- later chapters of "The Power Broker" by Robert Caro
- Google around about the shift of shipping from Brooklyn/Manhattan to Newark
- Chekc out the Lindsay administration and crippling transit and sanitation strikes
- finance companies fled NYC from the 60s till the 80s. I read a good book in college about the reasons that I'll try to find.
The 1970s were a terrible time for NYC -- over a million people left. If you have ever driven up the Major Deegan expressway in the Bronx towards Yonkers/White Plains, the level of decay was shocking. When I was a kid in the 80s, easily 80% of the buildings were vacant, with broken windows and druggies in plain sight. I watched a car get stripped before my eyes while stopped at a light two blocks from Yankee stadium.
I'm not doubting you, I'm just curious and would like to read more about it.