I wonder if whatever contributed to the growth in NYC's population during the high crime era also contributed to the crime rate falling?
The following is my personal opinion and is nothing that I will not try to substantiate with any data: As someone who has lived in both New York and Detroit, I think the crime card is completely overplayed in both places. On one hand, I think the stats that NYC actually reports to the FBI are cooked. Granted, not as bad as Detroit, but I have a hard time believing that New York is "safer" than Des Moines, Iowa, which is what the stats suggest. On the other hand, I think crime is the crutch that the Detroit area uses to justify status quo. If you compare downtown Detroit to Midtown Manhattan, I'm beyond certain that the crime stats are similar if not favorable to Detroit.
I'm also certain that reinvestment into the urban core, attracting migrants to the city with immigrant friendly policies and a world class transit system has done far more to improve the situation in New York than any stop-and-frisk-policy [[a policy that is on the verge of starting a race/class riot). My own inclination is that lack of access to opportunity for self-improvement is far more of a deterrent to population growth than is crime [[and lack of access to opportunity and crime are probably related). If yours is a major city that does not have a good transit system then your city is severely limiting access to opportunity.
I grew up in Detroit and have family members who live there to this day. I had never been victim of a crime in Detroit or anywhere else that I lived in Michigan. But I became a victim of a crime within a month of moving to New York. That did not deter me at all from living in New York.
Do I discount that crime is an issue in Detroit? No, absolutely not. I know people who have been victims of crimes in Detroit. I knew the young lady who was murdered for her purse outside of the bar last month. But for all of the ink spent on crime in Detroit almost none is spent on any of the other deficiencies that plague the city equally or more greatly.