In the next few years, job growth picked up sharply and real estate markets soared, a clear sign that a growing number of people had regained confidence in the city. But, even during the booming 1980s, crime rates continued to increase—it wasn’t until 1990 that crime rates peaked and began a long downward trend. I returned to New York in 1983. The draw was an employment opportunity in finance. At the time, the city’s circumstances were improving but crime was still high, and there were still lots of problems caused by years of underinvestment. For example, I recall that the New York City subway system at the time was a near-wreck, with train speeds sharply reduced in many areas due to poor track conditions and dilapidated infrastructure. But, the seeds of improvement were in place. The financial services industry was beginning a long boom marked by financial market innovation and the rapid development of the nation’s debt capital markets—a boom that ended with the financial crisis. When I arrived, the build-out of the Battery Park City neighborhood was just starting. My first year, I lived at Gateway Plaza, which was the first big apartment complex in Battery Park City. However, it was early days and the nearest grocery store was about half a mile away north on West Street! Although a major economic downturn throughout the Northeast in the early 1990s took its toll on New York City—especially on employment and home prices—the city’s population continued to grow and its crime rate began to decline.
Recognizing the strong literary traditions of the Lotos Club, I would also note that I had the fortune of reading some of the great works of Middle English, including Chaucer. I also enjoyed being on both the freshman wrestling and golf teams—even if it was an odd pairing and our teams were not very good. In contrast to Columbia, the city seemed much less attractive. From my perspective as a naïve 17-year-old from suburban Massachusetts, it seemed outright dangerous and dirty. The danger was driven home immediately. One of my roommates was robbed his first day during a walk through one of the nearby parks. He didn’t understand, nor did I at the time, that certain places near Columbia weren’t very safe, even during daylight hours. While you could avoid the crime by being careful where you went in the city, there was no avoiding the pollution. During this period, New York City still had considerable manufacturing activity, many apartment buildings burned low-grade oil and incinerated trash, and this was before the days of automobile catalytic converters. This confluence meant that grit was 1/5  BIS central bankers' speeches  everywhere, and even for the non-fastidious—which I admit I was one—showers were an absolute necessity on a daily basis. Sometimes it was so bad that you couldn’t see across the Hudson River, which was just a few blocks away! In order to understand the situation the city faced in the 1970s, we have to look back a decade earlier.