Adam Herbst

River Edge, NJ

Daily News headline: Ford to City: Drop Dead

How much can five little words tell you? The prehistory - how did the City get in those financial straits? What were the funding and expenditures for the City like from the end of WWII to the mid 70s? Where did the tax base go?

That moment - this was New York's nadir - do you remember what New York was like? Do remember the subways, the crime, the garbage, the Mollen Commission, the MAC Bonds, seeing Felix Rohatyn and Governor Carey on TV all the time? And what does it say about the way that DC and the country saw New York (and continue to see New York)?

And Now - like the Sondheim song - "We're Still Here" - was it the nadir of the City - an argument could be made that it was the high point of the City - the creation of punk, hip hop, new wave, loft jazz, minimalism - artists can live cheaply in a city dangling on the edge.

Ford to City: Drop Dead - its a touchstone not only for where the City was at that time, but also for the nature of New York City and New Yorkers as survivors. For the next thousand years, any time someone thinks that New York is behind the 8 ball, never to come back - show them this headline and watch out.