Shootings, lawless peddling, open prostitution: NYC has lost all self-respect

Municipal decline is as much a state of mind as it is a state of affairs. When people accept that bad things are going to happen, they do.

Take that strip of mostly mom-and-pop shops on East Fordham Road in The Bronx, overrun by illegal peddlers to the extent that legit business owners can’t make a living. Or that hooker haven in East New York, crowded with streetwalkers on weekend nights while pimps hang in the shadows, customers in cars casually window shop and the police pay scant attention.