90s New York

1990

George H.W. Bush served as the 41st President of the United States from 1989 -1993. Dan Quayle was the 44th Vice President. They were preceded by a Republican administration and succeeded by a Democratic one. Their major platform in the 1988 campaign was bringing conservative values to the White House, though Quayle was seemingly more conservative, and Bush hoped to make America “a kinder, gentler nation.” That year, the Republican Party platform stated, "Our platform reflects George Bush's belief that military strength, diplomatic resoluteness, and firm leadership are necessary to keep our country and our allies free. He opposed flag burning and abortion, supported free trade and community volunteerism, and wanted to be remembered as the education President.  During his presidency he raised taxes, despite vowing “No New Taxes” in his acceptance speech. Other major moments of the administration include the invasion of Panama - which was aimed at deposing Noriega, Operation Desert Storm - which was a response to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, the signing of NATO and an economic recession. Dan Quayle was never a popular VP and even though Bush was encouraged to dump him in the run for reelection, he refused and for that reason and many economic others, they lost to Bill Clinton.

1999

Bill Clinton was the 42nd and Al Gore was the 45th Vice President of the United States. The Clinton Administration lasted from 1993-2001 (he was a two term president) and he and Al Gore were the first Democrats in the White House since Jimmy Carter (1977-1981) and the first since Franklin D. Roosevelt to win reelection. Under Clinton, the economy saw major growth. He proposed the first balanced budget in decades and achieved a budget surplus. He appointed Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer to the U.S. Supreme Court. Other major moments include military interventions in Somalia, Rwanda and Haiti, the bombing campaigns in The Balkans and the creation of The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Many argue that NAFTA led to the economic recessions that came in the early 2000s by eliminating more than 600,000 American jobs - 60% of which were in manufacturing, leading to much urban decay in the Rust Belt, or the stretch of America that covers NY to the Midwest known for being the seat of American manufacturing. In 1997, Clinton was impeached in connection with his relationship with intern Monica Lewinsky. He was acquitted but the scandal was a major stain on his legacy. Clinton’s Administration was succeeded by the presidency of George W. Bush (the former Bush’s son) and Vice President Dick Cheney.

1990

David Dinkins was New York’s 106th mayor, and the city’s first African American mayor. Elected 1990, and serving only one term, to 1993 he had spent the previous 30 years working as state assemblyman, president of elections for New York City, a city clerk, and as Manhattan borough president. As mayor he inherited the city’s large budget deficit, record high crime rate and growing racial animus. He campaigned on bringing racial healing to NY, calling it a “gorgeous mosaic”. For the first period of his administration, crime did go down and the deficit decreased. Unfortunately, it saw an upswing in the later periods and he could not maintain his early success. Ultimately, his mishandling of the 1991 riots following the Crown Heights Race Riot, precipitated by two Black children being run over by a car in the motorcade of Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the leader of Chabad, a Jewish religious movement, led to him losing reelection.

1999

Rudolph Giuliani was NY’s 107th mayor, serving from 1994-2001. He had run for mayor, unsuccessfully, once before. To defeat Dinkins, he aligned himself with policemen, the Jewish communities still reeling from the Crown Heights Riot, and used the fear of fictional “voter fraud” - even hiring off-duty cops, firefighters, and corrections officers to monitor polling places in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and The Bronx. He became the first Republican elected mayor of New York City since John Lindsay in 1965. His first term, he focused on muscularizing the police force and encouraged “Broken Windows” enforcement. This involved crackdowns on relatively minor offenses such as graffiti, turnstile jumping, cannabis possession, and aggressive panhandling by "squeegee men", on the theory that this would send a message that order would be maintained.

He also introduced the school voucher program, which allowed students to attend private schools and at the same time reduced state support for public schools. During his mayoralty, gay and lesbian New Yorkers received domestic partnership rights. Giuliani induced the city's Democratic-controlled New York City Council, which had avoided the issue for years, to pass legislation providing broad protection for same-sex partners. In 1998, he codified local law by granting all city employees equal benefits for their domestic partners.

He was thrust onto the national stage in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Though he was lauded by many for his handling of the crisis, there was much criticism of his decisions to rush the city back to “normal”. He downplayed the health risks of returning to the attack sites, downplayed the illnesses of first responders which came as a direct result of 9/11 and his handling of recovery efforts were directly criticized by the International Association of Fire Fighters. In 2007 they issued a letter which included the following:

"Mayor Giuliani's actions meant that firefighters and citizens who perished would either remain buried at Ground Zero forever, with no closure for families, or be removed like garbage and deposited at the Fresh Kills Landfill…Hundreds remained entombed in Ground Zero when Giuliani gave up on them."