On the brink of bankruptcy in the 1970s, New York City has been restored as a center of economic and cultural vitality in the 1980s. But it has also become an increasingly brutal place, where incivility reigns, drugs lace the streets, and crime is so pervasive that most New Yorkers now consider it a permanent fixture, like gray skies and impossible traffic. What is it that continues to draw people to this city of contradictions?Born and educated in...