By Robert Hornak
Rudy Giuliani was the 108th mayor of the City of New York, serving from January 1994 through December 2001, finishing his second term just after 9/11. His eight years as mayor were very memorable in many ways, but he is most remembered as the man who lifted up NYC after the incomprehensible events of September 11, 2001, and made us feel strong, like we had a future to look forward to rather than feeling defeated and dispirited.
His leadership at this critical moment was so powerful that he was referred to as “America’s Mayor” from that time on. However, in recent times many have tried to use recent accusations and his efforts to try to prove election fraud in the 2020 presidential election to denigrate him and more important his legacy as mayor and what he really achieved in those eight years.
John Lindsay, mayor from January 1966 to December 1973, famously called NYC “ungovernable” and referred to the job as the second toughest job in America. During a time of great racial unrest, the exposure of police corruption by Frank Serpico, and labor problems that set the city on a fiscal decline, Lindsay left a very troubled city for Abe Beame.
Beame, who was the last of the Tammany Hall-style clubhouse politicians to serve as mayor, almost had to declare bankruptcy. Then President Ford initially refused a bailout, but later gave federal support after the city slashed the workforce and other expenses. Over the next 16 years the city saw increased violence, property crimes, lawlessness, and a general feeling of despair.
In 1993, the year Giuliani ran successfully for election, there were 1,927 recorded murders in the city. By the year 2000, in Giuliani’s final year the number of murders were brought down to 649 (not including 9/11). He embraced new policing theories, particularly “broken windows” which essentially worked on the belief that if you enforced small crimes it would lead to a reduction in crimes across the board.
This was so successful in NYC that broken windows policies started to sweep the nation, including major cities like Los Angeles, Chicago and Baltimore, and criminologists have recognized that hundreds of cities and counties adopted some form of this style of policing in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s.
Also during his time, NYC experienced a financial boom as he cut or eliminated 23 different taxes, saving taxpayers billions. The taxes affected included “temporary” personal income tax surcharges, commercial rent taxes, and a variety of business taxes. He cut the hotel occupancy tax that was partially credited with an explosion in tourism that boosted the economy.
During his eight years NYC incredibly gained over 400,000 private sector jobs with 77,000 coming in 1998 alone, the biggest gain since 1951. Total personal income grew by over 49%, and per-capita personal income increased from $137,261 in 1993 to $194,419 in 2001, an increase of 41.6%.
And amid loud protests, Giuliani managed to reduce the welfare rolls by a whopping 600,000 recipients, bring the number down from 1.1 million to 500,000. Welfare offices were converted to job centers, and the able-bodied were required to work or were put to work by the city. Recipients were also fingerprinted to prevent fraud.
After decades of a budget crisis after budget crisis, Giuliani completely turned NYC’s fiscal picture around, going from a multi-billion dollar budget deficit to a budget surplus in his second term. Safer streets led to increased retail sales, a more vibrant tourism sector, rising property values across the city, and an increase in quality of life that stopped an exodus that was referred to then as “white flight” from NYC.
While we think of Giuliani mostly for his leadership on 9/11, this is his complete legacy. He was a transformative mayor, breaking the mold of past failure and creating a new one that leaders across the nation rushed to emulate. His success will be felt for many decades to come. We say never again to another 9/11 but may we find many Rudy Giuliani’s to help lead us in the future.
