- riding crime
- fiscal crisis
Amid the general economic misery, Northeastern and Midwestern cities became notorious sites of poverty, crime, racial conflict, population loss, and fiscal crisis. The decline of traditional urban centers reflected several global and local factors, including the international narcotics trade and white flight, but mostly it underscored the nation's larger economic changes and challenges. Film, television, and news media paid unprecedented attention to urban America and specifically to New York, the largest U.S. city, to represent the nation's troubles.