The New Yorker:

This documentary examines the economic changes and managerial missteps that brought the city to the brink of bankruptcy in 1975 and the political creativity and enduring cost of the rescue.

By Richard Brody

At a time when the very function of government is being destroyed from within, an extraordinary historical documentary, “Drop Dead City,” puts the workings and responsibilities of government front and center, in a meticulous reconstruction of New York City’s fiscal crisis of the mid-nineteen-seventies. Tracing the causes of the crisis, its short-term effects, and the complexity of its resolution, the film brings to the fore the situation’s philosophical implications—the social ideals that put the city in a financial hole and the political forces that very nearly prevented rescue.

The documentary’s title comes from the most famous flash point in the crisis: in October, 1975, with the city facing imminent bankruptcy, President Gerald Ford gave a speech saying that he would veto any congressional bill attempting a financial bailout; the next day, the DailyNews ran a headline that became instantly famous: “ford to city: drop dead.” Its impact was powerful: Ford became a target of protests in New York, national polling on a bailout shifted from negative to positive, and, by the end of the year, Ford had signed a bill that provided $2.3 billion in federal loans. Even though Ford backed down, he’d become the villain in the city’s popular narrative, and the people remembered. When he narrowly lost the 1976 Presidential election, to Jimmy Carter, New York State provided the margin of victory in the Electoral College, and New York City provided the margin of victory in the state.

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