The New York City of the 1970s looked very different from the gentrified metropolis we know today. The Bowery, now lined with luxury apartments, housed much of the city's illicit activities, while drug dealers and prostitutes worked openly from Park Slope to Times Square.
Industrial decline, economic stagnation, and white flight led to the dramatic downturn for America's largest city.
Gotham had an unprecedented fiscal crisis in 1975, and two years later the city descended into chaos after the power went out for 25 hours. New York City saw 1,814 homicides in 1980 — three times what we have today — while the population declined to just over 7 million from nearly 8 million a decade before.
At the same time, crack and heroin infested the city, driving the crime rate even higher.
Robert Stutman, a former special agent for the NYC DEA, told Frontline, "Crack literally changed the entire face of the city. Street violence had grown. Child abuse had grown hugely. Spousal abuse. I had a special crack violence file that I kept to convince the geniuses in Washington who kept telling me it wasn't a problem."
By 1990, the annual homicides in New York peaked at 2,245. The city lived in fear.
In 1976, 2,383 arrests were made for prostitution citywide. Of these, 1,165 were girls between the ages of 15 and 20.
Two members of NYPD's "Pimp Squad" arrest an alleged prostitute in Times Square.
Source: Publication of New York Women in Criminal Justice in collaboration with the Prostitution Task Force
There were an estimated 40,000 prostitutes in New York City in the '70s, many with a sad story. This picture shows a hotel where a 15-year-old prostitute died in 1975.
The Hotel Belmore in Manhattan marked the end of Karen Baxter's life. A 15-year-old runaway from Cambridge, Mass., she resorted to prostitution to survive New York City until one of her customers choked her with a metal chain in 1975. The photo was taken five days after her murder.
Source: Publication of New York Women in Criminal Justice in tangent with the Prostitution Task Force
Authorities were of little help. In this picture, Sydney Biddle Barrows, the "Mayflower Madam," celebrates with champagne after pleading guilty to promoting prostitution in return for a $5,000 fine and no prison sentence.
Barrows ran Cachet, a high-end escort service from 1979 to 1984.
Source: Publication of New York Women in Criminal Justice in collaboration with the Prostitution Task Force
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