[De Minimis NY]

The phenomenon of rapidly decreasing crime rates, followed by rising prices and changing demographics, is something that is not limited to the Lower East Side or even New York City. The renaissance of urban centers over the past 20 years has happened simultaneously in metropolises around the world (look at London or Los Angeles), occurring at an equal pace in cities that had left and right-leaning law enforcement policies.

There is a massive amount of literature on this topic and endless theories as to what caused the phenomenon, but the idea that it was caused by Guliani’s “broken windows” approach has since been widely discredited. He just benefited from a right-place-right-time situation, and was not at all shy to take any credit coming his way.

Apologies for dragging things further off topic.