Abraham David Beame was an American accountant, investor, and Democratic Party politician who was the 104th mayor of New York City, in office from 1974 to 1977. As mayor, he presided over the city during the 1975 New York City fiscal crisis, when the city was almost forced to declare bankruptcy.
Beame in 1965
Beame tours the South Bronx with President Jimmy Carter and H.U.D. Secretary Patricia Roberts Harris in 1977
History of New York City (1946–1977)
Immediately after World War II, New York City became known as one of the world's greatest cities. However, after peaking in population in 1950, the city began to feel the effects of suburbanization brought about by new housing communities such as Levittown, a downturn in industry and commerce as businesses left for places where it was cheaper and easier to operate, an increase in crime, and an upturn in its welfare burden, all of which reached a nadir in the city's fiscal crisis of the 1970s, when it barely avoided defaulting on its obligations and declaring bankruptcy.
Pennsylvania Station in 1962, two years before it was torn down, an event which jump-started the historic preservation movement.
A 1973 photo of New York City skyscrapers in smog
Anderson Avenue garbage strike. A common scene throughout New York City in 1968 during a sanitation workers strike
View of the World Trade Center under construction from Duane Street, Manhattan, 1970
