KOCH SAYS: ETC., ETC.; BUT, LET'S LOOK op-ed

• Published in: The New York times
• Main Author: Macdonald, Herman Badillo and Michael C. D.
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, N.Y New York Times Company 16.02.1981
• Edition: Late Edition (East Coast)
• Subjects: ECONOMIC CONDITIONS AND TRENDS; EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS; GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES; HOUSING; Koch, Edward I; KOCH, EDWARD I (MAYOR); LABOR; POLICE; POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT; RENTING AND LEASING; SOCIAL CONDITIONS AND TRENDS; TRANSIT SYSTEMS; UNEMPLOYMENT AND JOB MARKET; UNITED STATES
• ISSN: 0362-4331

Mayor [Edward I. Koch]'s budget for 1981 states, ''New York City is a better place now than it was a few years ago.'' But a service crisis is growing citywide. Crime set new records in 1979 and 1980. The subways seem ready to collapse. Housing blight is spreading. Race relations are polarized by mayoral invective. In a televised interview on ''CBS Newsmakers'' on Feb.1, the Mayor reiterated that all was well. Let's examine some of his claims. 1. The Mayor said that the middle class sensed a new ''spirit'' in New York and was here to stay. Then why has New York lost 11 percent of its residents since 1970? Most of them were middle-class citizens ''voting with their feet'' on city services. The poor and elderly must stay and suffer, but the middle class can leave. Most of the 831,000 emigrants since 1970 have been from employed white families. There were 2.7 million white workers in 1970; there are 2.1 million today. This exodus may grow. Look at St. Louis: As its services declined, more than 20 percent of its residents left by 1970, with 28 percent more gone by 1980. So the census ''bleeding'' of New York in 1980 may signal a hemmorhage by 5. But Mr. Koch said he had cut service since 1978 to balance the budget and that there were no extra revenues until 1981. Not so. There have long been two untapped revenue ''reservoirs.'' The first is a stretch-out of the city's sizeable debt. In their book ''Setting Municipal Priorities 1981,'' Professors Raymond Horton of Columbia University and Charles Brecher of New York University have taken note of this unused resource, recalling how restructured debt raised $170 million for New York in 1977.