I do not remember the riots and violence and mayhem back in 1977 from the black out.
Selective memory possibly?
Looting and
vandalism were widespread, hitting 31
neighborhoods, including most poor neighborhoods in the city. Possibly the hardest hit were
Crown Heights, where 75 stores on a five-block stretch were looted, and
Bushwick, where arson was rampant with some 25 fires still burning the next morning. At one point two blocks of
Broadway, which separates Bushwick from
Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, were on fire. Thirty-five blocks of Broadway were destroyed: 134 stores looted, 45 of them set ablaze. Thieves stole 50 new
Pontiacs from a
Bronx car dealership.
[1] In Brooklyn, youths were seen backing up cars to targeted stores, tying ropes around the stores' grates, and using their cars to pull the grates away before looting the store.
[1] While 550 police officers were injured in the mayhem, 4,500 looters were arrested.
[1]
Mayor
Abe Beame spoke during the blackout about what citizens were up against during the blackout and what the costs would be.
We've seen our citizens subjected to violence, vandalism, theft, and discomfort. The Blackout has threatened our safety and has seriously impacted our economy. We've been needlessly subjected to a night of terror in many communities that have been wantonly looted and burned. The costs when finally tallied will be enormous.
[3]
During New York's 2003 blackout,
The New York Times ran a description of the blackout of 1977:
Because of the power failure, LaGuardia and Kennedy airports were closed down for about eight hours, automobile tunnels were closed because of lack of ventilation, and 4,000 people had to be evacuated from the subway system. ConEd called the shutdown an "act of God", enraging Mayor Beame, who charged that the utility was guilty of "gross negligence."
[4]
In all, 1,616 stores were damaged in looting and rioting. A total of 1,037 fires were responded to, including 14
multiple-alarm fires. In the largest
mass arrest in city history, 3,776 people were arrested. Many had to be stuffed into overcrowded cells, precinct basements and other makeshift holding pens. A congressional study estimated that the cost of damages amounted to a little over
$300 million (equivalent to $1.2 billion in 2017).
Despite the massive looting and violence that had accompanied it, only one homicide occurred. Dominick Ciscone, a Brooklyn teenager and aspiring mobster, was shot on Smith Street in
Carroll Gardens while in the company of some friends; he died at the scene. Police investigated several people in the neighborhood with whom he had ongoing disputes, but never identified any suspects. In 1997 they received some more tips from individuals who did not identify themselves but whom they believed genuinely might know who committed the crime; they did not respond to pleas to identify themselves. As of 2018 the killing remains unsolved.
[5]
Shea Stadium went dark at approximately 9:30 p.m., in the bottom of the sixth inning, with
Lenny Randle at bat. The
New York Mets were losing 2–1 against the
Chicago Cubs.
Jane Jarvis, Shea's organist and "Queen of Melody", played "
Jingle Bells" and "
White Christmas". The game was completed on September 16, with the Cubs winning 5–2.
[6]
It would not be until the next morning that power would begin being restored to those areas affected. Around 7 a.m. on July 14, a section of
Queens became the first area to get power back, followed shortly afterwards by
Lenox Hill,
Manhattan; the neighboring
Yorkville area on the
Upper East Side of
Manhattan, though, would turn out to be one of the very last areas to get power back that Thursday evening. By 1:45 p.m., service was restored to half of Con Edison's customers, mostly in
Staten Island and Queens. It was not until 10:39 p.m. on July 14 that the entire city's power was back online.
For much of July 14, most of the television stations in New York City were off the air (as the areas where those TV stations were located were still without power for much of the day), although
WCBS-TV (Channel 2) and
WNBC-TV (Channel 4) did manage to stay on the air thanks to gas and diesel-fueled generators, resuming their broadcasts only 25 and 88 minutes after the blackout began, respectively.
[7] Also, although much of New York City was still without power,
Belmont Park (a racetrack on the border of Queens and
Nassau County in
Elmont) did stage their scheduled racing program that afternoon in front of a relatively sparse crowd, as many thought racing would be cancelled that day due to the blackout.
During the blackout, numerous looters stole DJ equipment from electronics stores. As a result, the
hip hop genre, barely known outside the Bronx at the time, grew at an astounding rate from 1977 onward.
[8] Three decades later,
Curtis Fisher recalled for a
Slate article and
podcast that, when the power went out, he and his partner
DJ Disco Wiz were playing records, running their equipment from an outlet in a park. At first they thought the outage was local and caused by something they had done, but realized when they heard stores closing that it was citywide. He took advantage of the community's vulnerability to steal a
mixing board from a local business, as did other aspiring rappers and DJs. "I went right to the place where I bought my first set of DJ equipment, and I went and got me a mixer out of there."
[9]
The blackout also caused complications for the producers of the film
Superman, who were shooting in the area.
The city was eventually given over $11 million by the
Carter administration to pay for the damages of the blackout.
[3]
Surely you are not blaming him?
Just a bunch of Grumpy Old Men...!!! Life is good, and there is more to it, than politics and Democrats are evil... Start living it again, and enjoy it!
