so, the teachers held what
their president called
"The greatest gathering of
teachers in the history
of the world" at
Madison Square Garden.
[people cheering, clapping]
Al Shanker was...
Not like a God. He was a God.
Politicians feared him
because the pen is mightier
than the sword and this man,
you know,
wasn't afraid to speak.
We are about
to take an action...
...because we have been given...
...no other choice.
We had always felt...
...that you may
not get rich...
...being a civil servant,
but you always had job security.
Now we weren't getting rich and
we weren't getting job security.
[indistinct chattering]
[woman] Put your ballot
in the box right here.
[John] Between 14,000 and 15,000
teachers were laid off.
Everybody felt that
this was a slap at education.
I voted to strike. I did.
[suspenseful music]
[chanting] Strike! Strike!
We didn't want to strike,
we really didn't want to strike.
-We are forced into the strike.
-[male reporter] Why?
[teacher] Because the things
for which the union fought
are being asked
to be given back.
Our shop classes were cut out
because the judge ruled
that 90 minutes had to be
cut out each week.
-[female reporter] That's what
he cut?
-Yup. The shop.
[female reporter]
How do you feel about it?
I don't like it, 'cause
I have photography
and so it's great.
[female reporter]
What about your classes?
Our class is like 53 kids
in a 35-- 35-room class,
and they stand on the sides,
they don't pay attention.
Teachers, it's bad because
they are the foundation
of your society, they are
teaching your children.
Now, if you cut down teachers
and you increase the class,
they cannot function.
We understand that
the city has problems.
We're willing to compromise
and we're willing to bend,
but we're not willing to see
the school system destroyed
and when that's the choice,
we have to fight back.
Mr. Shanker,
if the cupboard is bare,
where are they
gonna get the money
to meet teachers' demands?
I have no idea, but I--
I know that there
are certain priorities here.
And the priority is to take care
of the bankers
and not the children,
and I say that the priorities
ought to be reversed.
[music fades]
Incidentally,
a small bubble of hope
burst for New York City today.
You remember an archivist
discovered last week
that the city had loaned
the Federal Government
a million dollars
during the War of 1812.
He couldn't find
a record of repayment.
And with interest, that would
mean the government owed
the city about
$11 billion today.
Well, the records
have been found.
The loan was repaid
a year or so later.
[intriguing, lively music]
[reporter]
All of it makes the city's
financial situation sound rather
doubtful, is it?
No, it's not.
[Fred]
The City probably could've
shifted money back and forth
in an endless way
to keep it going.
And then New York City
came up with another piece
of financial sleight of hand,
for which it has become famous.
It authorized the payment in
advance of real estate taxes.
We hope it'll spread
throughout the city,
other business groups
and citizens
and associations will do
the same thing.
[Linda] Things were
deteriorating rapidly
so everybody was scrambling
to get whatever
they could from wherever.
New York's Mayor
Abraham Beame said today
he's getting letters from
all over the country
with money in them
for New York City.
25 to 75 letters a day, he said,
with contributions
from 3 cents to $2,000.
[Jim] How do you prevent
a municipal bankruptcy
of this magnitude,
[chuckling] bigger than half
the countries in the world?
-[music ends]
-[indistinct chattering]
[gavel bangs]
[man] Good morning, we're, uh,
honored by the, uh...
...presence of a number
of distinguished witnesses,
and particularly by our...
...first panel, and especially
by the Governor of New York.
[Jim] If you try to accomplish
something in Washington,
you don't have to deal with, uh,
535 people right away.
You have to deal with seven
people in the subcommittee.
[senator] Now, what we all
have to consider
is how the people back
in our respective states
respond to this.
If we're going to help you out,
we've got to
justify it to them, and--
and right now we're having
great difficulty doing it.
Now, you noted yourself
that New York
has the strongest
municipal unions in the nation.
I suggest
that they're too strong,
and the salaries are
inordinately high in New York.
[Charles] It almost became
a position that some people
were glad
to put us in our place.
There was an animosity
toward New York...
...that I couldn't believe.
It must be embarrassing to the
city slickers of New York
to have to call on
their country cousins, uh,
to, uh, lend them
a helping hand.
I was gonna do
all I could to, uh,
save them from
this embarrassment.
You know,
if New York went bankrupt
who gave a flying fuck?
In fact it's probably
good for them,
because they're,
you know, they're arrogant,
self-centered, uh,
you know, sinful,
no good, whatever.
The Mayor
of the City of New York,
the honorable Abe Beame.
[audience applauding]
Thank you very much. Thank you.
I don't need that, thanks.
Now, there's a strong parallel
between the great Italian
explorer we honor tonight
and the city
which pays homage to him.
Like New York,
Christopher Columbus
couldn't get financing
in his own country.
[audience laughing
and applauding]
[reporter] For all the talk
of probable default,
no one was yet saying that
default was absolutely certain.
That's because the city unions
may yet come to the rescue.
A new effort is being made
to borrow the money
the city needs from the city
employee pension fund.
[Richard] The plan was
all the unions
would buy MAC bonds
on the grounds that the
public employees
of the City of New York
were in real jeopardy,
and that they oughta
participate in the solution.
Al Shanker said that he was not
going to buy the MAC bonds.
But an agreement will never be
worked out if each time
we sit down
at the bargaining table
they add more items
that have to be negotiated,
items which were never
on the table before.
[music fading]
I'm sorry to have to tell you
that the, um,
teachers' pension
system has voted
against, uh, making
the commitment to us.
Does this mean New York
will default tomorrow?
I would think if this stands,
the, uh, likelihood
is very great
that we will default tomorrow.
[soft, jazz music]
[music continues]
[Richard] I was at home
and about 10 o'clock
the phone rang,
it was Governor Carey.
He asked me to find Al Shanker
and get him to change his mind.
So I talk with Shanker.
We have
an interesting talk and--
for-- until 5 o'clock
in the morning
and Shanker says,
"I've got to talk to
a few people, I'll call you."
So I went home
and, um,
Shanker never called.
[Howard]
I helped draft a press release
in great secrecy
announcing that we were filing
for bankruptcy
for the City of New York.
After it was written we said,
"What do we do with this?"
And we say, "We hide it."
[chuckles]
"We don't do anything with it.
But we're ready."
We look forward
to possibility of default
in the morning unless
something else--
unless a miracle happens
between now and 9 o'clock.
[reporter]
You don't expect that miracle?
No, I don't.
The picture in my mind is vivid
when the Mayor sat down
and had a shaking hand,
as you can see from his
autograph on my wall,
and signed the
bankruptcy petition.
At that point, the Mayor
called the President.
He was asleep, but we left
a message with the duty on--
The officer on duty.
A new day
has dawned in New York.
We're going bankrupt. [chuckles]
[music fades]
[soft, tense music]
[news host] Our top story
this morning is New York City,
which has $450 million
in short term notes
falling due today
and not enough money
to pay them off.
The city has been on the brink
of default before
but this time it's looking
more and more like
the real thing.
Are you an individual bond
owner?
Yeah.
Do you think
you'll be paid today?
I hope so. I'm not sure.
Eleanor Bissinger
is a vice president
of Leventhal, Incorporated.
She's done a lot of research on
who might get hurt
if New York City defaults.
And from the sound of things,
a lot of little people
are in fact going to be hurt.
Is the small investor
going to lose his money?
He is still holding...
...a-- a debt of
the City of New York
that will be honored in-- in
-some way or fashion
-[reporter] So, they're not
gonna
-that nobody knows.
-tear up the bond, then.
Please don't-- Exactly.
Please don't tear up the bonds.
-I know.
-[reporter] Mr. Mayor,
Mr. Mayor, has a private
-understanding been reached
-I beg your pardon?
with the teachers' union
in return for cooperating today?
I have made no arrangements
with Mr. Shanker at all.
[suspenseful music]
[reporter] Are you here to get
the word on the default
or are you here because
you think Shanker
is gonna come around
and release that money?
Well, I'm here to put a little
pressure on him.
[reporter 2] Well Matt,
when you say pressure,
exactly what do you mean?
Punch him. [chuckles]
No, no, we're gonna try and
twist his arm and, uh,
explain to him the way he's
never been explained before,
exactly what the situation is
and that he better do it
if he really wants
to get out of here alive.
-[reporter 3] You are
referring to?
-[Matt] Al Shanker.
[reporter 4]
Are you more optimistic now
than you were last night?
Uh, no, I am not.
[reporter 5] At this point the
ball is in Al Shanker's court?
Yes, I would say so.
It's been there all night.
[Ira] I think Shanker knew,
as did the other unions,
that if this
all came to a collapse,
they were--
they were the villains.
It was known.
Now were they the villains?
No, the city was the villains,
everything that led
up to it was the villains,
but if the city
went over a cliff,
welcome Mr. Shanker
to page one of the Daily News.
-[reporter] What-- What--
-[reporter 2] What happened
inside?
Was the Mayor doing some arm
twisting? Trying to get you
-to change your mind?
-[Shanker] No, you'll have to
-ask the Mayor about that.
-[reporter 2] If the city
declares default today
they'll blame it
on the teachers.
Well, I think that's their game
but there's no reason
why all the attention has to be
on one fund.
[female reporter] But they're
saying that teachers
hold the future
of the city right now.
Well, anybody who puts
up the money holds
the future of the city.
What would it take to make you
change your mind, Al?
-Excuse me.
-[female reporter 2]
Mr. Shanker, what will it take
to make you change your mind?
[Betsy] I remember Victor
coming back
to our house in Brooklyn
and him saying to me,
"That fucking Shanker, you know,
I almost threw him
out the window."
And I-- He said, "I-- I really
came close to doing it."
Because he was so obstinate.
And let's go back to
Robert Shackney, again,
for an up-to-the-minute report
on what's happening
at that meeting
about New York City's
busted bank account. Bob?
We've got two hours
before the banks open,
two hours before
the start of business, so
it is possible still that
the default that we're talking
about could be avoided.
[news host]
Well, suppose they don't?
What does this
really mean in human terms,
does anybody know yet how many
people lose their jobs, or...?
Well, no one knows just how
badly people will be hurt.
The end result,
said one banker, is that, uh,
New York
could turn into a Calcutta.
The fear that
you are hearing is inchoate.
The fear is that the system
is going to fall apart
and that the consequences
would be unknown.
[suspenseful music]
[Richard] About 10 o'clock,
I went down to Carey's office
and the phone rings,
it's Shanker,
says, "I wanna meet
with you and the Governor,
but I don't
want any press around."
So I said, "All right, Al,
we'll meet you at my apartment."
Governor Carey has left the
office, uh, some while ago
to meet with teachers union
president Albert Shanker
at an undisclosed location
to discuss the current
teachers'
pension fund as it relates
to the New York City crisis.
[reporter] Has the governor
made a deal with, uh--
with the president of the
teachers' union?
I know of none-- there--
That is, he, uh-- he hadn't
indicated any deal to me.
For all the mayors
in all the cities out there,
it seems the real lesson
of this story
after all the hard talk
about money
is that it really gets down
to something
as ephemeral as faith.
Faith of the investors,
who have the right
to ask right now
if New York has the strength
to put its house in order,
or if the recent past
is any guide,
it does not have the gumption,
but if the future
holds in it ho--
[inaudible]
For all the mayors
in all the cities...
[Richard] As everyone knew,
the city was ready to file
the bankruptcy petition.
[music fades]
But finally,
at about 2 or 3 o'clock,
Shanker agreed
to buy the MAC Bonds.
Now, this afternoon...
...I recommended to the trustees
of the Teacher Retirement System
that they make
the investment of $150 million.
Can you go through the mechanics
of just what it was
that led you
to change your mind?
Who did you talk to?
It wasn't talking to anybody
that changed my mind.
It's the fact that nobody else
came forward.
And, uh, we didn't want to
share the responsibility
of having the city go down.
-[indistinct]
-[man] You're--
You're blocking mics.
-I'm sorry.
-[reporter] Mr. Rohatyn,
have we avoided default?
Today? Yes.
We're ready to hand out
the checks right now
and we're asking each of you,
those who are here
to redeem their bond,
please line up in front
of three windows
and the checks
will be delivered to you.
Let's keep it orderly,
it's been a wonderful day.
We thank you for your patience.
Okay.
-[chuckles]
-[reporter] How do you feel?
I feel rather happy
but I never had any doubts.
[news host]
New York City escaped default
on a half billion dollars
of debt
by less than an hour on Friday
to face the same problem again
in just five weeks.
So Mayor Abraham Beame
was in Washington today,
seeking federal aid to ward off
the new crisis.
[man] Isn't it a fact that
what's happened to New York
is not the fault of Simon,
or of the President,
but it's simply because
you have been buying election
for years and years
at the taxpayer's expense,
-that you've had the dance--
-[Beame] The answer
of course is, no.
And you had the dance and now
it's time to pay the fiddle?
We never asked anybody to
give us one red cent.
-[Kelly] Mr. Mayor--
-All we're asking
is that the-- the President
and the national administration
and the Congress give us
give us the same treatment
for people that
they give to corporations.
It was an especially hectic day
for Mayor Beame.
Ironically, he was scheduled
to receive an award today
from the Optimists Club, but he
canceled his appearance.
[indistinct chattering]
[female reporter] You went to
have a New York City, uh...
[man] Yes, we had
a meeting on New York.
[male reporter] Does it look
like things are
-beginning to move here?
-No, well, we're
just having further discussions
and I'll be back over
in an hour and a half
to, uh-- to meet
with the President.
[male reporter 2]
Do you expect a statement?
Do you expect a statement from--
I have no idea, the White House
will, uh, make that announcement
if there's going to be one,
there's-- that's, uh--
there's no
discussion of that
right at this point.
Well, I'll see you again
in two hours.
[reporter] The big three
of Big MAC arrived
at the
Treasury Department at 9:30
after catching the first
shuttle out of New York.
At 10:10, they filed into
Secretary Simon's office.
The meeting lasted
one hour and 45 minutes
and produced virtually nothing.
[male reporter] Mr. Rohatyn, did
you discuss the human aspects
of the possible default?
We did indeed.
The social dislocation
caused by a default, the--
The, uh-- The hardships
to the people of the city,
the possible cut in services.
It certainly seems to be a risk
that is so large
that every effort should
be made to avoid it.
[reporter 2] Do you have
anything encouraging
to take home to the Mayor?
-Uh...
-Anything at all?
No.
[soft music]
[Howard] People were
pushing him to step down.
I said, "Abe,
you can't step down,
it's not your fault,
don't even give it
a second thought
of resigning as Mayor.
[lively music]
[audience applauding]
[woman] And now folks,
Mayor Beame will dedicate
and cut the ribbon of the
Flatbush Senior Citizens League.
-Here we go.
-[audience applauding]
[soft music continues]
[Fred] It got to the point
where he was
the Mayor in name only.
He was absolutely
devoid of power and he knew it.
[audience applauding]
I can't think of a more
flattering gift.
An appreciation
of various art forms
brings people together.
[man] Beame was smarter than
many people gave him credit for,
and he was an honest man,
but he was the fall guy.
Everything had crumbled
and he was the Mayor.
[female reporter] In your
meeting with Mrs. Ford today,
did you discuss any of the
city's problems with her?
Perhaps do a little lobbying?
No, no, she's here
for a good time
and I wanted her
to enjoy herself.
[female reporter]
So you did not discuss
the city's problems at all?
No, but I think she, uh--
She saw a lot of signs around
which maybe
would give her something
to, uh, remember us by.
[female reporter]
Signs of the city's problems.
Yeah. That's right.
[Eugene]
One day, I remember vividly,
was on the top floor
of Rockefeller Center
in the Rainbow Room.
He and I were standing
looking out over the city,
the kind of view
that you see in movies,
the city seeming to go forever.
And the Mayor looked out
at it and said,
"This city is too big to fail.
They're not going to
let it go down.
It's not going to happen."
[music fades]
[man] Members
of the National Press Club,
the President
of the United States.
[David]
I had the impression that Ford
wanted a hard line speech.
I had gotten a call from Cheney
asking me to do
an independent draft
so I wrote
a very hard-headed speech
and sent it over,
with the understanding
it was gonna be staffed out.
And what happens
in the staffing out
is it gets watered down.
I was shocked
when he gave the speech.
The time has come for all
Americans to consider
how the problems of New York,
and the hard decisions
they demand
foreshadow and focus upon
potential problems
for all governments.
Responsibility for New York
City's financial problems
is being left
on the front doorstep
of the federal government,
unwanted
and abandoned
by its real parents.
I can tell you,
and tell you now,
that I am prepared
to veto any bill
that has as its purpose
a federal bailout
of New York City
to prevent a default.
I am fundamentally opposed
to this so-called solution.
[intriguing music]
[Michael] You get on the subway,
you get onto the bus,
and 90% of the people would be
reading The Daily News.
The Post was kind of a joke,
my father-in-law always
referred to The Times
as the uptown Daily Worker,
but The News was the paper
that the average New Yorker,
when there was
such a thing, read.
[reporter] How about you, sir?
What do you think about the
President's speech on New York?
What I think
couldn't be put on the air.
He's got his point of view, uh,
we New Yorkers have ours.
Personally, I think it stinks.
And he's gonna lose
an awful lot of votes.
[David] Ford was very deeply
offended because he said,
"I never said that!
I didn't say, 'drop dead,'
I never used those words,
this is unfair, I--
I was being much
more reasonable than that."
[Michael] I think Ford
probably had a little
of that Midwestern
suspicion of city slickers
and are they taking the American
taxpayer, blah, blah, blah.
But I think, essentially,
he just got
very, very bad advice.
[music fades]
Mr. Ford proposes, indeed,
to put a noose around our necks.
We will not accept that fate
without a fight.
[upbeat, funk music]
[crowd applauding]
The President of the
United States, Gerry Ford!
[crowd booing]
Those of you who are here today
are here to say
loudly and clearly
to Mr. Ford,
we are determined
that this city will survive.
We can't punish New York City
because it has been
a city with a heart.
[Carl] In that speech,
I talked about the impact
that this was gonna have
on everybody.
But Gerald Ford and the
Republican leadership
in Washington
simply felt that
this was not an obligation
the federal government had.
Municipalities and states had to
take care of themselves.
[music fades]
Some figures
from the Federal Reserve
underscore the fact that
this is more than just
a New York City problem.
Banks in 26 states
have 20% or 1/5 of their capital
in New York securities.
Now, suppose
a couple of hundred banks
in this country
became insolvent.
What happens
internationally, now?
Who's gonna trade
with those banks?
[suspenseful music]
[Kevin]
At the summit, Helmut Schmidt,
the Chancellor of Germany,
supposedly tells Ford,
"If New York goes down,
the dollar is scheisse ."
[chuckling]
You know, the dollar is shit.
He had to be told this.
You know, it's--
it's-- it's ridiculous.
[music fades]
Ford's calculation
was mostly political.
He was a moderate Republican and
his wing of the party
was in a panic
over the conservative challenge
led by Ronald Reagan.
[man] How would you feel if you
got back from Europe and saw
on the covers of the leading
news magazines the picture of
this fellow Ronald...
...Reagan, is it?
Who the President, for some
reason, thinks represents
a terrible right wing threat,
so he's got to
out-Reagan Reagan.
This is simply bad--
bad advice for
the President. He--
He doesn't do very well
as a right wing extremist,
thank God.
-[man] Governor,
for just a second...
-[woman] A message for New York?
What's my message for New York?
Well it's the same message
any place else,
and for New Hampshire.
We've got too much government
and we should reduce
the size of the government
and we should turn
authority
back to the states
and the local communities,
and particularly to the
individuals.
-[woman] Do you--
-[man] The White House
said today...
[Alan] The fiscal crisis
played into the hands
of the Ronald Reagans
of the world
who thought that government
was the problem
and not the solution.
We were trying
to say that government
is an essential part
of everybody's life
and certainly it was
in New York City.
[soft, gentle music]
[Anthony] Everything that my
family and I accomplished here,
I owe to the City of New York.
I'm gonna be emotional
about this. [chuckles]
I mean, it gave a bum like me
an opportunity
when there were
no opportunities for people
without education, without
training, not even good looks.
So...
...I'm from an immigrant family,
as millions of us in the country
and-- and certainly
in New York City are.
And if you look at the people
that ran the city
in the 1950s and '60s,
almost every one of them
were maybe first or second
generation Americans.
Almost everyone.
And that was extraordinary. I--
I don't know if any
other place can say that.
[music fading]
Public sentiment on federal aid
to New York City
apparently
shifting in favor of aid.
A Gallup poll conducted before
President Ford's speech
opposing aid showed the public
49% to 42% against it.
But after
the President's speech,
the public favors federal aid
to New York, by 55% to 33%.
All the serious people agreed,
we do not want
New York City to default.
President Ford began hearing
from advisors
that this is really
gonna hurt the country,
and you need to step up.
[Steve]
But the political reality was,
Ford and
Congressional leadership
had to extract a pound of flesh,
you know, from New York, for any
conceivably successful
federal bailout.
President Ford continued
to apply pressure
to the New York Legislature
to pass its own rescue package,
which includes higher taxes.
As one White House official
put it today,
"When we see that,
we'll believe it."
[reporter]
The New York Legislature met
in emergency session
to begin putting together
the $6 billion financial plan
to save New York City
from default.
[Carl] I am also a minister,
and so I was asked to provide
the opening prayer.
And I remember, you know,
Matthew 5:14,
about...
...The City on the Hill.
The City of Hope.
The City of Opportunity.
The City that was a model.
The... [stuttering]
...text says,
"A light to the Nation."
So I put that in my prayer.
It was quite
a momentous occasion.
-[gavel banging]
-[man] Will you address
the chair please?
[Manfred] Everybody understood
how important
the city was to the state.
If the city goes bankrupt,
the State of New York
couldn't be far behind.
Number Seven, Increase
in the Automobile Use Tax,
from $15 to $25 and this raises
15, uh, million dollars.
We knew we had to do it
on a bipartisan basis.
Herbst...
No. Hevesi...
Yes.
Pesci, no.
Mr. Speaker, yes.
Ayes 84, noes 53.
[upbeat, soft rock music]
[man] In the eyes
and under the spotlight
of this nation,
we have risen
to the responsibilities...
...that was expected
of all of us.
-[gavel strikes]
-House stands adjourned
until December 3rd at 12 p.m.
I know that the people are not
gonna welcome the news
of taxes, uh,
for the holidays, uh,
taxes that impact them,
But we've tried to do our best
to make it the kind
of package where everyone
has to sacrifice something
and, uh, not aim it
at the low income
or lower middle income people.
[indistinct chatter]
[Peter] Hugh Carey
gambled his political future
on getting the City
out of a mess
that he didn't create.
It's one thing
to go out on a limb
and try to help
the City and fight for it,
it's another thing to lash
the government for which
you're responsible
the mast of a ship
that looks like it's sinking.
Once the legislation is
completed upstairs,
which I expect, uh,
in due course,
then we must, uh,
tie down the, uh,
pension fund contributions
and the banks.
And I'm going down to City now
to do what I can
to aid Mr. Rohatyn in sealing
that agreement.
[Kevin] November 26, 1975.
Finally, all the pieces
come together.
Albany came through
with some 200 million
in additional taxes.
You had the municipal unions,
which put up
one and a half billion
to back the city's bonds and
make concessions as well.
And you had the Feds,
who put up a lot of money
for the short term,
2.5 billion,
to make this work.
I have decided to ask the
Congress for authority
to provide
a temporary line of credit
to the State of New York
to enable it
to supply seasonal financing
of essential services for the
people of New York City.
[music fading]
-Hi.
-[man] Hello, Mr. Mayor.
-How ya doing?
-[man] Are you happy today?
Mm-hmm.
[people chattering]
Yes, I think that'd
be better, huh?
-[man 2] You have
to smile, first.
-Okay.
[chuckling]
-[man 3] Okay... [indistinct]
-All right.
President Ford's decision
to support aid for New York
marks a crucial
turning point
in our continuing
struggle to resolve
[fading]
the city's fiscal crisis...
[soft music]
[Felix] Even at best,
if we succeed
in getting
this plan off the ground,
this city will
be a much lesser place.
You say this will be a
lesser city. What do you mean?
The City will just have to do
with less money.
And that will mean that
libraries may be open less,
that garbage pickups may suffer,
that you may have less
protection than you have today.
That children
who are already, uh,
probably not getting
enough education will get less.
That, uh,
poor people will suffer,
since they are always
the first to suffer.
[Judah] To have a society
that is beneficial to all,
you have to figure out
how to pay for it
in an equitable way.
Everybody has to
pay their share,
to create it and to help
government fulfill it.
[Charles] The services that
you provide for a city,
you provide for the wealthy
as well as the poor.
And if rich people had to pay
for private police services,
fire services and whatnot,
they wouldn't
wanna be in a great city.
[Fred] I was born and raised
in New York
and I've wanted
to live nowhere else.
It has everything
that's wrong with society,
but it has everything
that's right with society.
New York was
known best...
...as a city that--
that listened to needs and
took care of people's needs.
Which after all, isn't that what
our government's all about,
supposedly,
to take care of people?
[interviewer] Is there really
any chance New York can recover?
-Sure. I--
-[interviewer] Why?
Because New York
is still an enormous part
of this country
and I think ultimately
the country,
the Federal government,
has to realize that
you cannot have a--
an industrially
advanced culture
without having
thriving urban centers.
[music fades]
[interviewer]
Do you think three years
from now it will have worked?
Uh, if you had
to give odds on it?
Oh, you know, I... [chuckles]
I don't give odds anymore,
I think it has to work.
[upbeat, rock music]
In the years
Since I was here
On the street, I'm just
Passing my time away
To the left
And to the right
A town of stone
Grows to the sky
And it's out of sight
In a fading light
Here I am again in the city
With a fistful of dollars
Oh, baby
-You better believe
-I'm back!
Back in the New York groove
I'm back
Back in the New York groove
I'm back
Back in the New York groove
I'm back
In the New York groove
In the New York groove
In the back of a Cadillac
With a lady by my side
Tell you where I'll be
Stop at 3rd and 43
Dance into the night
It's gonna be ecstasy
This day was made for me
I feel so good tonight
Who cares about tomorrow
I'm back
Back in the New York groove
I'm back
Back in the New York groove
I'm back
Back in the New York groove
-I'm back
-New York groove
New York groove
New York groove
I'm back
Back in the New York groove
I'm back
Back in the New York groove
I'm back
Back in the New York groove
-I'm back
-New York groove
-New York groove
-In the New York groove
-I'm back
-New York groove
New York groove
-I'm back
-New York groove
New York groove
-I'm back
-New York groove
New York groove
-I'm back
-New York groove
[fading]
New York groove
I'm back