A 1968 sanitation strike left 48,000 tons of garbage rotting in the streets. Murder rates skyrocketed (the city’s annual homicides reached an all-time high of 2,245 by 1990; these days they total around 352). Between 1965 and 1975, auto thefts doubled, rapes tripled, robberies increased tenfold. Hell wasn’t the small town. It was the big city.
