Peter Yost and Michael Rohatyn: The big lessons of New York's fiscal crisis

You Decide with Errol Louis · Apr 24, 2025 · 27m

A combination of economic stagnation, disinvestment and mismanagement of the city's budget brought New York into a fiscal crisis in 1975 — unlike any it had seen up to that point. The result was shuttered schools and firehouses, mountains of garbage on the streets, and cops being laid off by the thousands. But what happened next is perhaps even more important: the city somehow united to pull itself out of financial and cultural ruin.

The story is told in a new documentary called "Drop Dead City." The film's co-directors, Michael Rohatyn and Peter Yost, joined NY1's Errol Louis to discuss the…