Democracy Dies in Darkness

A specter rises from the rhetoric of the 1970s: Scary NYC subways

Analysis by
National columnist
November 3, 2022 at 4:14 p.m. EDT
New York Police Department officers enter a subway at a station in New York on May 25. (Stephanie Keith/Bloomberg News)
5 min

There was a time when New York City was hopelessly crime-ridden, unfailingly dangerous and generally a blight on the Atlantic seaboard.

That time is not now, despite what you might have seen on Fox News.

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It is true that crime has risen in the city, both over the past year and over the past several years. While the number of murders is down, violent crime overall is up 30 percent. But, as is the case with other places where crime has measurably increased, crime is still nowhere near what it was 30 years ago.