1975: NYC drops dead?

So it's 1975 and New York City declares bankruptcy. I'll leave the PoD for open discussion (because I'm ignorant).

What next? How does the rest of the decade go? Can the city recover? Would there still be porno-theatres in Times Square?
 
Well, if Vallejo, CA is any indication, New York will be stuck gutting social services and hiking local taxes to the point that the local economy gets caught in a death spiral.

We could be looking at another Detroit...
 
So it's 1975 and New York City declares bankruptcy. I'll leave the PoD for open discussion.


Okay, the POD is NYC decides to call the Feds bluff and refuses to make the financial changes the Fed's demanded as part of the loan package.

No changes, no loan, NYC declares bankruptcy.

What next?

What the Feds knew would happen if NYC didn't play ball: Albany steps in.

People often talk about how governance in the US is split between the federal, state, and local levels, but people forget that the relationship between states and their local governments is nothing like the relationship between states and the federal government.

Simply put, state governments wholly control local governments. Local governments cannot even be established without state approval, it's called "home rule", and states can remove that approval at any time. In the end, the state government calls all the shots.

You know why NYC has a borough named Brooklyn? Because back around the turn of the last century, Albany told Brooklyn it was no longer a city, it was now part of NYC, and Brooklyn could do nothing about it. That's how much power a state has.

So, NYC bluffs at the Feds daring them not to hand over the money. The Feds call the city's bluff, no money arrives, and, after a day or so when subways stop running, cops aren't getting paid, and brown-outs start to occur, Albany steps in, suspends home rule, and mandates the changes the Feds wanted in return for the loans. NYC would have no say in the matter. Albany is the boss and what Albany says is final.

The loan comes in, NYC gets back to business, and a more bad blood exists between NYC and Albany. Not that it matters because there's always bad blood between NYC and Albany.
 
In 1975 NYC declares bankruptcy.

the city and albany and the feds duke out control
the crime rate shoots through the roof, gangs run rampent..

week 3: City services slow to a trickle as union strikes cripple the city

Week 4: Several fires break out in major skyscrapers and on wall street

week 5: a freak early season Catagory 2 hurricane slams into NYC making the situation even worse.

week 6: Marshal Law is decreed: National Guard and Troops returning from Vietname enter Manhattan to attempt to restore order.

Week 6.4:
an elderly black lady, her daughter and grand son are shot leaving a grocery store in Harlem by 3 white guard troops after curfew. sparks riots in Harlem.

Another shooting in the Bronx of a gathering of unarmed civilian immigrants protesting treatment of immigrant detainment sparks major riots in the city

Week 7:
Riots continue unabated as the civilian populations rise up against the Guard and local governments who are deemed ineffectual. More stories leak out of people being shot at random, of rape and torture.

week 8.2
Pitched battles rage between mafia, local gangs and minorities against the troops in what is best described as door to door guerrilla warfare. Several homemade bombs detonate around the city at or near Military and government locations. Pictures of Wall Street in flames grace the newspapers.

week 9-15

The City in tatters, all entry points to the city are blocked. A containment wall is erected around the island, and NYC becomes the one maximum security prison for the entire nation. :D

The Plissken Family moves to Newark.
 
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