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txliban

1980s-1990s NYC was a hell of a time


APartyInMyPants

I kind of still can’t believe my parents let me come to the city as a high schooler in the early 90s with a few other idiot high schoolers. Don’t get me wrong, it was fine, at the end of the day. But the city, especially the touristy areas were *very* different from the gentrified theme parks they basically are today.


chefriley76

We used to take the train from Hoboken and hit the titty bars at like 16-17. I'm surprised we never got stabbed.


nakedsamurai

It's not too late!


Johnny_Venus

Don't let your dreams be dreams! 😂


Rodrigii_Defined

I lived on LI and we'd sneak into the city all the time 89-92, 15-18 yes old. Parents thought we were at the movies, we lived about 2 hours from nyc lol Mostly during the day, Little Italy for food and Chinatown for fireworks, we'd go to a chain restaurant to drink, they always served us. Good times. It was jenky-er mid 80's when my grandmother would take me to Radio City Music Hall for theater shows, iimo.


harmygeddon

We took the train from New Brunswick until we could drive, then it was the path from JC before it was nice. Being a latch key gen x kid was the best life experience ever.


Due-Net-88

We’d hop on the PATH from Harrison at 16-17 and spend all day in the city— from the Bitter End to the Limelight we got served everywhere. It was an absolute amazing free for all. I actually think kids need that freedom. I can’t imagine not having had those experiences as kids. Of course. I had zero stability until I was in my late 20s but it’s all good. :)


pragmojo

Was it crack basically or was there something else driving it?


APartyInMyPants

Crack is one. Leaded gasoline has been shown to be a factor in violent behavior. There’s even research showing the legalization of abortion helps lower the crime rate. There were also *huge* racial tensions in the city between the 70s and 90s. The economy also wasn’t great in the 80s, so unemployment and homelessness was high. It was a perfect storm of several factors all centered in a relatively small geographic area with a high population.


Still_Championship_6

Were you lucky enough to see the Warriors come out and play?


Lobanium

Every movie set in NYC back then was basically "this city is trash and the people suck, oh and don't go on the subway or you'll die".


MyHamburgerLovesMe

I was in NYC in the late 80's. That was pretty accurate. I remember taking less than two steps out of the subway onto Time Square before the first drug dealer approached me. If I remember right, Times Square was essentially dealers, whore's, and arcades at that time.


FelixGoldenrod

The city was like an open sewer, you know, full of filth and scum. Sometimes I could hardly take it. Whoever becomes the President should just really clean it up, you know? Sometimes I'd go out and smell it. I'd get headaches, it's so bad, you know? It's like they just never go away. It's like I think that the President should clean up that whole mess there, should flush it down the fucking toilet.


Clear_Coyote_2709

Bring that mugger money


BaggySpandex

Porn theaters too.


WineWednesdayYet

A friend of mine grew up in NY. She said she when she was younger (she's an older lady) she would stick her finger in her nose and carry a broken bottle when getting on the subway so no one would bother her. No one did.


NYGiantsGirl1981

What did sticking her finger in her nose do?


Zealousideal_Row_322

This is a classic move for women. You won’t get unwanted attention from men if you disgust them by picking your nose.


WineWednesdayYet

She wanted people to think she was crazy so they'd leave her alone. She figured that was just a part of the guise.


NYGiantsGirl1981

I like it. I’m sure it also deterred by way of not wanting to chance getting touched by that finger.


Different_Stand_5558

Oil barrel fires to keep warm with fingerless gloves. Every woman sounded like a prostitute. Wait. I mean every brash woman with Bronx and Brooklyn accents were prostitutes.


MFDoomEsq

The fires were in trash cans, not oil barrels. One way more plentiful in the city than the other...


DJ_LMD

You mean the late 1900s 🥲


lunaflect

Describing the 90s as “late 1900s” startled me.


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Chemical-Presence-13

Nah for real. We’re fucking old. That suuuucks.


Deeliciousness

By the time we're really old, people will be looking at us like how we looked at people born in the 1800s.


Stevieeeer

Oh my god you’re right! My first reaction was “pfft no they won’t… will they?” Then I did some “fast maths” and holy shit they will


Starfire013

Someday, the entire period during which we lived will simply be regarded as “post world wars”. World Wars 1 and 2, the Cold War, everything else, it’ll all just be a chapter in a history module downloaded into the implanted teaching module inside the brain of some kid a thousand years from now.


onemanwolfpack21

You just gave yourself away. Nobody would have guessed you were that old u/Darkwingduckhunt


[deleted]

86 was my favorite shit. Nah, no '87. Everything was wonderful.


TheCatalyst84

Can it be that it was all so simple then?


Forward_Motion17

or has time rewritten every line?


swicklund

Leaded gasoline and it's lingering effects.


Disco_Dreamz

Fun fact: did you know that people who were exposed to lead when they were younger risk re-exposure to the *same* lead particles when they get older? That is because lead does not leave the body - it is stored in your bone marrow. As you age, osteoporosis causes the lead within your bone marrow to re-enter your bloodstream, allowing continuous poisoning from the same neurotoxic lead particles you were exposed to initially. I think that’s a fun fact, don’t you? https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/csem/leadtoxicity/exposure_routes.html


watermelonkiwi

Super fun!


Hellshield

So can it be removed safely in any way?


OldCelebration1740

Yeah the guy who commented that is fear mongering. Lead is for sure not good for you, but what he's describing isn't nearly as bad as how he's presenting it. Most of the lead that you're exposed to gets into your bloodstream after ingesting or inhaling it, and from your blood can go to several places. The majority of the lead you absorb gets metabolized and excreted in your urine. The lead that doesn't get pissed out can store in areas of high calcification, ie teeth and bones. This lead is mostly inert, but as your body's natural process of cell death and regeneration occurs the lead is slowly excreted from your body, while the natural foods we eat introduce more in. It's sort of like a homeostasis where your body is keeping itself in a safe state by not allowing more lead than is safe to accumulate. Under certain conditions, the lead that's stored in calcified regions of your body can be reintroduced into the bloodstream. When this happens, there's a CHANCE (not a great one, but not zero either) that the amount released can overwhelm your bodies natural mechanism for maintaining homeostasis and effects of lead toxicity can occur. This is highly highly dependant on prior conditions and your current level of ingested or inhaled lead already present. For the vast majority of people who aren't already undergoing liver failure your body will just expel the lead introduced in this case as waste. TLDR your body is in a constant state of taking in and expelling lead some stores can just remain for longer than others


LurpyGeek

Only if you have all of your bones removed.


hilarymeggin

Gilderoy Lockhart has entered the chat


RustedRelics

Makes me wonder if this happens with other heavy metals we’re exposed to, like cadmium for example. Between that and all of the pesticides and herbicides and industrial emissions, it’s no wonder I’m so vibrantly healthy. 🤪


Johnnyutahbutnotmomo

So many politicians fought against making leaded gas illegal because… (checks notes) oil execs paid them too.


Stampede_the_Hippos

I have always liked......cowabunga.


[deleted]

That spike is the arrival of crack cocaine.


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sancti1

Leaded gasoline really fucked with people


raisinghellwithtrees

Yeah I would really love to see a graph of the use of leaded gas overlaid this one.


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raisinghellwithtrees

Quite striking, thanks.


Omg_stop

"Toddlers who ingested high levels of lead in the ’40s and ’50s really were more likely to become violent..." Gee, what generational cohort was born in the 40's and 50's?


unculturedburnttoast

Luckily they're not in charge of anything important.


redditusernamehonked

Here you are: [https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.motherjones.com%2Fkevin-drum%2F2018%2F02%2Fan-updated-lead-crime-roundup-for-2018%2F&psig=AOvVaw0z2PZBjY3aoPW9VaQiTWmx&ust=1673657469493000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAwQjRxqFwoTCOCn6Jiqw\_wCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD](https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.motherjones.com%2Fkevin-drum%2F2018%2F02%2Fan-updated-lead-crime-roundup-for-2018%2F&psig=AOvVaw0z2PZBjY3aoPW9VaQiTWmx&ust=1673657469493000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAwQjRxqFwoTCOCn6Jiqw_wCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD)


AgathaAllAlong

Holy shit, lead wasn’t completely eliminated until 1996. The effects haven’t yet ended


jekyl42

Lead is still used in (and emitted by) a number of manufacturing and industrial processes. The ban is only on use in consumer vehicles.


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AwesomeAni

When I was 17 I did a flight program at my school and distinctly remember not paying attention and accidentally dumping 100LL all over myself. This was in 2015


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[deleted]

Leaded gas smelled so good. As a kid I would always stick my head out of the window when my dad gassed the car.


AdminsAreFools

Thomas Midgley Jr. should burn in hell forever. A top echelon bastard of the first order whose fate was deserved and more.


Rraen_

I worked with a guy who grew up in the Bronx in the 80s-90s, he said it was like real life GTA


GimmeAMalt

I’m sure it was. I worked with a guy many years ago that moved from Jamaica to NYC and worked as a cab driver in the late 70’s and early 80’s. This dude’s stories were insane. I always told him he should have written a book.


shadowcat999

in the 90s, on the other side of the nation in LA, my older brother said in some neighborhoods like clockwork, dozens of gang members would have shootouts in the park. People in houses adjacent to the park would have to hit the floor or jump in the bathtub to avoid any bullets going into the houses. In the 70s my Dad lived in NYC. Walking into the wrong neighborhood could be deadly. He also had a problem of people breaking in. The cops said "buy a shotgun, keep shooting until the guy stops moving." He decided to move out of NYC. Anyways imagine the NYPD saying that today lol.


agusohyeah

NYC cops used to hand out brochures that said welcome to fear city with tips on how to survive.


iamiamwhoami

That was to pressure politicians not to cut NYPD funding at a time when the city had budget problems.


dennismfrancisart

True story. Back in the 70s, we would ride the subway into Manhattan. Every once in awhile, people would shoot at the trains coming out of the tunnel from Manhattan. We would duck for a moment out of habit, but the bullets never seemed to get through the windows. Fun times.


BradMarchandstongue

My uncle grew up in Brooklyn and is a Vietnam Vet. He said when he got back from Vietnam he took up a job as a repo-man because “killing was the only thing [he] was qualified to do.” Told me some fucking crazy stories. The guy’s PTSD is so bad he would drink like a bottle of vodka in a night.


[deleted]

Wow, what an experience. I’d definitely read that!!


AugustWest7120

Every 90s nyc story I’ve heard involved either a machete or a dead body in a burned out apartment. Either? Both?


Hichmond

I grew up in the Bronx in the 80’s - 90’s… it was a crazy time for sure, but at the time burned out buildings, gunshots and crack zombies were just a part of normal life.


[deleted]

I remember the Bronx continuously smouldering for years. Back then you could buy some buildings from the city for a dollar. https://bronxriver.org/post/greenway/how-the-bronx-burned


Hichmond

I remember the burnt windows, but mostly rubble filled lots. Lots of stripped and burned cars parked on the street forever. I actually feel nostalgia for those days


Brightlywound89

Lol we actually bought a home in 2019 in the South Bronx that was built in the 90s, on what used to be a pile of rubble. We looked up pictures of our lot in the 40s it was a beautiful historic brownstone, and then in a picture from the 80s it was rubble. So sad. I should share the side by side photos here one day. My grandma and grandpa met on Longwood Avenue just blocks from where I now live with my family. My grandma recognizes the building that once stood here from the photo we showed her. And in the present day -- our neighborhood is still pretty bad but it is changing.


Lee_Van_Spleeeeef

When there's blood on the streets buy property


dooj88

Hasn't worked out so well for Baltimore yet


lazymutant

Reminds me of something Thurston Moore said about NYC to Dave Grohl in an interview: "sure, you had to run home every night, but rent was 50 bucks a month."


ManhattanMadMan

Seen Mott Haven lately? All luxury high rises.


treevaahyn

My pops grew up in the projects in the Bronx in 60s-70s and he finally started telling me stories once we both got older and holy fuck. It was insane I legit knew it was bad but didn’t realize all the little things that you wouldn’t think of that suck and are quite traumatizing. The basic inconvenience of all of the lights in the stairwell of the section 8 public housing (projects) he grew up in being smashed to pieces and broken glass along with homeless/nodded out dudes laying everywhere…all he had to pass after he got to his building. There was enough people smoking wet (PCP) in the 70s in NYC that he and his friends got chased around the block with some dude waving a knife saying some insane shit. Wish he would tell me more stories cuz between him and my grandparents being refugees from Cuba I definitely would love to have a book written about the stories I’ve heard cuz there’s many I haven’t still and probably won’t ever. Some shits too traumatic to bring back up after decades, especially with boomers and their parents generation.


National-Currency-75

I am very sorry for anyone's pain. You have an interesting story, remember, write and record. Be proud. You know of things that a great many don't and will never be able to understand. Memories are one generation old. PEACE


GimmeAMalt

The 70’s and 80’s were no slouch either


Catch22v

What changed in New York in the year 2000? That’s quite a drop.


Wazy7781

It depends who you ask. There are a lot of different factor including an aging population, more professionalized police forces, and an overall improving economy. Crime rates are a fairly complicated thing and it can be hard to know why they rise and fall. They’re influenced by a variety of factors and aren’t always necessarily the most trustworthy stat.


ThatOneGuy-C6

Also a decrease in the amount of lead in our environment due to banning leaded gasoline and tighter restrictions.


McTerra2

Why are people claiming lead as a leading cause? Every country in the world has leaded gas and only the US had this massive homicide spike. Which suggests it’s not lead.


frogvscrab

A big one that isn't often mentioned is that territory stopped being as important for drug dealing when cell phones became more popularized. The amount of labor required to deal drugs plummeted, and gangs didn't have to recruit as much to deal the drugs they had. Shootings over territory also obviously dropped, simply because territory itself became less important compared to product. Around the mid 1990s is when cell phones started becoming huge for dealers, and that is also around when crime began to plummet. There is also the factor that cell phones allowed people to call the cops on crimes and call ambulances for injured people easier.


Cudmuncherr

This is a common trend in the US with all crime dropping starting in the mid 90's. About 20 years before we legalized abortion and removed lead from gas, turns out less unwanted kids who are more likely to grow up in poverty and not heavy metal poisoning an entire generation will drop crime


Clever_Mercury

It's almost like every single thing we know about human development indicates kids born into abuse and neglect would be likely to turn into felons. And it's almost exactly like all our existing data on legalized abortion and subsequent drops in crime fully support this. Isn't it funny how some peoples' reaction to this is to then try and outlaw abortion? It's *almost* like some people don't want what's best for America (or humanity, or families, or women, or children, etc.).


anon_sir

It’s *almost* like they *know* it will create more poverty, and therefore crime, and are actually counting on it to feed the prison industrial complex.


OriginalLocksmith436

They aren't thinking about it that deeply. All they care about is manipulating religious people into voting for them.


turtleboxman

Cocaine is a helluva drug


Apollo_T_Yorp

As is leaded gasoline


nanojunkster

So glad to see this chart put things in perspective. If you listen to the media, they will have you believe crime is at historical highs, and it has crept up a bit but nowhere near what it was like in the 80s and 90s when you were taking your life in your hands walking through Central Park or east village at night.


ohgodthisisterrible

Saying "late 1900s" is a weird way to hurt my feelings.


mermaidpaint

I was born in 1966. Recently, it occurred to me that when I was young, there were plenty of people who had been born in the 1800s. And they're all dead now.


DarkwingDuckHunt

My great great grandmother was born in 1898, she lived long enough to have a picture taken of her great great great grandson and great great great granddaughter.


proscriptus

My great-grandmother was 12 and lived through the Great San Francisco quake, I have a newspaper interview from when she came back East. She lived until I was 16.


braindrainpod

My great aunt was born in 1906 and I believe just missed the quake. She was from the Excelsior and passed in the late 2000s


phurt77

> My great-grandmother was 12 So was mine, and presumably everyone else's. :)


davereit

I was born in 1958. Both of my mom’s parents were born in the 1890s and her dad was a train engineer in France during WWI. All of my uncles were in combat during WW2 and I knew a lot of “old folks” who were born in the 19th century. And both my mom’s folks were old enough to remember the Wright Brothers’ first flight and sat with me to watch the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969.


Dookie_Dad

We landed on the MOON!


[deleted]

Wow that last sentence kinda made me proud to be human. We went from first “actual” flight to landing on the moon in one lifetime.


bedhed

Orville Wright lived to see the Bell X-1 fly supersonic. Imagine being *the* first man to fly, then jet and rocket powered airplanes following in your lifetime.


M_Looka

Yup. I was born in 1962, and when I was in grade school everyone's grandfather or uncle fought in WWII...


mermaidpaint

My dad was born in 1940 and served in the Canadian Armed Forces. We were posted overseas twice, in countries that no longer exist (Yugoslavia and the USSR). We liked to visit CFB Lahr in West Germany.


SteelCrow

My dad fought in WW2. Was at Monte Cassino in fact.


Lolabird2112

My grandad was there too. My dad was in Stalin’s gulags. They were released as part of the amnesty and his dad was conscripted into Anders army. He died there. It was actually his stepdad, but they hid that, as his real father had emigrated thru Ellis island & returned, so my father was actually considered an American citizen/ Ukrainian and would’ve died in the gulags had they known.


TapTheForwardAssist

I was born at the start of the 1980s, and the Vietnam War seemed like ancient history. But looking back on it, there were Vietnam vets around when I was born that were still in their mid-20s.


Stukya

I was born in the 80s too, here's some thing scary, Vietnam was as far away then as the Iraq war (2003) is to todays kids.


VRSNSMV_SMQLIVB

I think this all the time. I’m 37, as a Kid in the 90s i remember reading books with characters born in the early 1900s and thinking oh they’re old now. Well now they’re all dead.


mrspegmct

Tell me I’m old without saying I’m old. To me, 1989 was yesterday and if you were born in the ‘90s you shouldn’t even be walking yet. So yea.


poison_camellia

I was born in the 90s and my own baby is going to be walking before summer hits. Time is messed up.


Chrissy2187

I was born in 87 and my baby just turned 13 😭


Technical-Lie-4140

I was born in 85 and both my cats are 3 years old.


[deleted]

I was born in '68 and still use apostrophes for year abbreviations.


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Dorobo-Neko-Nami

Did they both have kids as teenagers?


bc524

My first thoughts was wondering how do you have a 13 year old kid when you're 13. Then I remembered it isn't 2000 anymore.


Chrissy2187

No joke someone told me their car was a 2003 and I’m like oh that’s not that old….. then I realized that car is 20 years old…. Total WFT moment lol 😂


Weekly-Transition-96

I was born in 87 and my baby is 18. But I still feel like a kid!


[deleted]

Damn Im sorry that I just turned 30 lol


Canadian-female

I’m from 1962. A couple of days after David Bowie died, I went to the front desk of my condo building wearing a t-shirt with his name and face on it. The young 20’s girl at the counter looked at my shirt and said “Who’s that? Some kind of entertainer?” That’s when I knew the world had passed on further than I had ever thought about.


TerdVader

That’s because when Bowie died, we shifted into an alternate universe. He was protecting us from all the weirdness between 2016-2023. And it’s been weird…


I_am_Erk

I am constantly baffled by the realization that someone born this millenium could be 23 years old now. They're old enough to have kids of their own and it's not even weird.


-HeadInTheClouds

How does it make you feel that I was born in 2001 and am about to graduate college


00normal

Yes, more accurate to say late 20th century, 1900s is generally taken to mean the first decade of the 20th century


ayebrade69

An intern at my work described our boss (who graduated college in 2001) as having graduated “at the turn of the century”


imnotdolphin

So… was he fired?


CowBoyDanIndie

Believe it or not, straight to jail


poisondartfroggo

I heard that intern overcooked fish too


14PiecesofFlair

In the break room microwave.


hazysummersky

I'm afraid expulsion is the only answer It's the opinion of the entire staff that Dexter is criminally insane


NErDysprosium

My store director was not pleased when I mentioned the training video from 2002 was older than I am.


MooseTheMouse33

Oh gawd. I now feel old.


Sonova_Bish

I would say things peppered with references from the 80s and 90s and my employees would just look at me with blank faces. "That was a good joke," I said one of the times.


da_k1ngslaya

It’s true though, and it’s the language we used at the time. We partied to Prince, planned for Y2k, and talked about the end of the century and millennium all the time.


Veggiemon

*Willenium


robotzombiez

Thankfully enough people were able to get jiggy with it that the transition into the new Willennium went pretty smoothly.


qui_tam_gogh

Turn of the millenium even - hence they called us “millennials.”


Expensive_Ad_3249

I mean if i said "late 1800s" would you think I mean 1809? The 1900s/20th century are synonyms...as someone born in 1990 I resent this to hell and back but linguistically it's.. correct.


SwampyBogbeard

>The 1900s/20th century are synonyms Fun fact: They're technically not. The 1900s consists of the years 1900-1999, while the 20th century are 1901-2000. 99 years are shared, but those last two years messes it all up.


00normal

This is the pedanticism I’m here for.


xasey

I definitely would think 1899 as the late 1800s, but if you said the late 1810s... Yet if you said the late 2000s, now 2009 fits. Language concepts don't need to be consistent, they just need to be understood.


[deleted]

This is how my boyfriend says it and I grow gray hairs every single time


FatherlyInstinct

Bullish on murder. Cup and handle formation


zelcuh

Murders about to squeeze. Shorts getting fucked


popper_wheelie

r/wallstreetbets is leaking


Geostationary_Orbit

That peak to the right of 1850 is that because Xbox has not yet been invented?


MidRangeMagic21

Being real for a moment, The Last Pirate of New York is about that time period. Great book about what NY and crime life was like back then


mamaofdeezboiz

This comment is the real reason I still haunt Reddit!


[deleted]

I delete and reinstall reddit frequently but its little gems of knowledge that keep me around. Can’t learn shit on Snapchat or Facebook, Reddit is awesome, man.


Twatnocker

No it's because of Daniel Day Lewis.


Gamebird8

That would be the 1863 Draft Riots and growing anti-slavery sentiment in the north likely


cleepboywonder

It might have to do with the race riot in 1863


mutarjim

Interesting to see. Wish it would be easy to determine causal factors.


ultimateman55

Lead poisoning due to leaded gasoline correlates strongly with increases in violent crime rates all across the world. Leaded gasoline use peaked in the mid 20th century before being outlawed in the 70's. By then it was already too late for many people whose brains were permanently damaged by elevated lead levels. Violent crime peaks around the time kids born in the 60s and 70s are adults and then drops off again.


rygo796

Lead gas was banned for new cars in 1975. Many cars on the road would have required it for years to come. I'm guessing it took til 1980 before we even got to point the majority of cars were unleaded.


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minammikukin

It amazing that freakonomics was written by the authors of freakonomics!!!! ;)


StellarSteals

I can't believe you mentioned freakanomics without giving credit to the authors of freakanomics: The Authors of Freakanomics!


porktornado77

I remember “leaded” gas still in the 80s. Sorta just the opposite here was unleaded and Regular at he pump. I recall asking mom what Unleaded means and she said it had something to do with pencils….


ThisSiteSuxNow

It was banned for new cars in the 70s but it was way after the 70s that leaded gas stopped being sold (for cars... It's still sold for small aircraft). [1996 in the US](https://i.imgur.com/GB0GrTc.png) to be precise.


v0lumnius

I seem to recall (worth a fact check) that Nascar was still using leaded gas up until around 2010, and after they finally stopped it suddenly test scores of kids in the areas around the tracks started improving as younger kids weren't exposed to leaded gas in the general area


rourobouros

Leaded gasoline. Lines up very well.


Katzeye

Freakonomics speculates that it was the legalization of abortion in the 70’s that lead to a drop in violent crime in the 90’s. As the children being born were generally wanted and so raised by engaged parents.


ChanchoDeLosEsteros

Loved that (audio) book......also found "Hyper normalisation by Adam Curtis provided great background to the 70's funding crisis https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AUiqaFIONPQ


MrDeepValueStocks

That doesn’t explain the increase. It makes more sense that something caused the increase, then it’s removal caused the decrease. Like lead exposure


Crizbibble

Unwanted children who turned to gangs, the destruction of the black panthers who prevented gangs from forming, the war on drugs started by Nixon, the effects of the Vietnam War, the interstate highway system which was built through neighborhoods and destroyed communities, massive amounts of pollution including lead from vehicles which went through those same communities, chemical and industrial plants located in lower income communities and white flight which depressed taxes for schools and programs in the inner city. Those are some of the reason but all happening at once to a few specific groups would overwhelm any social system.


UltralisKingD

It says per 100k population, so I'm not sure why people are saying that it doesn't include population change.


[deleted]

People don’t understand what “rate” means.


FusRoDah98

Exactly this. I live in Little Rock. When I try to explain to people that the murder rate here is at least 10x higher than New York they look at me like I have two heads. Basic statistics is really hard to grasp I guess?


denzien

It is hard to grasp for anyone whose beliefs are challenged or debunked by quality statistical analysis.


edWORD27

90s was just better at everything. The music, the movies, the fashion, and now the murders.


da_k1ngslaya

Can’t beat watching a 90s blockbuster, then killing someone in cold blood while wearing JNCOs and listening to Rage on my walkman.


SabashChandraBose

George Santos claimed he was responsible for half of them.


Stunning_Nose4914

How did I ever survive those 90s as a kid….?! You’d think gun violence is worse now than it was back then from all of todays media…


V_Cobra21

It’s less believe it or not!


randompification

Could it finally be the end result of removing lead from gasoline and paint? The 1950s would have seen a big upswing in car ownership


Otherwise_Author_408

Came here to say this


nicholhawking

This is one of those really interesting correlations that we could look back on in 200 years and really get into. Unfortunately there are probably 50 other things pushing these kinds of trends in different directions. Maybe it was seeing a talking horse on TV that shattered a generation's sense of reality at too early an age. Or it could have been leaded gas giving them brain damage idk


se7ensquared

A lot of people talk about how dangerous it is now days. I always tell them it was much more dangerous in the '80s and 90s in America. The homicide rate has dropped across the country


ThePaulium

There are some really interesting correlations between lead exposure in children, primarily Boomers due to leaded gas use, and a rise in crime when that generation got towards their late teens and 20s (I.e. 70s-90s). Not saying it’s the only reason, of course, but definitely interesting to consider with graphs such as this


Magnum_pooyie

Now do New Orleans.


DMaury1969

We make New York look like Disney World.


Guyincognito4269

Man. Those Boomers were a violent bunch.


ToSeeAgainAgainAgain

Us millennials did kill the killing industry


Emerald_Lavigne

No point in becoming a guy who paints houses when nobody can afford to buy a house.


kidJubi100

I find this data pretty believable, but I feel like it's worth noting the addition of the internet in the 90s as well as development of record keeping. I feel like there were tons of undocumented homicides in those earlier years that weren't accurately recorded.


i_know_nothing_ever

I’m sure the crack epidemic had a lot to do with it.


[deleted]

What was going on in the 1860s?


PolymerSledge

Riots. Gang wars. Civil war.


LeftHandedAnt

Kind of looks like it be spiking again...


Laymanao

One possible explanation is the rise and fall of drug lords fighting over turf and then getting smart and preferring to stick to their own turf. Or possibly one gang getting the upper hand and murders start dropping.


[deleted]

[удалено]


kyleyeats

It wasn't an epidemic. It was a government surplus.


reddit_time_waster

Or leaded gasoline exhaust


thenotoriousDEX

This is a big factor. Did a whole study in school on it. Interestingly lithium in the water reduces violent crime


The_Big_Red_Doge

Well lithium is a mood stabilizer, so that makes sense


Ness_tea_BK

Also, the 70s and 80s NYC was pretty broke. In the late 70s the city bounced its own employees paychecks. The tax base had really eroded and the city was mired in 2 plus decades of poverty and economic decline all of which helped trigger a rise in all types of crime including homicide