^ it's almost as if NYC is on some other kind of urban level
But seriously, NYC's stunning overall population growth aside, in the spirit of this thread, which sub-area of NYC got smacked down the hardest in the dark ages and has since turned it around?
I'm guessing maybe the south Bronx? Those images from the 80s of literally crumbling tenements with like a car on fire in the background, or some other such post-apocalyptic view, are certainly hard to believe 4 decades later.