One consistent source of strength for the city has been immigration. Over this period, New York City benefited from a sizable influx of immigrants, which more than offset out-migration in many neighborhoods. To illustrate this, let’s take a look at one such neighborhood in Brooklyn, Sunset Park, that was losing residents to the suburbs in the 1960s and 1970s. As property values fell, new migrants from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Central America moved in. By 1990, Hispanics comprised about half of all Sunset Park residents. These new residents developed a thriving community, which boosted property values. There was also an influx of Chinese residents, and part of Sunset Park has come to be known as Brooklyn’s Chinatown. There are many other examples where immigrants revitalized whole neighborhoods: Russian and Ukrainian immigrants in Brighton Beach; Chinese and Korean immigrants in Flushing; and Indian immigrants in Jackson Heights, just to name a few. So, has it been all good news for New York City in recent years? Certainly not. Many challenges remain. One by-product of a strong economy and real estate market has been a decline in housing affordability, and an increase in homelessness. It is estimated that there are over 60,000 homeless people in New York City today—almost double the number from 10 years ago and more than four times as high as in the early 1980s. Moreover, poverty rates remain high in many parts of the city, and the education system can certainly be improved.
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.