New York City Used To Be A Terrifying Place

Flickr/Olivier de Sedona

The number of murders in New York City dropped to a record low for 2014.

However, the New York City of the 1970s looked very different from the safe and gentrified metropolis we know today. The Bowery, now lined with luxury apartments, housed much of the city's illicit activities, while drug dealers and prostitutes worked openly from Park Slope to Times Square.

Industrial decline, economic stagnation, and white flight led to the dramatic downturn for America's largest city.