What was New York like in the seventies..around John Lennon's time?

I worked in Manhattan from 1977-1983, and I lived there in 1978. It was not nearly as good as it is now. Crime was pretty bad. Quality of life in general was not as good as now. This is when Curtis Sliwa founded the Guardian Angels--I once saw him on a subway, and you could count on the Guardian Angels to be in every subway car, and they were needed, believe me. Pollution was worse, drug deals went on all over the place, racial tensions were high. Time Square was one big fest. I'd walk from my apartment (on the Upper East Side) to the subway every morning, and it was a rare day when I didn't see some guy wasn't peeing against a building. I don't want Rudy Giuliani to be President, but he did great things for NYC in terms of quality of life. Instead of going after the big drug kingpins, they started locking up the small dealers, getting them off the streets. He cleaned up Time Square, and crime dropped dramatically. Bloomberg's continued the trend.