Drop Dead City

I got speed.

- -Got it?

Speed.

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.

- -

You ain't goin' nowhere.

Believe it or not folks, it's happening,

Mayor Beame is responsible

for the closing down of this firehouse.

I think that's not fair. Why should people get laid off?

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.

Yeah, there's a lot involved! My fucking life is involved!

My life is involved here!

In 1975, the City of New York was fundamentally bankrupt.

Who's gonna pick up the garbage?

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.

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.

We want jobs! We want jobs!

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.

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'.

- Did you hear-- -I'm not talkin'!

Those families should be free!

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.

A worker making $10,000 a year

is more important than a bank

that garners up $400 million in profits!

- -Money!

Money! Yeah, Money!

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.

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."

- -

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.

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... - And, uh,

he was not an expressive public speaker.

We intend to make our administration

a model of honest government.

We intend to be open in our dealings.

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. -

-He thought it was 2 billion. -Finally...

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.

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?"

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... - 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? - 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.

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...

- -I certainly will.

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.

Mr. Kessler, would you like to say anything?

Not really. I think my wife

has said everything.

We certainly don't have too many luxuries

after all these years of living.

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.

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.

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.

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.