Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx Is Burning

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.

Henceforth, these book reports will be a time-saving device. You need not read entire books anymore. Read these condensed versions instead. You'll have that much more time for your own blog.

Today I read, "Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx is Burning" by Jonathan Mahler, published in 2005.

It is a volume of journalistic essays about the top New York City newsmakers and stories of 1977-- the politicians, baseball players and media. The year 1977 was a tumultuous year, with the city's fiscal crisis, the blackout, the "Son of Sam" murders, mayoral race, and the Yankees' personnel squabbles, among other emotional goings-on.

In 1975, after the tall, blond and eloquent Upper East Side Yalie Mayor John Lindsay left office, the city experienced a fiscal crisis. The new mayor, CUNY graduate Abe Beame was left to deal with it. He was forced to take many financially painful steps, such as laying off 38,000 civil servants at a time when a large percentage of urbanites worked for the city government. Violent protests and a garbage strike ensued during the summer. Governor Hugh Carey stepped in to create a corporation to float more debt and put money guru Felix Rohaytn in charge of it.

On July 13, 1977, there was a blackout in the early evening. It had been a sweltering day. Frustration boiled over into violence, looting and arson, especially in bad neighborhoods such as Bushwick, Brooklyn. The severely understaffed police force was overwhelmed. The damage was estimated at $150 million.

In August, 1977, deranged killer David Berkowitz, the "Son of Sam" was arrested, having killed eight people over the course of a year and change. Since Rupert Murdoch had recently bought the New York Post, the newspaper had become a tabloid. With these exciting tales of destruction and death abounding, the paper sunk to new lows with its reportage.

Four major candidates joined the mayoral race: incumbent Abe Beame, Bella Abzug, Mario Cuomo and Ed Koch. People initially thought Koch was a Greenwich Village liberal, but he championed capital punishment, pummeled the unions and decried government waste. The New York Post endorsed him anyway. Needless to say, he won.

So did the Yankees in the World Series. The narcissistic, flamboyant Reggie Jackson had been fighting all season with the entire team, and especially with the mercurial, hard-driving, hard-drinking team manager Billy Martin and team captain Thurman Munson; as had team owner George Steinbrenner with Martin. Jackson was the highest-paid player in baseball at the time, arousing much jealousy among better players. He was one of the league leaders in homeruns, but also, in strikeouts and fielding errors. For most of the Series, he suffered a batting slump, and was benched. In the last game, he hit three homeruns in a row, vindicating himself.

The author sums it up best:

"Koch-- along with the rest of New York's emerging titans: Reggie, Steinbrenner, and Murdoch-- would lead the city into a new era. They were flawed, farsighted, self-made men who intuitively understood the city's desire for drama and conflict because they shared it. They were not idealists but egomaniacs. To their hungry eyes, New York wasn't a "ruined and broken city" but the place where you go to make it."