With New York about to embark on a dangerous voyage piloted by Zohran Mamdani, a singularly radical mayor hell-bent on shredding the policies that have kept Gotham afloat, now is a good time to explore how the city got into and out of earlier mayor-made crises.
Over the past 50 years, national recessions, Wall Street crashes and the horrors of 9/11 took turns challenging New Yorkers’ legendary toughness.
But during that span, there have been just two clear brushes with civic collapse…